Dancing With the Stars pro Pasha Pashkov and partner Amber Glenn revealed how early they started planning their finale routine during their season 35 journey.
“Semifinals is only, like … we have next week’s dance, and then it’s semifinals,” Glenn, 27, exclusively told Us on Monday, November 2, after a successful quickstep during Disney Night.
When asked whether the pair had already started brainstorming ideas, Pashkov, 40, replied, “Yeah” but played coy about what that entails.
“Before the first even dance, you start thinking [about] what could happen. You have to plan,” Glenn chimed in. “Oh, the plans change. I’m not saying that we come up with a plan and we stick to it. Plans change.”
Pashkov confirmed that he does have “thoughts” about what they’ll do if they make it to the finale, but teased, “Oh, you can’t say thoughts.”
Glenn didn’t reveal too much either, telling Us that she and Pashkov have “always seen inspiration everywhere.”
The Olympic figure skater explained, “There’s always a, like, ‘Look what I saw. Oh, look what I saw. Oh, look at this.’ And we’re always just showing each other things that we like. ‘Cool, this works, this works, this works.’”
Pashkov nodded his head as Glenn continued, saying that they have “weeks and weeks” of back and forth between them on their vision board.
“[For] freestyle, there aren’t, you know, nearly as many rules versus, like, we’re doing a style every week. So it’s like, ‘OK, well, maybe we’ll save that for this,’” Glenn shared. “So we have a lot of, ‘Maybe we’ll save that for this.’ And please vote so we can get to it.”
While Pashkov and Glenn need fan votes to make it all the way to the November 24 finale, they found success and impressed guest judge Cynthia Erivo on Tuesday’s broadcast.
The duo kicked off the show with a quickstep to “A Star Is Born” from Hercules, earning a score of 34 out of 40.
“I just thought that was the most joyful thing ever to start this with,” Erivo, 39, told the dancers. “The strength that you both have is just glorious to watch. … Well done.”
Glenn told Us after the show that she doesn’t like seeing her scores “go lower,” but she tries not to think about it because each week she has different dances to master. (The pair earned a 36 and a 38 the two previous weeks.)
Instead, the Olympic gold medalist is focused on the journey and staying present after finding a different side of herself on DWTS.
“One, I’m doing something completely different [than ice skating], and two, I’m surrounded by new people that now I can’t imagine life without,” Glenn said. “So it’s a transformation I couldn’t be more grateful for, and I want to stay in it. I wish it was longer.”
Pashkov noted that Glenn told him earlier that day, “This is my life now. What do I do after this?” adding that his dance partner has gotten “super used to the schedule [and] the flow of things.”
Glenn was in total agreement, pointing out that she wants people to vote, not because she thinks, “‘Oh, my God, I need to win the championship.’ No, I just want to, one, do [Pasha] justice and two, just keep doing this.”
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
