Harry Shum Jr. is ready to dust off his dancing shoes and hit the ballroom floor on Dancing With the Stars season 35.
“I’m finally winding down on our way back to Los Angeles after the [Good Morning America] announcement. I got to sit down for about five minutes and just, kind of, settle on what was happening,” Shum, 44, began in an Instagram video shared Friday, September 4, after news broke of his DWTS casting. “It gave me nostalgia for this time period that I felt something similar, and that was my time on Glee.”
Shum rose to fame playing dancer Mike Chang on Fox’s Glee from 2009 to 2015. (The actor has since appeared in the Step Up franchise, Shadowhunters, Crazy Rich Asians, Voicemails for Isabelle and Grey’s Anatomy.)
“It really felt like this excitement for music, particularly dance because usually dance is always in the background and gets treated as such,” Shum explained. “This one is in the foreground and the actual star is the dance.”
As Shum prepares for the DWTS premiere later this month, he’s particularly enthused to watch his fellow contestants’ various “relationship[s] to dance” unfold as the hit ballroom competition progresses. (Fellow competitor Jenna Dewan is a trained classical dancer, while Tyler Cameron took collegiate ballet classes and Jackson Olson performs with the musical Savannah Bananas baseball team.)
“Whether some have experience or not, I’m really excited to see how the journeys connect with what dance can do in their lives,” Shum noted. “I truly believe that this is going to be such a beautiful experience for me, but [also] for everyone watching and everyone on the show.”
Shum further noted that he found “everything happened so fast” during his Glee tenure, which is something he wants to do differently this time around.
“I wasn’t able to absorb and process everything that was happening as massive as it was,” he said. “I’m going to … be present and fully soak in what is happening, breathe it all in and find the joy of hard work, filming at the same time on Grey’s as I’m doing this.”
Shum currently plays surgical resident Kwan on the long-running medical drama. His character was recently fired from Grey Sloan Memorial. It’s not known where his arc will go forward.
“I have early days, finish filming [and] go straight to rehearsals and then rinse and repeat, but I’m not complaining,” he quipped of balancing DWTS practices and live shows with Grey’s commitments. “This is a dream come true to be able to do this. I never thought I would do something like this, so this is really cool.”
Shum, who is set to tango across the dance floor with pro Jenna Johnson, recently told Us what made him “nervous” about returning to his stage roots.
“I’ve done one partner dance on [Glee], and that nearly killed me — with Heather Morris,” he exclusively told Us on Wednesday, September 2, of his former costar, who previously appeared on DWTS season 24. “[With Jenna, in] our last rehearsal, dancing for 60 seconds, I’m dying. Also, that was like 17 years ago that I last did [that].”
For Shum, learning ballroom and Latin dances has stretched his body into a “whole different configuration.”
“Telling the story is just stuff that I’m really excited about, but the stuff I’m nervous about is really the technique of it all,” he gushed, noting how Johnson, 32, has started giving him specific corrections on his ballroom skills. “I mean, I hear it from her. Even having my shoulder up too far, she just pushes it back. It feels like you’re getting poked everywhere.”
Dancing With the Stars season 35 kicks off with a two-night premiere on ABC and Disney+ Tuesday, September 15, and Wednesday, September 16, at 8 p.m. ET.
