Maura Higgins was admittedly stunned to be named a Dancing With the Stars season 35 semifinalist.
“I was definitely in shock. I really wasn’t expecting my name to be called,” Higgins, 35, exclusively told Us after the Tuesday, November 10, live show. “I was expecting to get booted out. I really was. I don’t know why. You know when you have that gut feeling? But then I say this, but my gut is never right. Like, look at me in The Traitors, so I don’t know why I listen to it.”
Higgins, who previously never suspected her ally Rob Rausch was the sole Traitor remaining by the season 4 finale, and DWTS partner Mark Ballas were named semifinalists after Tuesday’s Grammy Night. (Jenna Dewan and Val Chmerkovskiy were sent home.)
After hearing their names called, Higgins turned to Ballas, 40, and whispered, “What the f***?” in his ear in disbelief.
“I was just shocked. I did not expect that at all,” she told Us. “And to be honest, I don’t know, I never expected to get this far in the competition. Like, I genuinely, I don’t know. It’s just crazy.”
Ballas replied, “I was like, ‘You did it. You made it.’”
Higgins and Ballas secured their trip to the semifinals with an Argentine tango set to Sisqó’s “Thong Song” that earned a total of 27 out of 30 points from the judges. They were also awarded two additional points for defeating Connor Wood and Rylee Arnold in a cha cha dance-off.
Throughout their rehearsals for Tuesday’s performance, Higgins nursed a painful rib injury.
“[I’m feeling] so much better. The show has taken such good care of me, and Mark as well,” she told Us. “He’s changed up a lot of the choreography in our dance because there was a lot of it that was, like, not great for it. But we still managed to do certain lifts, which I just pushed myself through.”
Ballas had tried to remove the “big” lift at the end of the number, though Higgins pushed back.
“Mark kept saying to me, ‘I think we should take it out.’ And I literally was like, ‘No, it’s my favorite one. I will die if I have to,’” she quipped. “Still, like, when I go upside down and push all my weight off my hand, that’s when it’s like, ‘Oh.’”
While accommodating Higgins’ injury, she and Ballas are ready to tackle the semifinals — and hopefully the finale afterward.
“I mean, look, we have to be prepared, but as far as, like, honed in and final focus, not yet,” Ballas acknowledged. “We’re very much taking it one day at a time. You know, the show has to go through music clearance and all that.”
Even so, Higgins hopes that she and Ballas can perform “a big burlesque moment” for their freestyle showstopper.
“That would be hot,” she gushed before Ballas tried to keep expectations realistic, adding, “If we get there.”
Dancing With the Stars airs Tuesdays on ABC and Disney+ at 8 p.m. ET.
