Jenna Dewan understands why some Dancing With the Stars viewers looked at her résumé and immediately questioned how much of a beginner she could possibly be. Long before The Rookie, she danced professionally for Janet Jackson and other major artists, then became widely associated with dance through the 2006 movie Step Up.
After ABC paired her with Val Chmerkovskiy for Season 35, Dewan addressed criticism that her background gives her an unfair advantage. “I do not know how to ballroom dance. Let’s be clear. It’s two different languages,” she told Entertainment Weekly.
Dewan said years of learning choreography and performing will help her, but ballroom requires a new technique and has already forced her to adjust habits built through other forms of dance. She described the style as “really foreign” and admitted that the expectations surrounding her experience have made her more nervous.
Chmerkovskiy sees the same complication from the other side. He acknowledged that Dewan enters with considerable talent, but said that advantage brings an unusually high standard because audiences already know she can dance. His job now is to show them something they have not seen from her before.
Dewan Says Ballroom Requires Her to ‘Unlearn’ Old Habits
Dewan’s response to the fairness debate begins with the distinction between being an experienced dancer and being an experienced ballroom dancer. She already understands musicality, choreography and performance, but said the physical technique Chmerkovskiy is teaching her asks different things from her body than the styles she spent years performing professionally.
“There’s parts of my dance training that’s helpful, obviously,” she told EW. “I’ve learned choreography, I can perform, but there is a certain sense of unlearning for me.” Dewan avoided describing her old technique as bad, instead explaining that she had developed habits suited to other styles and now has to change them for ballroom.
She made the same point during an ABC News interview after about a week of rehearsals. Dewan called ballroom “totally different” and said the transition already involved “almost unlearning,” while also acknowledging that her background creates pressure and expectations that true beginners do not face.
Her Dance Résumé Is Exactly Why Expectations Are So High
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Dewan’s professional experience is extensive for a celebrity contestant. She danced for Janet Jackson when she was roughly 18 to 20 years old and also worked with artists including Justin Timberlake, Missy Elliott and Christina Aguilera before her breakout role opposite Channing Tatum in Step Up. She later remained close to the dance world by hosting World of Dance and appearing as a guest judge on So You Think You Can Dance.
The timing makes her return particularly visible because Step Up celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Dewan told Good Morning America that she expects the movie to be acknowledged during her run and told EW that she would welcome both Janet Jackson’s music and Jackson herself becoming part of the season if the opportunity arises.
That history explains why questions about her casting appeared almost immediately after the Season 35 reveal. Dewan does enter with advantages other contestants do not have, particularly her ability to pick up choreography and perform in front of an audience. Her argument is narrower: those skills do not mean she already knows the ballroom discipline on which she will actually be judged.
Val Chmerkovskiy Says Her Talent Creates Its Own Problem
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Chmerkovskiy has not tried to present Dewan as an ordinary beginner. The three time Mirrorball winner, who has competed across 20 seasons of Dancing With the Stars, told EW that she comes into the competition with “incredible talent,” but added that “with great talent comes incredible expectation.”
He also rejected the idea that the show can be reduced entirely to which celebrity begins with the least dance experience. Chmerkovskiy described Dancing With the Stars as a competition built around personal development and storytelling as well as technique, saying dance is the vehicle viewers use to learn more about the celebrities taking part.
He addressed the criticism even more directly on Instagram after someone asked how he planned to handle comments that Dewan was “already a dancer.” Chmerkovskiy said he would not engage with them, explaining that he cannot control how other people feel but can control the amount of love and effort he puts into the work.
Her Daughter Helped Lead Her to the Ballroom
Dewan told PEOPLE that Season 35 was actually the first time the show had asked her to compete. The opportunity may have started with her 13 year old daughter Everly, who was such a fan that she and her friends persuaded Dewan to take them to the previous season’s finale.
Dewan does not know whether appearing at that finale put her on producers’ radar, but said the eventual invitation produced an immediate reaction. She “felt the yes inside,” while Everly’s own growing interest in dance has also given her a new appreciation for why people still associate her mother so strongly with Step Up.
Dewan and Chmerkovskiy will get their first public test when Dancing With the Stars begins its two night Season 35 premiere on September 15 and 16 at 8 p.m. on ABC and Disney+. At that point, the argument over how much her old training helps will move from résumés and rehearsal rooms to the ballroom itself.