With the new season of Dancing With the Stars kicking off, some fans are left wondering why stars with professional dance backgrounds are allowed to compete on the show. This confusion brings into question the integrity of the original purpose of the show: no celebrity has advantage over another.
Has Dancing With the Stars lost its own authenticity?
Season 1 of DWTS
In recent years, Dancing With the Stars has cast a range of stars with varying dancing backgrounds. This leaves competitors with an advantage, and it leads to DWTS deviating from its original plot. In the earlier seasons, all stars had an equal advantage — no one knew how to dance! These first seasons represent the true premise of the show.
Producers feared the first season might not take off and were unsure what celebrities they could get for the show. They ended up getting big names that mixed well and attracted different kinds of fans to watch. The cast shared the experience of learning how to dance and felt camaraderie with each other.
“I thrived not only learning how to dance, but it is so much more than dance. It’s a community; it’s a camaraderie. I had no idea what it took to be a good dancer. I didn’t think I was a good dancer at all. I improved weekly. I think people related to me in that I went from duck feet to being able to spin. I have ruptured eardrums, equilibrium problems, and for me to even be able to do that without falling flat on my face was a journey in itself. I was so proud every week that I made it a week further.” – Kelly Monaco on Entertainment Weekly
It is not clear if this authentic experience still exists in the past few seasons of DWTS, as Kelly Monaco, the first winner of DWTS, experienced. Fans were drawn to celebrities who were more closed off.
The show captured the vulnerability and realness that came from learning how to dance on live national television. Now, as Dancing With the Stars casts more and more stars with a dancing background who are able to compete with an advantage, this shared vulnerable experience faces a threat to both other competitors and fan engagement.
The rise of the “ringers”
A “ringer” is a coined term that describes a contestant on DWTS with profound dance experience. In recent years, stars with a dancing background have appeared so often that fans now define them separately. Examples of ringers include gymnasts, cheerleaders, Broadway performers, and professional background dancers.
Several notable dancers from past seasons were ringers and placed high in their season. For instance, Charli D’Amelio won her season and danced competitively. Cody Rigsby worked as a professional backup dancer for Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj and placed third in season 30. Yet another performer from previous seasons is Amanda Kloots, who is a former Broadway dancer who placed 4, also in season 30. Viewers can see the clear advantage to those with more experience, as these three examples either won or placed in the top 4.
To be clear, classifying them as ringers does not diminish their hard work or talent, but it raises questions about the fairness of the competition for other contestants. Is this show still about learning how to dance, or just perfecting already existing technique?
The stars with an advantage this Season
The ringers of the newest season are Hilaria Baldwin, who once competed as a ballroom dancer for NYU’s team. Before marrying Alec Baldwin, she went by her birth name, Hilary Haywood-Thomas. Important to note, in a 2004 competition in the Amateur Rising Star Latin category, Hilaria placed higher than a now-pro on DWTS, Emma Slater.
Additionally, the other ringers in this newest season include Whitney Leavitt, a social media influencer. She admitted to People Magazine that she “danced competitively throughout grade school” and described her training as “a ten” on the Dance Moms scale. Then, there is Jordan Chiles, a professional gymnast whose strongest event is her floor routines. Coming off week 3, Chiles and Leavitt tied with the highest scores. In week 4, Leavitt scored the highest with a score of 25/30.
Authenticity or ratings?
@erintheearthsign it just drives me insane when they do this like the point is that it’s someone inexperienced LEARNING how to do dance. any genre of a dance background is an unfair leg up and i’ll die on that hill. #dancingwiththestars #dwts34 #foryoupage ♬ original sound – song lyrics ִ ࣪𖤐
So, what is the true nature of DWTS as they continue to cast contestants with a dancing advantage? Fans continue to make their outrage clear on social media. One fan on Reddit wrote, “Honestly, nothing about the show is fair. It’s a popularity contest.” This unfairness suggests that producers may only be looking to boost ratings with star power. The voting system rewards whoever has the biggest fan base. It allows larger stars, with or without dance experience, a clear advantage. Producers seem focused on celebrities who can boost ratings. This shift suggests DWTS has lost its true originality. The show now feels driven by ratings and has forgotten its relatability.
Producer Conrad Green told US Magazine, “The cast is what defines the season,” and that there was “real dance talent across the cast.” Does this not move away from the original idea of learning how to dance, when some stars already know how? This shows the producers now prioritize excitement and trends over fairness and genuine growth on the show.
A step towards fairness
Finally, there needs to be a change in the upcoming seasons. Producers should either stop hiring celebrities who have dancing experience or at least hold them to a higher standard.
This standard would be shown through judging critiques and scoring. These changes would restore a sense of balance, giving rest to angry fans and allowing true beginners a real chance to win. It would also bring back a feeling of suspense, knowing that the most experienced might not score the highest.
In this new era of DWTS, fans will be able to see the growth in all dancers. The original spirit of the show would be restored, and so will the reason why the fans started watching to begin with: the authentic experience of stars learning and improving their dancing skills.
