I Was Convinced Based On The DWTS: The Next Pro Judges One Competitor Would Make It To The End. I Was Very Wrong

Spoilers ahead for anyone who hasn’t yet watched Dancing with the Stars: The Next Pro on ABC or with a Disney+ subscription.

One of the things Dancing with the Stars has become known for are stand-out moments in its dance performances that go viral and make everyone want to try it out themselves. There was pro football player Danny Amendola and Witney Carson’s floor lift in Season 33 that many attempted to replicate, and Val Chmerkovskiy’s knee walks became a sensation on social media.

The fifth episode of DWTS: The Next Pro brought in guest judge Daniella Karagach, (whose own airwalk was a “wow” moment itself) to challenge the six remaining dancers to couple up and not only recreate one of those moments, but to also come up with one of their own. And while two of those pairs took risks that were memorable, one duo found themselves in the bottom, and a frontrunner went home.

All of the pro dancers on DWTS are excellent technical dancers, so they have to bring something viewers have never seen before in order to get the votes with their celebrity partners. After last week’s episode when the DWTS: The Next Pro judges were fanning themselves over a steamy performance, the dancers joined host Robert Irwin on his home turf of the Australia Zoo to pick up some inspiration from the animals. That experience led AJ Pritchard and Nina Mayster to come up with a move they called the “koala cuddle,” while Allen Genkin and Adele Zaikman created a move that could only be described as a caveman walk.

Coming off the top performance in the last challenge, it was frustrating to hear Erik Linder and Selena Hamilton throw around words like “stillness” and “silence” while struggling to find their own “wow” moment. Still, with the pressure of the competition bearing down on everyone, I could only hope that they somehow pulled it together in rehearsals.

It was nice to see AJ have a bit of a breakthrough with Nina, finally working through the mental stress in a way that helped him connect with his emotions. Instead of letting his fear get to him, AJ was able to open himself up with Nina in a way that gave them both a sense of freedom in their performance. This week’s highest praise came for Adele, who had never danced contemporary before. Shirley Ballas, who admitted to not being very free with her praise, called her “one of the best female dancers I’ve ever seen in 66 countries of Dancing with the Stars or Strictly Come Dancing and said she was the “real deal.”