Due to her professional dance background, Jenna Dewan has been a Dancing with the Stars frontrunner since before Season 35 even premiered on the 2026 TV schedule. As a result, the judges have had higher expectations and her pro partner, Val Chmerkovskiy, has been pushing her to meet them. Beyond remembering the steps and maintaining proper frame, The Rookie star was dealt another challenge in October when Val was suspended from DWTS for a week after making an inappropriate comment online directed at Judge Carrie Ann Inaba. Now, the actress is opening up about this experience and her first rehearsal back with the pro after his suspension.
That incident led to Dewan having to partner with eliminated pro Alan Bersten for the next performance, essentially starting over when it came to building chemistry and trust on the dance floor. While their Viennese waltz earned them a score of 37 out of 40 and nabbed the Step Up star’s first 10 of the season, the star then immediately had to reestablish her bond with Val after he returned from his suspension. She recently told Entertainment Weekly the following about the whole experience:
[It felt] unprecedented in a lot of ways. We had built, at that point, six weeks of hard work. Literal blood, sweat, and tears in the rehearsal space.
In order to improve every week on Dancing with the Stars, it’s not just about nailing the performances. The bond and trust that continue to grow between the pro dancer and celeb partner allow for more technical choreography and bigger risks in creating wow moments, which all help to improve judges' scores and get fans to vote.
Any disruption to that dynamic can throw everything off, especially when none of this was the fault of Jenna Dewan herself. But the show must go on, and the actress stayed focused as she had a very difficult Argentine tango to learn for Horror Movie Night. Her comments about that first rehearsal back with Val make it seem like she was determined not to let that suspension get the better of her. She went on to say:
[Our] first rehearsal back, obviously, there was a bit of an understanding of the week that we’d just had, and the moment of that, connecting with each other and touching base... But then it went right back to business and getting into the dance.
While their reunion was a little bumpy, in the sense that their first dance back together kept them stagnant at 37 out of 40, the former backup dancer for Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson did receive a perfect score for her most recent performance in the latest episode. Personally, I think that really speaks to the resilience of Jenna Dewan, who has stayed focused on the goal of winning the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy no matter what is going on around her.
Things happen that you have no control over, especially on DWTS, whether you’re a pro dancer who’s feeling ill or you’re a celeb pushing through injury. It’s how you deal with that adversity that can throw off your chances of winning it all, and Jenna Dewan seems determined to keep her eye on the prize.
Keep tuning in to Dancing with the Stars on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC or with a Disney+ subscription to see if Jenna Dewan makes it to the finals and possibly takes the title of latest winner.
