Jenna Dewan Faced Criticism, a Partner Suspension, and a Shock Dancing with the Stars Exit. She’s Still Proud.

10 min readDancing with the Stars fans let out a collective gasp Tuesday night. Jenna Dewan and her partner, Val Chmerkovskiy, had earned one of the night’s top scores: 28 out of 30. They also won their dance-off against Tatyana Ali and Jan Ravnik, tying for second on the leaderboard with Amber Glenn and Pasha Pashkov. Then host Alfonso Ribeiro called Dewan’s name, eliminating her from competition.“I had a great time, and I loved getting to share that with the world,” she said, moments after being eliminated. “All love.”Not even 48 hours later, Jenna sat down with Women’s Health to share her story.Women’s Health: What's your overarching emotion right now? What have you been feeling since Tuesday?Jenna Dewan: Overall, it’s really been the saying, “Two things can be true at once.” There's so many different emotions, and it's kind of hard to even put into words because obviously doing a show like this is such an enormous undertaking, and it's physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually intense. And so, when that's just finished, it's like a light switch goes off, and then you almost don't even know where you are.I feel all kinds of things. I feel mostly proud. I feel really proud of myself, and I feel proud of the last dance we gave on the ballroom floor, and I feel obviously sad that it's over, that I don't get to give any more dances out there and create any more special pieces. So I think it's really both. I feel really proud of us, and I feel fulfilled, and I feel filled up, and I also feel sad that the journey of creating dances is over.WH: Take me back to Tuesday night. You had a great first dance, and then you won your dance-off. What was going through your mind when you heard Alfonso call your name?JD: When you are going through the show, it feels like any week could be you. The show is not necessarily a show about dance. It's not necessarily a competition about the best dancer. It's not about the best dance you give. It's so many other elements that go into it, which is great on a reality show front-end. It makes people tune in for all different kinds of reasons, but in doing that, you never know how it's going to go.Once it started whittling down, it was the two of us. You kind of come to a place of like, “Okay, this could be our moment.” And I had a feeling—it was a tough week as far as some of the online noise, I would say, that goes with doing the show. So it definitely wasn't out of my mind that it could be a possibility.Eric McCandless//Getty ImagesJenna Dewan performing the samba with partner Val Chmerkovskiy during week 3 of the competition.A Dancer on a Dance ShowEven before Jenna stepped onto the DWTS dance floor, viewers debated whether she belonged in the competition. How much prior dance experience a celebrity contestant can have—while still being considered a fair competitor—has long been a point of debate among viewers.Jenna started her career as a dancer, where she toured alongside legendary performers, including Janet Jackson (she appeared in two music videos of the singer’s). In 2006, she landed her breakout role in Step Up, in which she played a classically trained ballerina. She was the host for television shows World of Dance and Flirty Dancing as well as a judge on Come Dance with Me. Many fans of DWTS cited Jenna’s impressive resume as an unfair advantage. “How is Jenna Dewan part of this? She was a professional dancer. Hello! So unfair already,” one X user wrote on the platform after the official season 35 cast announcement.It should be noted, however, Jenna is not the first celebrity to join the show with previous dance experience—and it’s safe to say she’ll be far from the last. Stars like Heather Morris, Jordan Fisher, and Charli D’Amelio have all undergone criticism for joining the show in the past, despite having a substantial leg up among fellow contestants. Even Alfonso, the show’s current host and season 19 winner, had prior dance experience. WH: Like you said, you do have dance experience, but you hadn’t danced in a while. Do you feel like you were starting at a disadvantage even before you stepped on the dance floor?JD: I will say, through the history of watching the show and what I know about the show, is I've seen there be an issue with people with dance backgrounds, and that obviously there's a lot of opinions on whether we should even have people compete on the show that have dance backgrounds.I definitely asked quite a few times, “Are you sure you guys want me on the show?” But the incredible people who do the show were really confident in expressing to me that this show had changed a lot, and that it’s not Dancing with the Stars Who Have Never Danced. They wanted a very dynamic cast with all different levels and strengths they bring to the ballroom. I knew it would be an uphill battle for me for sure, just from the patterns of the show and the loyalists of the show and how they feel. But ultimately, the gift of doing something just for myself was really intoxicating, and it won over any sort of doubts or hesitations I had.WH: You mentioned there was a lot of “noise” this season. How was it navigating that? You’re learning so much about yourself and meeting great people, but then you’re also under a microscope. What was that like?JD: The hardest part of the show, I would say, is it really teaches you that joy and difficulty can exist together. There were so many highs of this journey, and then so many moments of frustration and negative noise and criticism that is honestly sad, because it tries to suck out the joy from the experience.Even for myself with a dance background, it is vulnerable to put yourself out there in the ballroom every Tuesday and be like, “Hey guys, watch my dance and tell me what you think.” And then you have the whole other element of this social, online, noisy world that is almost like they're looking to tear people down, and I felt that that was an unfortunate shade to this show that didn't need to happen.WH: Did you find yourself connecting with your fellow competitors through the shared experience of facing a lot of negativity?JD: Part of the journey of the show is interesting because for the first good couple weeks, you rarely see any of the other contestants, because you are really in your own rehearsal space, and you're just trying to get the dances down as fast as you can with your partner. I think it was rare seeing people in the hallways and connecting with some of the contestants. But yeah, we definitely would talk.I think at one point Connor [Wood] made me laugh so hard because he said he had seen some of the online social negativity, and he said, “Everyone needs to go back to journaling.” I laughed so hard, because he is exactly right. At some point, we all thought it was okay to just get online and to be mean for no reason. We are real human beings that see this and feel this, and I think that that gets forgotten.When we did the team dance, that was when we really were able to start bonding as the contestants, because we were finally together working towards one dance and in a room together. I absolutely love them, and we were all definitely talking about this and sharing our experiences with this, and how most of us at that point, I think, had taken it off our phone or turned off social media.Eric McCandless//Getty ImagesJenna Dewan performing the rumba with partner Val Chmerkovskiy during week 4 of the competition.WH: What part of the competition would you say pushed you most outside of your comfort zone? What did you learn about yourself that you might have been surprised about? JD: Naturally, because of my dance background, there were really high expectations that I put on myself, and that the world was putting on me. I didn't even realize it was happening, but it was creating this feeling that I needed to let go of perfection and kind of just get comfortable being seen and just being there. I didn't need to prove anything.I think I just realized how much of my life I spent wanting to get things right. And this experience really challenged me in that way, because what I realized is, you just can't grow if you're constantly worried about being perfect. I had to learn to be a little uncomfortable, to be critiqued again, to make some mistakes, to be vulnerable, and just let people see me in the middle of figuring something out. There's actually a lot of freedom in that, because I didn't have ballroom dance down perfectly by the time I got out there.WH: Was there a specific moment that you felt that switch in yourself?JD: I thought that every dance we did. I thought that during the week two jive, and it was intriguing to me that [the judges] were so critical of certain dances. However, when I look back, there was a lot of growth for me.There was a whole element of this that was sort of discovering my strength in a new way because I have had three children, I've navigated huge life transitions, I've built a career, a family, a life, And now, I'm stepping into this show where I'm pushing myself physically, emotionally, creatively in a way that I haven't in years. So I think I just surprised myself with how strong I am, and not just physically, but emotionally.Dancing Through the NoiseJenna also faced an unexpected complication when her partner, Val, was suspended for one episode of the show following a social media post he made about DWTS judge Carrie Ann Inaba. After Carrie Ann criticized his wife, fellow pro dancer Jenna Johnson, for including what she considered an illegal lift in her routine with Harry Shum Jr., Val posted, “You almost saw Fresh Prince enter the ballroom last night.” The now-deleted post was widely interpreted as a reference to the 2022 Academy Awards, when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock after making a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.Carrie Ann appeared to interpret the post as a threat. She shared a screenshot of a Page Six story about it on Instagram, writing, “So this is what we are doing now?”On Oct. 17, DWTS production company BBC Studios said Val would not participate in the Oct. 20 episode. Jenna danced with pro Alan Bersten in his place.WH: Val’s midseason suspension caused a lot of waves in the competition. Are you envisioning this affecting your overall memory of the experience?JD: I said this, and I really mean this, that I did not foresee having as many challenges as I did that were thrown at me during my Dancing with the Stars journey. However, the challenges of it gave me an opportunity to walk my talk, and I always think that when that happens, you can go back to your true north, to what’s your intention for doing something. How do you want to show up as a human when you’re experiencing challenges? And I kept going back to my kids. When the mid-season suspension happened, and all these things were going on, I thought, “I have a real opportunity here. I can be annoyed and bitter and upset about this, or I can show up with grace and love and joy and focus on the moment.”That particular week was about my mom and my dedication to her. And she was in town, thrilled to have this dance with me, and thrilled to experience this moment. And I thought that this is something she's going to remember. We're all going to remember my family forever. Let's focus on that, and let's not worry about all of this that's going on.WH: There has been a lot of discourse claiming the female contestants have to work harder to break out from that narrative of unfairness on the show—that the men are held to different standards. What was your experience of being in the position you were, but then also being female?JD: I’ve seen that, and I feel like with just life in general, even outside of Dancing with the Stars, that is absolutely something that most females have experienced. I think there's been a great change in our world, but I think for years upon years upon years, women have had a fight against misogyny and inherent bias. Women at times in life are just held to a different standard than men, and I think that that is a real reflection.We're expected to be exceptional, but also humble and confident, but not too confident, skilled, but not struggling enough to earn praise. There's all this pressure on women. It feels like sometimes if a woman is strong or capable, the expectations become that much higher. I think people are so busy expecting women to be extraordinary that we forget to celebrate them for being extraordinary.WH: Looking back, is there anything you want your fans to take away from your time on the show? What do you want your legacy to be?JD: It's never too late for a new chapter in life. And I think if there was like, one thing I wanted people to take away from my whole journey, it’s that we're never finished becoming who we are, and it's never too late to choose your own passion in life and your own joy in life. There isn't some age where you stop growing and dreaming and trying new things.Alyssa Cruz is the social media editor at Women’s Health, where she drives social strategy and helps shape the brand’s voice across platforms. Prior to WH, she worked at CBS News and palabra. Originally from Toledo, she is a proud alumna of Ohio University, where she received two bachelor’s degrees in journalism and Spanish. When she is not creating social content, you can find her trying different restaurants in New York City or planning her next trip.