Dancing With the Stars fans have already begun criticizing the new cast before they’ve even stepped into the ballroom. Unveiled Wednesday on Good Morning America, the full cast includes Step Up star Jenna Dewan, Save the Last Dance actor Julia Stiles and Glee alum Harry Shum Jr. — all of whom have notable backgrounds in dance. Dewan, 45, started her career as a backup dancer on Janet Jackson's 2001 “All for You Tour” before landing featured roles in music videos for Christina Aguilera, Pink, Missy Elliott, and NSYNC, among others.
She went on to host Jennifer Lopez's dance competition show World of Dance and also served as a judge on the 2022 CBS series Come Dance With Me. Stiles, 45, performed an iconic tabletop dance in the 1999 film 10 Things I Hate About You and most of the dance sequences in the 2001 hit film Save the Last Dance, in which her character is an aspiring ballerina. Shum Jr., 44, played Mike Chang on the hit Fox series Glee.
Similarly to Dewan, he started his career as a backup dancer for Lopez, Beyoncé and Mariah Carey, and also appeared in the Step Up franchise. After the DWTS cast was announced, fans voiced their disapproval on social media, calling out the fact that the trio already have some degree of dance training. Let’s vote for the dancers that have no experience.” “Why do you keep adding professionally trained dancers to the cast,” another asked while someone else chimed in, “Having Jenna Dewan and Harry Shum Jr. both been trained dancers competing against these other reality stars...” Another wrote on Threads: “umm.. as much as I love DWTS, some of these ‘stars’ are already dancers of some sort..
Jenna and Julia for example.” “Jenna is a dancer which gives her a huge advantage,” someone else chimed in on X as another wrote, “That’s not even fair, Julia Stiles is a professional dancer.” New subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.
Some weren’t as bothered by their previous experience, with one person writing, “Should be an interesting cast since several amateurs are actually pretty good dancers already,” while another rejoiced, “Julia Stiles, Jenna Dewan AND Harry Shum Jr. on DWTS??? Oh they came for the millennials BAD. This lineup just unlocked an entire section of my childhood.
Save the Last Dance, Step Up and Glee all in one season??? I’m seated!” Dewan is partnered with Val Chmerkovskiy, while Stiles is dancing with Ezra Sosa and Shum Jr. is paired with Jenna Johnson. Scheduled for a live two-night premiere September 15, the new season of the hit ABC dance competition series will welcome back Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli to the judging panel, alongside returning co-hosts Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough.
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