Should Dancers Be Judged More Harshly on ‘Dancing With the Stars’? Carrie Ann Inaba Weighs In

Every season of Dancing With the Stars brings back the same debate: Should contestants with professional or extensive dance experience be judged more harshly than everyone else?

That question is once again at the center of discussion following the announcement of the show’s season 35 cast.

Among the names attracting attention are Julia Stiles, Jenna Dewan and Harry Shum Jr., all of whom have dance backgrounds, although their experience varies significantly.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly after the cast announcement, longtime judge Carrie Ann Inaba explained why having dance experience does not automatically make someone an expert at ballroom dancing.

“What’s difficult — and I don’t think people realize this — is when you go from being a jazz dancer or a hip-hop dancer or all the other forms of dancing [to ballroom], the weight placement is so different,” Inaba said.

According to Inaba, dancers have to retrain their bodies when they move into ballroom. Instead of relying on movements they already know, they have to learn where and how to place their weight.

“It’s weird because your body has memory,” she explained. “It remembers how to dance, and it thinks it already knows how to do these moves, but it doesn’t.”

That transition can take time.

“It takes a lot of time to un-train the body to put your weight on the front more over your toes instead of back and down and grounded,” Inaba said. “It’s not as easy as people think.”

Dance experience can help — but it does not guarantee success

The history of Dancing With the Stars offers plenty of evidence for both sides of the argument.

Heather Morris, best known for Glee, entered season 24 with years of experience as a professional backup dancer, including performing with Beyoncé. Yet she finished only eighth.

Amanda Kloots, a Broadway performer and former Rockette, also had extensive dance experience before competing in season 30. She reached the semifinals and finished fourth.

But other contestants with strong dance backgrounds have dominated the competition.

TikTok star Charli D’Amelio, actor Jordan Fisher and Olympic ice dancer Meryl Davis all had significant experience with choreography, timing and musicality — and each went on to win their respective seasons.

Inaba acknowledged that contestants such as Stiles and Dewan do have certain advantages.

“They’ve got the rhythm and they’ve got the musicality and they know how to dance,” she said. “They know how to learn choreography and remember choreography.”

Still, she pointed out that it may have been years since some of them trained seriously in dance.

Julia Stiles says her dance past could be a disadvantage

Stiles is perhaps best known for her role in the 2001 film Save the Last Dance, in which she played an aspiring ballerina who combines ballet with hip-hop.

However, Stiles says her experience on the film actually made her step away from dance.

“I stopped taking dance classes after that movie because people expected me to be a great dancer,” she told EW.

Now, she believes her history could work against her rather than give her an easy advantage.

Jenna Dewan faces a different challenge

Dewan, meanwhile, has a much deeper professional dance background. She has toured with major artists including Janet Jackson, Christina Aguilera and Missy Elliott. She later starred in Step Up and appeared on dance-focused shows such as World of Dance and Come Dance with Me.

Even so, Dewan insists that she is not entering the competition as a ballroom expert.

“I do not know how to ballroom dance. Let’s be clear,” she said.

For Dewan, the challenge is learning an entirely different style.

“It’s two different languages,” she explained. “There’s parts of my dance training that’s helpful, obviously. I’ve learned choreography, I can perform, but there is a certain sense of unlearning for me.”

That may be the key to the debate. A contestant who already knows how to move, keep time and learn choreography clearly has an advantage. But ballroom dancing demands techniques that dancers from other styles may never have learned.

As season 35 gets underway, viewers will find out whether that advantage is enough to translate into success — or whether the ballroom proves to be a whole new challenge, even for experienced dancers.