Dancing With The Stars athlete Jamie Anderson reveals the "terror" she felt while ball room dancing
As Dancing With The Stars gears up for an all-athlete season premiering April 30 on ABC, Olympic snowboarding champion Jamie Anderson shares a little about being a contestant on the show and the difficulties she is currently facing in his rehearsals.
Anderson, who recently won a gold and silver medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics, has been paired with dancing-pro Artem Chigvintsev. It has been revealed that the duo will be dancing the Viennese Waltz during the premiere.
In an interview with Hollywood Life, the Olympian shared how she decided to get into the show in the first place, and how she's terrified of ballroom dancing since she's never done something like it before.
"Just watching the show as a kid, I was always mindblown with the dancing and the whole experience of watching it. As soon as they offered me an opportunity, I knew it was going be a lot of work, but the fact that it was an all-athlete season made it a lot more interesting," she revealed.
The star athlete also couldn't help but gush about practicing with her choreographer Chigvintsev, calling herself extremely "lucky" for the opportunity. "I feel so lucky. He’s a really great dancer and a really great teacher. He’s giving me great criticism, but he’s so good at keeping it fun, which is really important.
Although sports and dancing can go hand-in-hand, Anderson feels that the whole experience is extremely different for her. "It’s different in the fact that I’m learning something from scratch. With snowboarding, it’s like second nature. I know what’s going on. I’ve been doing it for so long. I’m going into something completely new and having to do it on a stage in front of a lot of people. It’s pretty terrifying."
"I didn’t realize there’s so much detail, and when you’re in there trying to perform and put on this whole persona and vibe, it takes a lot. There’s a million things to be thinking of. It definitely makes you be in the moment."