Flyby Tries: Dancing With the Stars

If you are as chronically online as we are, you will probably agree that fall is the best season for entertainment; from “Survivor” to “The Golden Bachelorette,” there is never a drought of shows premiering right in time for cozy sweater weather TV marathons. Recently, the two of us have been sucked into a TikTok black hole of “Dancing with the Stars” videos from the current season’s star-studded cast of actors, Olympians, and con artist Anna Delvey. As a subpar ballroom dancer (Ava) and a former Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade child dancer (Gabi), we decided to throw our hats into the ring and try to replicate some of the most iconic DWTS moves. Key word being try. Enjoy!

The Spin and Dip:

The Spin and Dip — DWTS edition By Sophia Salamanca

Starting off strong with a throwback from Season 32, we attempted to recreate DWTS Pro Rylee Arnold’s Cha-Cha dance with her partner, Harry Jowsey. Although their moves are nothing too crazy (i.e. a simple side step, twirl, and dip), Arnold and Jowsey’s dance went viral on TikTok because of their palpable on-screen chemistry. Thousands of users chimed in to recreate their iconic moves and make ship edits of them dancing, a movement which propelled the pair to week nine of the twelve-week-long competition (despite Jowsey’s frat boy-esque lack of rhythm).

So, when thinking about how best to approach replicating their dance, it was clear to us that we had to focus more on embodying Arnold and Jowsey’s iconic chemistry than on perfectly executing the steps. To that end, we had to take our roommate connection to the next level and add more passion, more energy, and more footwork. This meant more smiling, faster twirls, and a more dramatic leg to add extra pizazz, goals which we effortlessly accomplished in less than three tries (source: just trust us bro).

The Spin — Harvard edition By Courtesy of Lauren T. Wong

The Dip — Harvard edition By Courtesy of Lauren T. Wong

The Creepy Kangaroo Hold:

The Creepy Kangaroo Hold — DWTS edition By Sophia Salamanca

With our first dance beautifully executed, we moved onto our second with newfound confidence. That was until we realized that we had chosen DWTS Pro Daniella Karagach’s Emmy-nominated dance with her basketball-star partner Iman Shumpert and started to feel a bit of imposter syndrome. It also didn’t help to know that not only was their dance nominated for an Emmy, but Karagach and Shumpert later went on to win Season 30 of DWTS and take home the coveted mirrorball trophy. So, yeah. It was safe to say that we had big shoes to fill…Shumpert’s size 14 shoes.

As we watched their reimagined contemporary take on the Jordan Peele-directed film Us and shook off our nerves, we began practicing their creepy lift that resembled that of a kangaroo mother carrying her baby in its pouch. After stretching our arms and squatting for a few seconds to activate our glutes and quads, I got ready to flip Gabi onto my quads. Unfortunately, our height difference worked against us. Since Gabi’s legs were too long to be as swiftly flipped onto my legs as Karagach’s were onto Shumpert’s, we decided to abandon the flip and shift all our focus to the hold. After one more attempt, we finally mastered our pose – legs interlocked, standing tall like a proud kangaroo and her joey. The real challenge? Resisting the urge to break into laughter. One wrong giggle and we would collapse. Luckily, we held the pose long enough for our suitemate to snap a photo before collapsing onto the couch behind us.

The Creepy Kangaroo Hold — Harvard edition By Courtesy of Lauren T. Wong

The Itsy Bitsy Spider:

The Itsy-Bitsy Spider — DWTS edition By Sophia Salamanca

At this point, we were seasoned pros (cast us for the 34th season @dancingwiththestars). In search of an even bigger and bolder move, we looked to none other than robbed Mirror Ball partners, Milo Manheim and Witney Carson. Featured in one of their many dances that received a perfect score, the move that I believe won Carrie Ann, Len, and Bruno’s favor the most was Carson’s extremely smooth spin then leap onto Manheim’s back. After some kind of simultaneous cartwheel and pirouette, Manheim flipped into a barrel roll, after which Carson performed a split in midair and landed on his back, one leg on his shoulder and one leg on his waist.

Almost immediately, we faced a small barrier. Given our slight height difference (Ava is 5’9” and Gabi is 5’4”), we were having trouble figuring out if it was physically possible for this jump to happen. After spending painfully long trying to solve this dilemma that not even Math 55 students would be able to crack, we employed the couch behind us and maximized the set pieces our stage had to offer. Ava grabbed one leg and secured the other and in the middle of Gabi’s hysterical laughter, Gabi spread her arms, achieved the perfect ballerina’s toe point, and posed for the pic. Safe to say that we nailed it, and our audience thought we ate it up as well (peep Son Heung-Min and the 1D boys in the background). In comparing our recreation to the reference photo above, one thing comes to mind: corporate needs you to find the difference between this picture and this picture. As Pam from The Office worded so gracefully, they’re the same picture!

The Itsy-Bitsy Spider — Harvard edition By Courtesy of Lauren T. Wong

The Lift:

The Lift — DWTS edition By Sophia Salamanca

We had no choice but to conclude the evening with a show-stopping grand finale: the TikTok leg lift. If not evident enough, much of our time spent in the suite is spent rotting and doom-scrolling (with a ~healthy~ side of big-backing). Amidst the Brooke Nader and Gleb Savchenko drama and Ilona Maher praise, Carson’s effortlessly executed and choreographed leg lift is definitely the talk of this season. The move is simple — she positions one of her feet at the correct angle on top of Danny Amendola’s, creating enough tension for Amendola to pull her up by her other foot while she arches her back and maintains impeccable core strength. After watching countless videos of failed attempts, we were confident that everyone else was simply incapable of this easy feat and decided to try ourselves, thus leading to the inception of this entire article.

With our backup dancers (suitemates) in place and a couple of verbal affirmations, we had liftoff… or close enough. Turns out this move was just as difficult as it seems, if not even more so. We scoured online for tutorials and slowed TikTok’s down to 0.5 speed but still could not figure out the mechanisms behind it. Attempt after attempt, Gabi tried to activate her core and engage her back, and Ava anchored herself to the ground and readjusted her grip on Gabi’s achilles. We were determined to produce some iteration that resembled the original. Our ex-ballerina suitemate subbed in, as did our walk-on athlete of the suite, yet we still had no luck. We even called in the reserves, deploying the suite’s resident boyfriend, who faced even less success.

Unfortunately, the one time that we seemed to have done it was off the record. For now, the GIF below must suffice. I can’t say for sure that we would have received all 10s on this performance but we gave it our all and, for that, we deserve 10s in spirit. Legend has it that to this day, Ava is still sore.

The Lift — Harvard edition By Courtesy of Lauren T. Wong

In a shocking turn of events, we have since retired from our prodigious dancing career. Perhaps we should leave the dancing to AADT, EXP, and UNIQUE. But, if the “Dancing with The Stars” Tour ever comes calling, don’t be too surprised if you see our names on the cast list.