To truly slay Dancing With the Stars, the stars need to remember to play to their strengths — like when Nyle DiMarco, a Deaf model, removed all the music from his winning routine. Ilona Maher, captain of the U.S. women’s rugby team, which took home bronze at the Paris Olympics, puts the “strength†in “play to their strengths.†On the September 24, Maher performed a Dirty Dancing–themed routine with her partner, Alan Bersten, including a plethora of lifts, as expected. And because Maher is a literal Olympian, each partner got to be Baby. Both Maher and Bersten were on the “bottom†of two lifts, with Maher swinging her male partner around her shoulders as though he weighed six pounds. It was a delightful reversal of the Dirty Dancing trope — judge Carrie Ann Inaba later told Maher that she is “leading this conversation on what femininity looks like†— then she gave her a seven, which is only an okay score. Maher still had the best moment of the night.
Ilona Maher Danced Dirty
