Jenna Dewan Defends ‘DWTS’ Casting Amid Backlash: ‘Step Up’ Star and Ex-Janet Jackson Backup Dancer Says ‘I Do Not Know How to Ballroom Dance’

When the cast of “Dancing With the Stars” Season 35 was announced on Wednesday morning, a few of the names raised eyebrows among fans of the reality competition series.

The most controversial casting, perhaps, is Jenna Dewan, a professional dancer who started her career as a backup dancer for Janet Jackson and starred opposite Channing Tatum in the 2006 dance movie “Step Up.” While the premise of “DWTS” is pairing professional dancers with celebrity amateurs, Dewan will be paired with a pro, ballroom expert and “DWTS” veteran Val Chmerkovskiy. Dewan’s casting sparked backlash online, with some fans arguing that Dewan has an extensive dance background and therefore has a clear advantage over the other contestants. Still, “DWTS” has no clear standard when it comes to the extent of contestants’ dance background, and many of the celebrities who have competed on the show have some experience.

Dewan defended her casting in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, saying that while she is a highly experienced dancer, “I do not know how to ballroom dance.”

“Let’s be clear. It’s two different languages,” Dewan told EW. “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. It’s a new technique, brand new technique. It almost threw me off initially because I had to unlearn a lot of — I don’t want to say bad habits — but just habits of the style that I’m used to.”

Dewan said her dance background almost makes her “a little more nervous” to compete on the show, because ballroom “feels really foreign.” She explained, “It’s not like you’re giving me a style that I’ve done — I can go out there and do that. It has its advantages, but it also has its challenges. But that was part of why I wanted to do it. I really wanted to challenge myself.”

Chmerkovskiy defended his partner’s casting, saying, “First of all, it’s naive to think that this show is just about dance. It’s about the human experience and the human journey and how much you’re willing to reveal yourself. Dance is a vehicle for us to find out more about these people — and I think that’s our advantage.”

He conceded that Dewan “comes in with incredible talent,” but added, “with great talent comes incredible expectation — that’s my challenge.”

“The way I approach things is that you’re only as good as the thing that you’ve never done, so I’m going to push her and push us to showcase to the world something they haven’t seen from her yet. That’s a challenge in itself because we’ve seen her at the highest form of dance and what that expression can look like —” Chmerkovskiy said, before Dewan interjected to add, “Many years ago!”

The cast of “DWTS” Season 35 also includes Julia Stiles, Harry Shum Jr., Tatyana Ali, Tyler Cameron, Giada De Laurentiis, Maura Higgins, Ciara Miller, Taylor Hanson, Sarah Jane Nader, Guillermo Rodriguez, Jackson Olson, Ezra Frech, Amber Glenn, Conner Leavitt, and Connor Wood. 

The series returns on Sept. 15 on ABC and Disney+.