Danielle Dances! (Week 1)

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Speaker 1: Hello. It's Danielle Fishl, podcaster, TV director and mom of two, but forever known to most as Tapanga from the nostalgic TGIA favorite Boy Meets World. Currently, though, I am competing on season thirty four of Dancing with the Stars and I am having the time of my life. As a reminder, I have absolutely no experience in the field. I'm not even sure I should be doing this, but one thing I am sure of. I'll be keeping you updated in the form of this podcast, Danielle with the Stars, chronicling my entire journey to win a Mirror Ball. This is immediately following the press line which immediately followed the premiere of Dancing with the Stars in thirty four. First of all, I would really like to say that I have only been able to have this incredible of anexperience on Dancing with the Stars so far because of all of the people around me who have just made this possible for me. From my husband, who has picked up one hundred percent of the stuff that I normally do for our household and the kids, which is a lot. He has taken one hundred percent of that on my kids, who have been really understanding about my hours and my schedule, and knowing that sometimes I may only be able to see them when they wake up in the morning, that I may not be home before they are down for the night. And you know, people who help our family, like my incredible nanny who when my husband is overworked and overloaded with things because I'm not there, she has picked up the slack. It has been such like a team effort. To Tara, our fantastic producer, who's coming to me here late at night after a taping so that I can do this podcast and bring all of this stuff to you, my family, The words of support, the messages you guys have been sending me, the amount of texts and love and direct messages and comments on our Instagram and our tiktoks, the love that I feel and the like the celebratory nature of what I'm doing is just really really special, and I want to thank you all so much. So I didn't want to start on an emotional note, but oh well, what are you gonna do? You know, a girl's gotta cry once in a while. Man, what a show I You know, I have done some show and tells over the last couple of weeks with people who were in rehearsal times at the same time as me. But man, everybody came alive in that ballroom. The confetti, the pyrotechnics, the lasers, the energy, our friends and our family being there. It was Wow. It is it's so fast paced. It's so busy. I have been here. I left my house this morning at six forty five. It's now eight thirty pm. I have been in hair and makeup since seven forty five. I've been in my dress since one pm. Actually a little bit before one pm, like twelve thirty pm. It's and all day you're just going, going, going, and you're doing hair, then you're doing makeup. Then they're pulling you out. They're doing a camera blocking, and you have to go all out for the camera blocking. They want to like really make sure they see what the performance is going to be, to make sure they capture all the right moments. There's opening numbers, the pros are dancing. The dressing rooms are kind of far from where the stage is, and your feet hurt, so you like want to bring your slippers that they bought you, which is very nice. And we have beautiful robes also that we can wear. But it's so hot outside. I didn't want to wear a robe. By the way, I'm so smelly right now. I stink. I've been truly running back and forth dancing my behind off, and I'm just like, I can't wait to go home and take a shower. I also need to ice my hamstring. My leg is very swollen. It was really starting to cramp up on me right before we went out to do our dance. And something I have realized I'm gonna have to get used to if I'm going to be in this dance world is that you have to go one hundred percent every time you do your dance. As someone who started my career as an actor at ten years old, actors don't do that. We don't go one hundred percent until the camera is rolling, until we're live. You don't want to like kill something that's naturally there, and one of the ways you feel like you do that is by doing it over and over again. But in this dance world, you give one hundred percent every time. Well also physically, I can only kick my legs super high so many times before I'm like, this little leg needs a break. So my hamstring actually has a minor tear. I have been icing twice a night epsom salt bath. In between, I'm taking an ibuprofen to help. And right before I went out for the live show, after having gone all out for five other runs for dress rehearsal and practice, my legs started really getting tight and I was like, what am I gonna do? Like, this is the time when I have to go What am I gonna do? And I kept trying to stretch a little bit, wasn't really working. It was really cramping, and then adrenaline just took over in the middle of the dance and I was able to do it. I still haven't been able to watch it, so I don't know exactly what it looked like. I know it felt really good. I trust Pasha implicitly. I trust him with everything, and he swears that this was the best performance we've ever done, and we've now done it over a thousand times in the last couple of weeks, and he swears that the live show was by far the best. So I trust him. But I will also watch the tape myself and critique myself, even though he says that's useless because we don't do tango again. But you're seeing my perfectionism come through so that is what we danced tonight. We danced a tango to Kelly Clarkson's Stronger because it was Anthem week and when they asked me what my anthem was, it was a really quick answer. I'm a Kelly Clarkson fan. That song has always been a lot to me, but it really took on a whole new meeting for me last year when I had breast cancer and I used to listen to it on my way to radiation, and I used to listen to it before my surgeries, and the minute they said we need an anthem song, that was the one that just to me immediately. So I have really enjoyed Pasha's choreography. There are some really great moments where the part where she says stand a little taller and I grow from a lunge, Like he's so smart in the way he does his choreography, and so it was it was really great. In between when we're doing our runs and we're trying to stay warm, we're doing a lot of walking, we're doing some slight stretching. You don't want to sit for too long because you just start to get achy and cramp up. But it's a long day Like I said, I've been here now for thirteen hours, and I have been on my feet for most of it. I have also been dancing for quite a lot of it. My costume, my hair, my makeup is just spectacular. I love it so much. I'm wearing like a one shouldered Greek goddess gown that also kind of reminds me of Ariel, which is so fun. My hair they wanted something very dramatic for Tanga, so we've got four braids on the top of my head into a high pony. My makeup is green and gold and super sparkly, really really fun. And then my jewelry. I'm wearing actually a vintage Paddock Philippe watch that is absolutely amazing. Shout out to Eric Wynd who sent it to me. I sent him a picture of my dress and I said, what's a gold watch that'll go with this dress? And he sent this one to me and I am obsessed with it. I'm also wearing, as you guys know, my friend Jamie Forever fine jewelry. I'm wearing all of her jewels, and then I've got this nice little turquoise number that I thought added some much needed color. But I've also got these gorgeous earrings that are from Jamie and my rehearsal shoes. These are not like special night dance shoes. They are the shoes they give us that we rehearse in all throughout the week. And you would normally think like, oh, you're going to a fancy event or your to perform, don't you want a new pair of shoes. Not when you're dancing on them. You have to like, our feet are blistered and disgusting. I've always heard the dancers have ugly feet, and I can attest dancers have hideous feet. They just do, and now so do I because I am a dancer. So yeah, we got our scores. Immediately came off the dance floor and Alfonso was there, and he was such a nice, comforting presence. I've known Alfonso for a long time. We actually have similar career trajectories in the idea that we were iconic characters who have now tried to make a name for ourselves outside of just those characters. I'm so proud of him. I just think the world of him. So he was a really comforting face to see. Carrie Anne was so missed. She was sick tonight she's never missed a show, and she wasn't there tonight, So there were only two judges, which means our scores were out of twenty. I knew going into it that the judges were going to be scoring lower than usual. Derek has been very upfront about that. On his social media. He was saying that last year they felt like they came out of the gate swinging a little hot with high scores like sevens and eights, and then two, three, four weeks into the season when the audience can tell that the celebrities are getting better every single week, but the scores aren't getting better or they're still only getting sevens and eights, because can we really give somebody a ten? And week three, so they said they knew that the mistake was that they weren't starting low enough that they needed to be harsher. I honestly told myself going into it, if you get two fours, just count that like a win. Well, I actually was thinking it was gonna be three fours, so I was thinking twelve, and then when I found out it was two judges, I was like, oh wow, getting an eight is going to feel really bad, even though it's only out of twenty. So the fact that I got two six's, that I got a twelve out of twenty, I am. Honestly, I'm thrilled. I have no dance experience. For someone who three weeks ago had never taken a dance class, to come out and do a tango and have Derek Cuff and Bruno give me two sixes feels like an absolute win. So I'm happy about that. I know they said some very nice compliments about my dancing, and I love that Derek said it was like a breath of fresh air. That really means a lot. Keeping my shoulders down. Yeah, you're preaching to the choir friends. I have been working on these darned shoulders for a long time, and Pasha keep saying it too. And I probably should have reminded myself of the shoulders right before I went out. Right before I went out, I had paid attention to my package, which, as you know, Sabrina Bryan specifically told me, don't watch your package because you never know what's going to be in there. And I had watched my package and I saw that it was about my cancer journey. And I looked over and I saw that writer and Will and my husband and my kids, and my mom and my dad and my dad's wife. We're all sitting in the audience, and I started to feel myself get emotional, and I was like, Serena told you not to watch your package. You just watched your package. Lock in with Pasha. Just lock in with Pasha and pretend that no one else is here. And that's exactly what I did. I pretended there was not a single soul in the place. It was just me and Pasha, and I was gonna be glued to him and locked into him, and I was like, wow, Okay, that felt really good. We finished, and then I felt this huge surge of relief, like there it's done. And then I could start feeling all of the feels, and so, yeah, I was happy with I was happy with their scores. Would I have liked them to be higher, Sure, But honestly, watching dance after dance after dance, it is a stacked season. The competition is fierce. I have been a fan of this show for a very long time, and without any disrespect to any other contestants or any other seasons, I don't remember ever watching a premiere where I'm like, oh, so, just everybody's better than the next person. Like it's just every single performance is stellar, and the pros are so good at bringing out their personality trait, the celeb's personality traits and letting them shine in their own unique ways. And we're such a diverse group from all different facets of the entertainment industry, and we all bring different things to the table. So it really does just go to show you how important the voting is, Like that's really what separates who's going to win and who's going to go forward the next week is like whether or not your fans are connecting with you and are making sure they vote every week. Pasha was really happy with our scores. Pasha was really happy in general. I always assume he's being nice to me and that he secretly has more notes, but he really reiterated to me over and over again tonight how much he thinks this was by far my best performance. And the good news for him is that he now knows for sure, even though he always suspected, he knows for sure that I thrive under pressure, that I don't buckle. And that's always the hardest part for a pro dancer on the first night is you have no idea how your celeb is going to react. You've got moving cameras everywhere, pyrotechnics, confetti, their family, and the audience noises happening at weird times. Everything just feels a little different, and it's very easy for your knees to buckle and for you to be like, what am I doing. As a matter of fact, my dress rehearsal that did happen, So yesterday we got to do three runs of it. All three runs of my dance, while not perfect, definitely things I was like, here are some things I want to improve on. We're all pretty darn good, and I had really no nerves. I felt really great. I felt super locked in, I felt very channeled, I felt like my energy was focused. I felt great. And then this morning we came in and we did it two more times and both of those went pretty well. But at this point, like I mentioned, as an actor, I'm not used to having to give it my all. Now I've done it five times over two days at like almost one hundred percent, I started to kind of feel that my one hundred percent was now like an eighty percent or maybe even a seventy percent, and that was like, okay, I just need to get to this. I just need to get to this live show. And then we did a dress rehearsal. It's the first time, the only time, you get to dance your dance in your costume, so of course that feels different. You're now moving, not in yoga pants or shorts or ten isshoes or socks. You're in your heels, You're in your very fancy dress. You've never done any of these steps in this way. And I made a tiny little mistake that I have never done before in our dance. I started my spin out on one count too early. And once I started a spin out one count too early, I caught up on time, but that was in my head that I had just made a mistake. And then that mistake turned into me not whipping my head at the time that I was supposed to, So then I'd made a second mistake. Then that one was in my head, and the next thing I knew, I was taking a step with the wrong foot. And of all the rehearsals, the one you don't want to go terribly is the dress rehearsal. It's like, all systems go, here's your one last chance to nail it. And it was the first one that wasn't great, and then I thought, again, is that gonna be in my head? Like am I going to be able to overcome this? That this is? I just had a bad one, and Pasha was like, let's get it out of our system, like come over here, let's practice. We practiced again. I got it and I was like, Okay, I feel pretty good. So I was super relieved that the live show. Although if I were to watch back, I'm sure I would find flow and what I did, but I was super happy that, like I didn't take a wrong step, I didn't hit something at the wrong time at least, you know, my shoulders may have been up, but everything else was pretty darn good. The amount of dances, I mean, Hilaria Baldwin's salsa is she could be a pro, Like she could easily be out there as a professional dancer. It's unbelievable. And today was Gleb's birthday, Happy Birthday, Clob, so we celebrated him. I think tomorrow is Scott's birthday, so we celebrated him as well. We have lots of birthdays. The Sunday is BRIT's birthday. We got to seeing Happy Birthday and there were some cakes and it was really nice. But yeah, I mean Ezra and Jordan, I mean starting off the night is no easy feat. I feel like their scores were definitely lower than they should have been. They got two fives, and I mean she's just spectacular, so that in performance was incredible. I am still yet to see Robert's dance, which just feels like such a shame. How have I not seen it? I heard it was amazing, I heard the feedback, I heard the scores. I'm desperate to see it. I can't wait to go home and watch the tape and see what everybody's dances look like on camera. Elaine Hendrix so inspiring, so beautiful, moves so well. I just absolutely love her. Whitney Levitt, are you kidding me? With that grace and that elegance and that long, beautiful neck. Nobody told her to keep her shoulders down because she's just so graceful. And I love that song. Choice Golden is obviously everyone's favorite song right now, so I thought that was really smart. Andy Richter his booty slapping, he's so funny. Baron Davis, his personality's got that big smile. He's dancing, he looked so great. Honestly, I'm also not I'm impressed with all of the celebrities, but what this experience has really shown me these professional dancers who take those of us who some of us have experienced, some of us don't, but they just find ways to make us shine every single week, and they take a back seat. I think the biggest compliment Pasha has ever given me is the last couple of days, while we were rehearsing, he'd be like watching video and he'd be zooming in and I'd be looking at him, like, Wow, you're really really trying to find something wrong. Huh, Like what are you looking at? And he said, oh, no, no, I'm sorry, I'm not looking at you. Right now, I actually get to dance with you, like I get to do a performance because I don't have to worry about you. He said, you're balanced, You're on your own foot. He's like, and so now I'm judging my own performance and I'm finding ways to make what I do better. And I like knowing he felt comfortable and he felt that he was able to do. That was the biggest compliment and made me so happy. I really just wanted to make him proud. Tonight, I think I did. It was a really great night my kids. I can't believe my six and my four year old were able to make it the whole two hours. I did see them plugging their ears a couple of times because boy, those confetti cannons are loud, but it was fun. They got on the floor, they were picking up confetti and tossing it. And then when they left, I said goodbye to them, and my youngest Keaton said, Mommy, two things, One I love you and two I really like your dancing, which just made my heart burst. So I can't wait to keep doing this. Next week is a double elimination, which makes me very nervous. I don't want two people to go home. I don't want one of those people to be me. I hope one of those people is not me. Tomorrow, I'm back at the rehearsal space Bright and Early Tango is in my rearview mirror. I have to let go anything I didn't nail with that one and try to tackle a new dance, which I'm very much looking forward to. We're going to do a Latin dance, so it's going to be spicy. Pasha really wants to bring out like a different side of my personality every week. So today was a little intense tango. Next week, I think we want to be a little spicy, a little hot, and we'll see, we'll see what we have in store for tonight. I am nursing some injuries. My leg is extremely swollen. My hamstring is battered, like truly battered. I am going to go home. I'm going to ice for twenty minutes. Then I'm going to take a lukewarm epsom salt bath for twenty minutes, and then I'm going to ice again for twenty minutes, and I'm going to take an ibuprofen before bed. And then tomorrow I will wake up and I will put back on my compression leggings to help with my swelling, and I will start dancing my second week dance in my compression leggings, which have become my best friend and also my mortal enemy. I feel really ready for week two. I'm excited about it. I'm ready to like wake up and be like, okay, starting from scratch, show me something else. I think We've got a couple of tricks up our sleeve. I'm mostly just hoping that my right hamstring is not a main player in next week's dance. I already know some tricks that we're going to do for next week, and it seems as though my right hamstring will get a little bit of a break, which is all I'm asking for right now. My back will not though. I think we're uh. I think we're going to incorporate another big dip. We had a big dip at the end of tonight's dance, which was really fun. I think we're going to incorporate another big dip into next week's dance too, So we'll see. Next time you hear from me, I will be sitting with the one and only Maxim Schmerkovski. I cannot wait to talk to him. He will have watched my performance. I want to hear what his thoughts are. I can't wait for him to give me some notes. Yeah, so that'll be really fun. I'm looking forward to seeing you all next time. Thank you for watching. If you've voted, thank you, Thank you so much. It's a little wonky the way the voting system works. It's only live on the East Coast, so it is live on the East Coast from eight pm to ten pm East Coast time. On the West Coast, voting is only open five to seven pm, but yet you cannot watch the show anywhere from five to seven pm, so you have to vote without seeing the dances, which is weird. It really then does just become you voting for your favorites, and maybe you're voting from their previous week's dance, and you know, it's very interesting, but that's how it works. I hope you guys voted for me. I really appreciate all your support. I have loved every single second of this. Loved doing this podcast and sharing behind the scenes stuff with you. I can't wait to do more of it as these weeks go on. Hopefully I stick around for a really long time. I don't know if you guys can tell, but I have been delivered the most gorgeous flower arrangements and I haven't had a chance to open them, so I don't even know who they're from. I haven't been able to send any thank yous. I've barely had time to respond to things on social media. Thank you so much for all the feedback on the social media too. We have been on Faija. We have been doing so many tiktoks, so many reels. I didn't know I had it in me to be to be so present in the social media world, but boy, has it ever been fun? And I give so much credit to that to Pasha because he's also a genius at that. Like, is there anything the guy can't do? Please have a flaw? Oh God, seriously, don't be so perfect all the time. All Right, thank you all for listening to this episode of Danielle with the Stars. I will see you next time with Maxim Schmerkovsky. Danielle with the Stars produced and hosted by Danielle Fischel. Executive producers Jensen Carp and Amy Sugarman, Executive in charge of production Danielle Romo, Producer, editor and engineer Tara Sudbasch. Theme song by Justin Siegel. Follow us on Instagram at Danielle with Stars and vote for me