Ilona Maher couldn’t be happier about getting her first nine of the Dancing With the Stars season despite some confusion from judge Carrie Ann Inaba.
“First, I wasn’t sure about it because she held up an eight and then she held up a 10, and I got really confused and you couldn’t see a thing,” Maher, 28, exclusively told Us Weekly after the Tuesday, October 22, episode of the ABC competition series.
Her partner, Alan Bersten, was still wearing his donkey mask from the pair’s Disney Night routine while the scores were being announced. “I couldn’t see anything,” he teased. “But I felt the nine.”
The duo scored 25 out of 30 points for their jazz dance to “Surface Pressure” from the animated movie Encanto. Maher embodied the role of Luisa Madrigal for the performance, while Bersten, 30, and the DWTS troupe played the donkeys featured in the 2021 film’s memorable musical number.
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Inaba, 56, and fellow judges Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli reminded Maher and Bersten about balancing their mix of storytelling and dancing. Maher told Us that it was “so fun” to embrace her inner Disney character but also understood their critiques.
“Each week, we listen and try to be better, and he’s always listening,” she shared. “So, I think we’ll try to give them a lot next week whether that’s steps and choreos.”
Maher and Bersten ended the night with a total score of 34 points after scoring all nines for their A Goofy Movie group dance with Joey Graziadei and Jenna Johnson, Jenn Tran and Sasha Farber and Chandler Kinney and Brandon Armstrong. During the upbeat routine, Maher lifted Johnson, 30, into the air, which Hough, 39, said was the “best lift of the whole competition.”
Bertsen told Us he both agreed and disagreed with Hough’s comment. “The lift she did to me in the end [of our ‘Surface Pressure’ dance], of getting me on her shoulders … That’s iconic,” he stated. “Come on! But no disrespect.”
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Maher, for her part, said lifting people comes easily due to her career as a professional rugby player. “Whenever they do it in training, they’re like, ‘Oh, my God. That’s so cool.’ And I was like, ‘That’s something I always do,’” she quipped.
Bersten proceeded to praise his partner, telling Us, “She lifted Jenna with straight arms. She just plopped her up there. And that is very hard. Like, a lot of the boys can’t do that. Ilona has so much strength, and she just knows how to lift. She listens really well. She learns very well. And it’s just amazing to see that.”
Maher returned the kind words, calling Bersten “magical” and gushing about how he has made dance feel “really special” to her. “There’s never been a dance where I’m like, ‘Oh, I don’t feel good,’ or, ‘I don’t feel like I look good,’” she told Us. “Like, [he’s] always making me believe in myself and really feeling like, ‘Oh, you’re doing really well.’”
Bersten went on to call Maher “one of a kind,” adding, “She’s selfless. She tries harder than anyone I’ve ever met. She trusts me. And she just goes out there and just, it’s such a beautiful thing to see her be herself. And when Ilona is on that floor and just, and believing in herself, there’s nothing more beautiful. So it’s, it’s magical.”
The twosome advanced to next week’s Halloween Nightmares episodes. Phaedra Parks and pro dancer Val Chmerkovskiy were eliminated.
Dancing With the Stars airs simultaneously on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays on ABC at 8 p.m. ET. You can stream episodes on Disney+ the next day.
With reporting Carly Konsker
