Stephen Nedoroscik and Rylee Arnold are sharing the story behind the Olympian’s viral mid-dance glasses moment during the Dancing With the Stars semifinals.
The DWTS partners were in the middle of their second dance of the night – the tango – when Nedoroscik, 26, accidentally knocked his glasses off his nose, resulting in the spectacles blocking his vision in one eye while lying crooked on his face.
“All season, Stephen has not worn his glasses. And that was kind of our plan throughout because when we do dance with his glasses, sometimes I bump them,” Arnold, 19, began in a video posted via TikTok on Wednesday, November 20, to which Nedoroscik added, “And there’s always that risk they fly off during a trick or something.”
But for this tango, I was like, ‘I want him to wear his glasses. Glasses are Stephen – that is who he is … We have practiced all [of our] rehearsals with his glasses on. He has never taken off his glasses to practice the tango at all in rehearsal. And no issues.”
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Noting that she could feel that her partner was “unstable” and that despite him not missing a step, Arnold knew “something was wrong,” the second-year DWTS pro explained that she realized the problem when she looked at Nedoroscik and saw that his glasses were slanted. “Right in the middle of my vision,” the gymnast said.
Nedoroscik went on to tell fans that if they watch the dance closely, they can see the moment he tried to fix them; however, he wasn’t able to do so because his glasses were “glued into” his hairspray” and they “literally could not come unstuck.”
@ryleearnold Promise me you’ll want to listen to this whole story time
so proud of you steve!!!
Arnold – who said she was weighing her options while trying to remain “professional” during the fiasco – made the ultimate decision to try to fix them, but ended up pulling them off her partner’s face completely.
“God was listening, because we were at the perfect corner of the dance floor. If it was at any other part of our dance, if I would’ve thrown them, they would’ve stayed on the ballroom floor. They would’ve been an issue,” she continued. “But it was the most perfect time because I was able to throw them, and we were able to travel and keep doing our dance.”
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After explaining the chaos behind their viral moment, Arnold told followers that she was “so proud” that her partner “did not skip a beat” in the face of adversity.
“He did not miss a step. He kept going. When I took off those glasses we kind of had a sweet moment together,” she recalled.
Nedoroscik added, “We literally looked at each other, and Rylee was smiling at me, and she gave me like a, ‘Hehe,’ and I gave her an eyebrow, like, ‘Haha!’”
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Arnold and Nedoroscik went on to advance to the finals after their two performances on Tuesday night’s show. In a shocking twist, no duos were eliminated during the semifinals, meaning all five remaining pairs will compete for the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy.
Fellow Olympian Ilona Maher and DWTS pro Alan Bersten, former Bachelor Joey Graziadei and pro Jenna Johnson, former NFL star Danny Amendola and pro Witney Carson and Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin actress Chandler Kinney and pro Brandon Armstrong are set to take the stage for the season 33 DWTS finale, which airs Thursday, December 5 on ABC at 8 p.m. ET.
