Dancing With the Stars pro Alan Bersten is so superstitious that he needs to wear one very specific piece of clothing for each live performance.
“I wear the same underwear every show,” Bersten, 31, said during the Saturday, October 11, episode of Joe Vulpis’ eponymous podcast. “Obviously, they wash it, but [it’s the] same exact pair. It might be a few seasons of the exact same pair.”
Bersten went on to note that the briefs he currently wears on show days are not the same ones that he sported when he won his first mirrorball trophy. (Bersten and celebrity partner Hannah Brown came victorious during 2019’s season 28.)
“‘Cause those would be old,” he joked on Saturday’s episode. “I am a creature of habit, but I’m very superstitious.”
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Bersten’s pre-show superstitions extend well beyond rewearing even the most intimate articles of clothing, too.
“I listen to the same song every time I go to the studio, like, every Tuesday,” he said. “I only listen to this song. You won’t know what it is. It’s, like, very off-brand for me. I do it every season [with] a different song. One season was ‘All the Way Up’ by Fat Joe, like, random. There was one season I did ‘Chop Suey.’ Every season I have one.”
Bersten is currently partnered with Parent Trap actress Elaine Hendrix, and are consistently scoring in the middle of the leaderboard.
“We’re gonna take the notes of the judges and make sure to work on that connection, because we do have such a great connection,” Bersten exclusively told Us Weekly after TikTok Night on September 30. “I think the tango is just such a powerful dance that we were like, let’s just nail the power for our next dance. We’re just gonna enjoy it.”
He continued, “We’re having such a great time, and Elaine’s doing such incredible dances week after week.”
At the time, Hendrix, 54, was criticized by the judges for appearing to dance independently.
“It’s an incredibly intricate dance, and that’s not an excuse. It’s just that there’s so much to think about,” Hendrix told Us late last month. “I feel like at any given moment, I’m with him, and then I got to think about my heel, and then I got to think about my shoulder. It’s juggling a lot.”
Hendrix and Bersten followed up their TikTok-inspired tango with a quickstep to the Space Mountain attraction theme song, scoring 24 out of 30.
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“I think it was somewhat of a gamble to do it because everyone else did movies or characters and this one is just a ride,” Bersten said on Saturday of paying tribute to the Disneyland attraction. “I think it turned out so well, and the gamble really paid off.”
Next, Bersten and Hendrix will perform a foxtrot to Natalie Cole’s “This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)” with the actress’ Parent Trap costar and BFF, Lisa Ann Walter.
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
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