Jan Ravnik and Jen Affleck couldn’t have picked a more fitting song for Dancing With the Stars’ Halloween Night.
Ravnik, 30, gave his Instagram followers a sneak peek from his rehearsals for the Tuesday, October 28, episode, as he and Affleck prepare to perform a contemporary dance to Taylor Swift’s clapback anthem “Look What You Made Me Do.”
In a picture posted via his Instagram Story on Monday, October 27, Ravnik bent backwards á la The Matrix, while Affleck, 26, spookily hovered above him with a hand raised over his torso. Ravnik wrote over the picture, “I’ll be the actress starring in your bad dreams,” which, of course, is a lyric from Swift’s 2017 hit.
The professional dancer’s choice of words proved particularly poignant after DWTS alum Maks Chmerkovskiy criticized his performance thus far in his inaugural season. Ravnik, who performed with Swift on her Eras Tour, joined the DWTS cast in September for season 34.
‘Dancing With the Stars’ Season 34 Halloween Night Songs Revealed
“Dancing With the Stars is a worldwide phenomenon. … I’m sorry, Jan has absolutely no business being a pro on Dancing With the Stars,” Chmerkovskiy said on the Friday, October 24, episode of his wife Peta Murgatroyd’s “The Penthouse With Peta” podcast. “There’s zero foundation technique, quality, understanding of the partnership. Bro, I’m getting emotional. It is absurd, and this is unreal how blind we have to be and God forbid say what’s obviously there.”
Chmerkovskiy, 45, critiqued Ravnik and Affleck’s foxtrot during the Wicked Night episode, claiming Ravnik had “no idea” what the dance entailed.
“How are you going to expect him to teach it and deliver that message in a format that is completely different from even ballroom dancing? We had this criticism weeks ago, and I’m like, ‘Bro, is anybody going to explain it to him?’” Chmerkovskiy said.
For her part, Murgatroyd, 39, told her husband, “He’s learning. He’s learning slowly. It’s his first season, we have to give him grace for not understanding foxtrot technique.”
However, Chmerkovskiy reiterated that he’s been unimpressed by Ravnik’s ballroom contributions so far this season. “We saw one dance that delivered some sort of direction … and then it [was] just off the cliff,” he said.
Earlier on Monday, Affleck came to her professional dance partner’s defense in a TikTok post.
Jan Ravnik Jokes ‘DWTS’ Judges Are ‘Obsessed’ With Giving Him Notes
In a video titled “Me When Anyone Talks Trash About Jan,” the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star can be seen furiously typing while Ravnik tries to calm her down. “Take it down. Take it down. Take it down. We need it gone,” Ravnik mouths along to a viral TikTok sound. “That doesn’t represent me or what we need to be doing.”
Ravnik’s fellow DWTS pro Ezra Sosa commented on Affleck’s post, sharing his support for the dancer.
“I’ll ride at dawn for this man,” Sosa wrote.
As well as performing a contemporary to “Look What You Made Me Do” with Affleck during Tuesday’s Halloween Night show, Ravnik and fellow pro Jenna Johnson will pay homage to his former Eras Tour boss with a routine set to one of Swift’s latest songs, “Cancelled!”
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
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