SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, March 12, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — If you’ve ever wanted to see the “Dancing with the Stars” ballroom brought to life right in front of your eyes, then the 73-date 2024 tour is the place for you.
The brand-new production features dazzling routines in every style, a good smattering of comedy, and in Salt Lake City, a definite rock concert vibe. That may well be because many of the popular TV show’s pro dancers received their training right here in the Beehive State. We chatted to pro Brandon Armstrong back in January, who has been part of the tour for the duration; he perfected his skills at Center Stage Performing Arts Studio in Orem, also home to not only Derek and Julianne Hough, but Jenna Johnson, Witney Carson, and Lindsay Arnold, as well as her younger sister Rylee Arnold, who is also part of this tour.
This year’s juggernaut began on Jan. 11, in Richmond, Virginia, and goes through March 27, where it will conclude in Los Angeles. It will hit 64 cities total, and made a stop at the Eccles Theater in Salt Lake City on Friday, March 8, with sold-out shows at 3:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Armstrong, who joined “DWTS” as a troupe member in season 24 in 2017 and was promoted to a pro in Season 27, is performing alongside dancers that for the Utah stop included Rylee Arnold, Daniella Karagach, Britt Stewart, Alan Bersten, Pasha Pashkov and Gleb Savchenko. They have been joined on some dates by Johnson, Val Chmerkovskiy, and Artem Chigvintsev. Pro dancer Emma Slater is hosting and reality star Harry Jowsey is also part of the show through the end of the tour.
The show my husband and I attended, which was the matinee at the Eccles, was packed to the rafters and had its fair share of folks that looked like ravishing human mirrorballs (I particularly liked the matching parent/child pairs, with kids that seemed absolutely exhilarated to see the pros in person. There was a little girl in a box house right that did not stop dancing the whole show and it was so cute.) By the time the piece began, excitement was at a fever pitch. During the first dance, a group number to “Sway (Quien Será) ” by Rosemary Clooney, a handful of audience members were seated on stage, on a set that resembled an Art Deco nightclub. Then those audience members were shown to their seats and the show began in earnest.
Amazingly, Armstrong told Gephardt Daily the pros only rehearse for two weeks or less before they head out on the road. They work with the legendary choreographer, dancer, producer, and instructor Mandy Moore, who developed all of the choreography for Taylor Swift’s acclaimed Eras Tour performances. The show, which ran a little over two hours, with one intermission, was utterly entertaining and enchanting from start to finish. There are only eight pros at a time on the tour and they worked extremely hard. As the late head judge Len Goodman would say, there was a lot of content in the dances as a whole, and a nice mix of group numbers such as the jive, waltz and salsa, along with numbers highlighting one or two of the pros at a time. The dancers have obviously worked together a great deal and there is a lovely synergy and sense of fun between them all. I also really enjoyed the song choices, particularly the mash-ups; you can listen to the whole 2024 tour play list here on Spotify.
I always particularly like watching the married pros make magic together, and in this case, I have to say that Karagach and Pashkov were standouts for me. They have been dancing together since 2009 and are seven-time United States 10-Dance Champions and Latin Champions. The dances covered in the 10-Dance are the five International ballroom (standard) dances: waltz, foxtrot, quickstep, tango and Viennese waltz, along with the five International Latin dances: rumba, samba, paso doble, cha-cha-cha and jive. Karagach began studying the Latin style at the age of six, and my gosh she is a showstopper onstage; her dancing is an incredible mixture of passion and grace, with every single move absolutely precise and intentional.
There’s also a nice balance between the dance numbers and the onstage banter and bits. The show is anchored by Slater, who has that signature dry British humor and who also has a background in theater. She is relaxed and funny, and adept at handling the improvised parts of the show, including a very amusing sequence where an audience member is plucked from the crowd and in the style of “The Dating Game,” has to select a male dancer to have a spin with. The pro dancers had obviously been brushing up on their Utah-centric content; Bersten managed to pack three Beehive State jokes into his three answers, referencing Choose the Right, green jello and Cafe Rio. Armstrong, meanwhile, deadpanned: “I can’t give you my name but I went by Elder for two years;” he did indeed serve in the Arkansas Little Rock mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He also squeezed in a BYU Cougars joke. Arnold even flashed a ‘U’ sign during curtain call. Oh, and during the evening show, Arnold’s older sister Lindsay was the audience member that came up stage, and picked Armstrong to dance with. Fun fact: Armstrong was partnered with Lindsay Arnold for competitions from the age of 15, until she joined “DWTS” at the age of 18, which is the age Rylee Arnold is now.
Slater is well matched in her laid-back comedy style by Jowsey, who I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by. The Australian reality star appeared on the Netflix show “Too Hot to Handle” and is known as a cheeky bad boy with an endless stream of offbeat quips. He was paired with Rylee Arnold on last season of “DWTS” and managed to survive week after week even though he wasn’t perhaps the most proficient dancer, eventually making it all the way through to the quarterfinals.
Jowsey seems to have absolutely no problem laughing at himself and he takes aim squarely at some of the moments from his journey that went down in “DWTS” history, including his popular team dance to “Gangnam Style.” There was a very comical section in which he and Slater performed snippets of the song in various dance styles including paso doble, samba, and “Harry’s Style,” in which he and Slater pretend to be on the bow of the Titanic dancing to South Korean singer and rapper PSY’s earworm. Jowsey also made a comedy bit out of an insult that “DWTS” guest judge Billy Porter threw his way, saying of Jowsey and Arnold: “You can loosen up a little bit and you can challenge yourself to do more steps now, and not just be a tree trunk for her to use and abuse.” The 6-feet-5-inch star swanned out at one point in the show dressed in a bedazzled brown onesie, complete with a hat with branches and birds and an extra twig for him to hold just in case you somehow missed the tree analogy.
The production values also make you feel you’re right in the heart of the ballroom, with all its glitz and glam. Most of the tour stops are just one date, so the set is extra impressive given that it is being moved every day. It resemble a retro club with tables and chairs that are well used in the dances and other set pieces that can be moved around, such as a couple of flights of steps and lampposts. The lighting features plenty of jazzy jewel colors that are atmospheric, but always with enough light to properly highlight the dancers. And “DWTS” isn’t “DWTS” without the flashy costumes, and these too did not disappoint. There were loads of quick changes (I tried to count but lost count somewhere in act two) with the dancers dressed in various sumptuous outfits with lots of bling that still allowed them to move easily.
All in all, the show was an invigorating, joyful, uplifting afternoon at the theater, and bearing in mind it was a matinee performance with another that evening, every single person onstage, including Jowsey, really gave it their all. These are not dancers that rest on their laurels, even for a second. Through March 27, there will be tour stops in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona and California. If you have the option to attend, I highly recommend it. As Len would have said, for this reporter, the show was a 10.
For more information about the “DWTS” tour, and for tickets, click here.
