'Dancing With the Stars': Hayley Erbert Hough makes emotional return to the ballroom as dancers deliver powerful tributes on Dedication Night
“You never know what you’re capable of until you go through something like this,” Erbert Hough said after the performance.
And then there were eight! Dancing With the Stars was an emotional roller coaster on Tuesday as contestants took to the ballroom to dedicate their performances to the people who have impacted their lives.
It was especially personal for actress Chandler Kinney, who performed a contemporary routine to Lee Ann Womack’s “I Hope You Dance” with partner Brandon Armstrong.
“I am dedicating tonight’s performance to my mom," Chandler told Yahoo Entertainment before she took the floor. “She has sacrificed so much for me just so [that] I would have a chance at pursuing my dreams.”
Describing her dance as “the purest physical manifestation of thought and feeling,” Kinney said each movement mirrored her deep bond with her mother.
“She is always there to catch me when I fall, uplift me and move through life side by side,” she said.
As judge Carrie Ann Inaba said during the show, “Dance is all about communication,” and the stars took it to heart.
Brooks Nader and partner Gleb Savchenko were sent home at the end of the night, but before that, they turned up the heat with a salsa tribute to the model’s three younger sisters — who made a fun cameo on the ballroom floor.
Family was a central theme of the evening, with Phaedra Parks delivering a heartfelt rumba dedicated to her mother, Regina, set to Celine Dion’s “Because You Loved Me” and NBA champion Dwight Howard honoring his children with his own rumba.
Joey Graziadei dazzled with his Viennese waltz, dedicated to his fiancée, Kelsey Anderson, which earned him high praise from Bruno Tonioli, who crowned him the "King of Ballroom."
Super Bowl champion Danny Amendola delivered a stirring contemporary performance dedicated to his late college football coach and mentor, Mike Leach.
Olympic gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik and partner Rylee Arnold scored their first “nine” with a powerful Argentine tango, a tribute to the pommel horse king’s U.S. men’s gymnastics team. Similarly, Olympian rugby player Ilona Maher performed a rumba dedicated to the U.S. women’s rugby team.
Perhaps the most emotional moment of the night came when judge Derek Hough and his wife, Hayley Erbert Hough, performed a dance to Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things.” The appearance marked Erbert Hough’s triumphant return to the ballroom after she was diagnosed with a cranial hematoma in December 2023.
“You never know what you’re capable of until you go through something like this,” she said after the performance.
Dancer and choreographer Jenny Oehlwein told Yahoo Entertainment that dance has the ability to release emotions people often bury deep inside.
“There is no emotion that you cannot release through movement and song,” she said. “What we don’t release energetically, we store, and it manifests physically in your body.”
For Oehlwein, Erbert Hough’s comeback was a testament to how dance often says what words cannot.
“Music makes you escape into a memory, whether it’s love, joy or anger,” Oehlwein said. “Finding that truth is what makes it the most authentic performance.”
Dancing With the Stars returns for its Disney-themed episode Tuesday, Oct. 22, on ABC at 8 p.m. ET.
How did the stars perform?
Judges: Carrie Ann Inaba, Mark Ballas (guest), Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli
Brooks Nader and pro Gleb Savchenko: Eliminated
Dance: Salsa
Song: “Mi Gente” by J Balvin and Willy William
Dedication: Her three younger sisters
Score: Carrie Ann 8, Mark 8, Derek 8, Bruno 8
Total: 32/40
Joey Graziadei and pro Jenna Johnson: Safe
Dance: Viennese waltz
Song: “Lose Control” by Teddy Swims
Dedication: His fiancée, Kelsey Anderson.
Score: Carrie Ann 9, Mark 9, Derek 9, Bruno 9
Total: 36/40
Danny Amendola and pro Witney Carson: Safe
Dance: Contemporary
Song: “Unsteady (Erich Lee Gravity Remix)” by X Ambassadors
Dedication: His late NCAA head football coach, Mike Leach.
Score: Carrie Ann 9, Mark 9, Derek 9, Bruno 9
Total: 36/40
Stephen Nedoroscik and pro Rylee Arnold: Safe
Dance: Argentine Tango
Song: Song: “Seven Nation Army” by the White Stripes
Dedication: U.S. men’s gymnastics team
Score: Carrie Ann 8, Mark 9, Derek 8, Bruno 8
Total: 33/40
Chandler Kinney and pro Brandon Armstrong: Safe
Dance: Contemporary
Song: “I Hope You Dance” by Lee Ann Womack
Dedication: Her mother
Score: Carrie Ann 8, Mark 8, Derek 8, Bruno 8
Total: 32/40
Ilona Maher and pro Alan Bersten: Safe
Dance: Rumba
Song: “My Way” by Yseult
Dedication: U.S. women’s national rugby sevens team
Score: Carrie Ann 8, Mark 8, Derek 8, Bruno 8
Total: 32/40
Jenn Tran and pro Sasha Farber: Safe
Dance: Foxtrot
Song: “The Archer” by Taylor Swift
Dedication: Taylor Swift
Score: Carrie Ann 8, Mark 8, Derek 8, Bruno 8
Total: 32/40
Phaedra Parks and pro Val Chmerkovskiy: Safe
Dance: Rumba
Song: “Because You Loved Me” by Celine Dion
Dedication: Her mother
Score: Carrie Ann 8, Mark 8, Derek 8, Bruno 8
Total: 32/40
Dwight Howard and pro Daniella Karagach: Safe
Dance: Rumba
Song: “Shoot For the Stars” by Dwight Howard
Dedication: His children
Score: Carrie Ann 7, Mark 7, Derek 8, Bruno 7
Total: 29/40
Who’s been eliminated so far?
Week 2: Anna Delvey and Tori Spelling
Week 4: Reginald VelJohnson and Eric Roberts
Week 5: Brooks Nader and Gleb Savchenko