Whitney Leavitt & Mark Ballas Share Their ‘Dancing with the Stars’ Freestyle After Elimination, Discuss “Really Heavy” Hate Mail
Although Whitney Leavitt and Mark Ballas didn’t make it to the Dancing with the Stars finale, that won’t keep them from strutting their stuff.
Following Wednesday’s Season 34 finale, the pair who was eliminated last week appeared on the Call Her Daddy podcast to discuss their experience on the ABC competition series and treat fans to the freestyle routine they didn’t get to perform on the finale.
“The fans are distraught because they wanted a freestyle dance. They’re like, ‘How are we not gonna see a Mark and Whitney freestyle dance? Even if they didn’t win, at least just give us that. At least let us see the dance,’” prefaced host Alex Cooper. “So, I don’t know if anyone’s noticed, but we’re currently sitting in the middle of a dance floor. And I was wondering if, Whitney and Mark, you would do us the absolute honor of performing your freestyle last dance.”
Kicking off at about 1:05:05 of the video, DWTS announcer Alan Dedicoat introduces Leavitt and Ballas as they dance to a cover of ‘I Did It My Way’, complete with a sparkly costume change, some fake blood and a metaphor for online hate.
The performance came after the pair discussed how some of the hate Leavitt has endured from The Secret Live of Mormon Wives fans, and subsequently DWTS fans, has rubbed off on Ballas, who shared a “really heavy” DM he got from someone “after one of our dances.”
“‘Are you that cheap of a c*nt to rot and do this? Damn, you’re special. You’re completely worthless. and I hope you f*cking burn in hell one day,’” he read. “That’s just one of them. And they’re relentless like that, over a dance show.”
Ballas continued, “I think also the thing is it’s like, I think there’s a narrative of like well you wanted to be in the entertainment industry you signed up for this. … I signed up to dance, to choreograph, to make music, to be on stage, to entertain people, to bring happiness, to bring joy.”
Leavitt admitted that she’s “definitely become a little bit more desensitized” to the online hate, adding: “Because I’ve experienced it for years. But I think like what was a little bit triggering was watching someone experience that for the first time for something for what? Like it just it made no sense to me. And then I also at times felt like it was my fault because I was like, ‘Oh, like maybe it’s because of me, maybe it’s because he’s partnered with me.’ So then it felt like my fault. Like it was just like a roller coaster of emotions during that time.”
