‘DWTS’ dancer Ezra Sosa says tour might include spontaneous twerking

Professional dancer Ezra Sosa says tour gives pros a chance to show what they can do.
The tour will come to Nashville’s Opry House on March 11, 2026.
“Dancing with the Stars” is coming off it’s most successful season in 20 years.

As “Dancing with the Stars” closed out its 34th season in November of 2025 with record-breaking ratings, voter interaction the show has never seen before (some 500 million votes over the season), plus raging social media growth (109%). Next, professional dancers from the reality show are embarking on a massive 97-city tour.

In a call from a show in suburban Chicago, which was stop number 39, pro dancer Ezra Sosa teased a bit of what audiences can expect at the upcoming Nashville stop at the Opry House, which he says is very different from the televised show.

In only his second season as a pro on the TV show, Sosa and partner gymnast Jordan Chiles finished third.

“It’s super different than the show because on the show we are doing new dances every week,” Sosa said. “I think one of the things that I love most is the experience to be able to perform in front of the people that support the show. And I just love the people that support the show because I feel like there’s a huge gratitude towards them because of how big and how successful the show has been. And it just makes me wanna pull up every single night for all of them.”

Sosa said he keeps it fresh each night by approaching each dance with a different intention. After all, doing the same dances 97 times in a row could become a little too routine.

“There’s actually like a fun thing that I like to do with all of my duets on this tour,” he said. “I love giving a different intention to each dance every single night. So I’ll look at my partner and be like, ‘Okay, what’s our intention today?’ And then Brit will be like, ‘Today we’re going to serve and slay.’ It like really helps make it feel fresh and new.”

Sosa originally ‘did not want to dance with girls’

Sosa isn’t the first in his family to be on “Dancing with the Stars.” His sister Stefani Sosa was on the show as a troupe member. It was her influence from a young age that led her younger brother into dance in the first place.

The kids grew up in Provo, Utah, and joined a dance studio where many top ballroom dancers, including a number of the DWTS pros, are from.

“My sister and I are close in age, so when she started to dance, I just wanted to hang around her more,” he said. “When they asked me if I wanted to ballroom dance, at first I said no because of the cooties. I did not want to dance with girls.”

By age 13, Sosa had gotten over his fear of girls and was showing promise as a ballroom dancer and started dancing professionally. He appeared on “America’s Got Talent,” “World of Dance,” and “So You Think You Can Dance,” before landing on “Dancing” as a member of their backing troupe of dancers. He was a troupe member for three years before joining as a pro.

His first celebrity partner was con artist Anna Delvey. The pair didn’t make it past week two. But in season 34, Sosa landed Olympic powerhouse Jordan Chiles and their friendship, chemistry and fun antics landed them in third place. The duo, who became friends throughout the season, capped off the experience by getting matching tattoos.

His dream partner on the show, he said without missing a beat, would be influencer and podcaster Trisha Paytas. The two have released TikTok dances in an effort to campaign for her spot on the show.

Choreographed routines and some random twerking

Although the television show and the tour are quite different, because the pros aren’t partnered with celebrities on tour, the pro dancers did add one element of surprise to to the tour that harkens back to the element of surprise from the live show.

“We pull someone up on stage and we put them through these like series of tests essentially,” Sosa said. “It’s just really fun to see how, just like on the show, we get random people and see who can dance, who can’t dance.”

He called the moment a “nice little fun surprise” that’s different each night of the tour. He said they don’t know who they will pull from the audience. More importantly, they don’t know what the person will do.

“We’ll just pull up some random guy and he’ll just start twerking.”

‘Dancing with the Stars’ tour is all about world-class dancing

In addition to the surprise moments, Sosa said this tour is about seeing world-class dancing. On the show, the pro dancers have to choreograph routines their celebrity partners can actually do, which can rein in the pro dancers’ abilities.

“On the show, our celebrity kind of holds us back a little bit, so we’re not able to really showcase what we can do,” he said. “When we come to the tour, we really put our whole focus on world-class dancing so that, regardless of whether you’ve seen the show or not, you’re going leave the tour amazed.”

There have been many cases where Sosa has seen wives or girlfriends drag their boyfriends and husbands along, who end up “wowed,” he said.

“We hear them say ‘I never expected this from Dancing with the Stars’ and we know when we get a straight guy hooked on our little tour, that’s when we know we’re doing our job.”

The 2026 “Dancing with the Stars Tour” sashays in to Nashville’s Opry House March 11, 2026, with special guest and Tennessee native Elaine Hendrix.