{"id":1235279,"date":"2025-03-13T01:30:08","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T01:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/?p=1235279"},"modified":"2025-03-13T01:30:08","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T01:30:08","slug":"chandler-kinney-and-brandon-armstrong-on-their-dancing-with-the-stars-partnership-the-nerds-of-color","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/chandler-kinney-and-brandon-armstrong-on-their-dancing-with-the-stars-partnership-the-nerds-of-color\/","title":{"rendered":"Chandler Kinney and Brandon Armstrong on Their \u2018Dancing with the Stars\u2019 Partnership \u2013 The Nerds of Color"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n
\n

Chandler Kinney<\/a> and professional dancer Brandon Armstrong are partners on season 33 of\u00a0Dancing with the Stars. You can watch new episodes live on Tuesdays at 8 PM ET\/PT on ABC and Disney+, and stream the next day on Hulu.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n\"\"Disney\/Eric McCandless<\/div>\n

\u201cDancing with the Stars<\/strong>\u201d pairs celebrities with trained ballroom dancers to compete in themed choreographed dance routines that are judged by a panel of renowned ballroom experts, including Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli, and Derek Hough. The show is produced in front of a live audience by BBC Studios Los Angeles Productions.<\/p>\n

Over Zoom, I spoke with the duo before rehearsals about what they\u2019ve learned from each other, doing live performances, their theme night ideas, and much more. Keep reading for our full conversation!<\/p>\n

\n\"\"Disney\/Eric McCandless<\/div>\n

Chandler, which theme or dance has been the most rewarding for you\u00a0personally? And Brandon, which were you most excited to see her tackle?\u00a0<\/strong>
Chandler Kinney: <\/strong>Okay, rewarding for me personally\u2026 I think maybe the Paso Doble for week six, Disney night. One, I mean, it was so fun for obvious reasons.\u00a0I think it\u2019s such a rare opportunity that you get to a, be on Dancing with the Stars in any form,\u00a0but b, to be able to reprise a character and revamp her to introduce to a new medium and then, also dance to a song that you sang from a movie that you starred in. It felt like the stars aligned and it was just a really cool synergy moment, and I think there was also a lot of pressure put on that week. I think it was both self-inflicted,\u00a0but then also there was a lot coming from the week prior, dedication night\u00a0with some of the critiques that I had gotten in storytelling, bringing emotion to the\u00a0dance, and bringing a part of myself into the art that I create. I think I learned a lot\u00a0through that week, which honestly, personally, was one of my toughest weeks\u00a0because I felt on some level that I had something to prove, not only to people watching\u00a0but then also to myself. So many times throughout this process, I think we all relate\u00a0in having questions of like, \u2018Can I do this? What am I capable of?\u2019 And so, I think I was able to emerge from that week proud because I proved that I am capable and\u00a0I do know what I\u2019m made of, and to be able to show it to others was really fulfilling.
Brandon Armstrong:<\/strong><\/strong> I agree. I think it\u2019s just anytime that you can \u2014 the thing about the show is, I\u2019ve said this a million times, but it\u2019s all about the ups and the downs, and the\u00a0hardest part of the show is not getting up from the downs, but it\u2019s maintaining the ups. And so,\u00a0I think for us, that\u2019s something that Chandler came out and she was good, we\u2019ve been towards the top half of the leaderboard for the most part and things have been going\u00a0smooth. So then, it\u2019s really hard to maintain that for 11 weeks of the show. And so, I think\u00a0I\u2019m with her as far as Paso Doble goes, it was a moment for her to kind of stand back on her own\u00a0two feet, get your grounding back, and keep it moving forward \u2018cause <\/strong>it can\u2019t\u00a0be consistent the whole time.<\/p>\n

When it comes to your partnership, what have you learned\u00a0from each other outside of dance? Kinney: <\/strong>I\u2019ll give you one and you\u2019ll like this, I wish I could phrase it the way\u00a0that you do, but you\u2019ll know exactly what I\u2019m talking about, pushing my ceiling. That is\u00a0something that Brandon always encourages me to do. I am not a settler and I\u2019m\u00a0not a quitter, but I always give my best and then I sometimes get\u00a0discouraged when I feel like I can do better, but then it\u2019s kind of like, okay, well \u2014 this is also\u00a0coming from a recovering perfectionist, right? So this is coming from someone who used to beat herself up when it\u2019s not 110% all the time. And so, it\u2019s hard to find\u00a0that balance of what is my best and then if there is a better than that. But I think Brandon has really helped me learn that there\u2019s so much in the process of a thing and your best\u00a0on Monday may not be the best thing that you can achieve on a Friday. And so, pushing that ceiling of what you\u2019re actually capable of and what is possible for you\u00a0is possible and that\u2019s something that he has proven to me in this process, which I really\u00a0appreciate because I think it\u2019s applicable not only to dance but also to every part\u00a0of life really.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"Disney\/Christopher Willard<\/div>\n

Armstrong:<\/strong> I agree a thousand percent. Take that for free. My parents always make fun of me because I\u2019m like a 60-year-old man stuck\u00a0in a 20-year-old\u2019s body, they always say that but I just have to piggyback\u00a0on that because I think a popular mentality that we have, and she and I have talked about this is that\u00a0it\u2019s like, I am who I am and I am what I bring in this, and that\u00a0mindset is so good because it\u2019s more positive than the way that I was raised, which was always\u00a0like you were trying to conform to something or be whatever. It\u2019s impressive that\u00a0we\u2019re growing up in generations where you can be who you are, you can be authentic, and you can\u00a0stand on your own two feet. I do think that that mentality also lends itself to people not realizing their potential\u00a0though. You can be who you are on Monday, but on Tuesday, you need to be 105% of that, then on Wednesday, you need to be 110% and if you can constantly evolve\u00a0like that, by the time you are 60, 70 years old, you\u2019re pleased with the product that you\u00a0have progressed to and I think that\u2019s how we do it with dancing. We\u2019re gonna go in and run this\u00a0dance today, it\u2019s not gonna be the way that we want it on Tuesday, but it will be 100% of what we could do today. But on Tuesday, it\u2019ll be 190% of that, you\u2019ve got to constantly push yourself.<\/p>\n

What is a moment when you felt your trust in each other really build? I imagine by doing these live shows week after week, there is such a level of trust there now. <\/strong>
Armstrong:<\/strong> I can think of one big one, it was for Viennese waltz. So I, obviously, do this\u00a0for a living, I dance for a living. You could give me an hour of prep and I could go out there, fake it till I make it, and probably sell it, that\u2019s all I could do. Chandler doesn\u2019t do this\u00a0for a living. She\u2019s very good at it, she does not do this for a living. I changed probably conservatively 50% of our dance Sunday night for Viennese waltz. Realistically, my hand\u00a0to the God above, it was probably more, it was a lot. It was a huge chunk of the dance\u00a0from the first four bars to the last four bars. It was not very fair of me. But to me, it was more like I could see the product of what it was and it\u00a0wasn\u2019t what it should have been. And so, we made a little audible last minute. I made the audible\u00a0last minute, I think she kind of got drug along for it but then, I think the turnout, to me, was\u00a0worth it a million percent. So I think I developed trust in her that she has the ability to turn it\u00a0on and sell water to the ocean, and she also trusted herself more than probably she ever has\u00a0because you have to be able to just sell it, dance it. It\u2019s hard. Being prepared in this show\u00a0is not the most common thing.
Kinney: <\/strong>No, yeah, I mean, it\u2019s just something that you don\u2019t always get the\u00a0luxury of having. But you\u2019ve gotta fake it till you make it. I\u2019m glad no one knew that we changed the dance the night before. Well, mine was just kind of\u00a0just a little giggle for myself, when Brandon didn\u2019t drop me when we botched our lift in week five. What\u2019s hysterical is we both knew how bad it was because it was just\u00a0not what we had rehearsed at all but then watching it back, it did not look that bad at all. So I was like, \u2018Hey, props to Brandon. Trust that man,\u2019 because he did not\u00a0drop me and we both just trusted that we were gonna make something happen.
Armstrong:<\/strong> Something did\u00a0happen. Something was gonna happen.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"Disney\/Eric McCandless<\/div>\n

Kinney: <\/strong>But what\u2019s hysterical is we did get up to the skybox\u00a0and we were all like, tail between our legs about it and everyone else was like,\u00a0\u2018What do you mean?\u2019 We\u2019re like, \u2018The lift.\u2019 They were like, \u2018What do you mean?\u2019 We were like, \u2018It was awful!\u2019 Anyway, we\u2019ll never tell, I was gonna release what it actually was gonna be but\u00a0now I\u2019m like, I don\u2019t want people to know how different it was.
Armstrong:<\/strong> Yeah, we\u2019ll die with that one.
Kinney: <\/strong>That was the Contemporary of the dedication to my mom. Yeah, the lift was\u2026 we just did something entirely different but hey, it wasn\u2019t that bad.
Armstrong:<\/strong> Let me tell you, it wasn\u2019t what it was supposed to be, but it is what it was.
Kinney:<\/strong> So I had my trust in him\u00a0in that moment.<\/p>\n

Can you talk to me about the thrill and challenge of doing a live show? When you\u2019re rehearsaling, you get to practice and\u00a0perfect it. Chandler, especially for you as an actor,\u00a0you get to do different takes and make sure you\u2019re happy with the product but with this, you have one\u00a0chance on that stage. Tell me about that experience.
Kinney: <\/strong>Yeah, 100%. I mean, for me, you nailed it. As an\u00a0actor, I walk in knowing that I will have multiple opportunities to do what I want to do. So I don\u2019t\u00a0have to be sold on one way, you get to really try and experiment and ultimately,\u00a0get the best product. This is one go. If you stumble, if you fumble, there\u2019s no calling\u00a0cut. It is what it is what it is and so, that\u2019s terrifying. It\u2019s scary, I would\u00a0say the added pressure of it is the fact that you\u2019ve just spent like six days only working on\u00a0that 60 seconds, whereas even with acting, you\u2019re not running that same scene day after day after day after day\u00a0for hours on end. So there\u2019s almost another layer of stress and anxiety because you know how\u00a0much you\u2019ve put into that one moment and you only get the one go. So, yeah, it\u2019s terrifying.\u00a0I think the thrill of it is there\u2019s a specific magic to it that can\u2019t be replicated.\u00a0It is what it is, and that\u2019s exciting and also terrifying. So there\u2019s two sides of\u00a0the coin but yeah, I think the fact that that moment will always exist just as it is, is kind of a really beautiful thing. That\u2019s my take on it.
Armstrong:<\/strong> I agree a thousand percent.\u00a0I\u2019m like a game day kid, playing sports, growing up, whatever it may be, I love a\u00a0little pressure. I don\u2019t know, I just think people are\u00a0too comfortable nowadays. They look for the softest, easiest way around things. I\u2019m like, I just\u00a0don\u2019t want it, I want that little edge. I think it makes you perform the best and so that alone, like she\u2019s saying, on the highest scale, though, I cannot reiterate.\u00a0It\u2019s like a thousand percent of that feeling because it\u2019s one shot\u00a0and there\u2019s so many variables, even stuff that you can\u2019t control. But it\u2019s addictive. It\u2019s addictive, you start missing it, you start craving it. So I agree with her.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"Disney\/Eric McCandless<\/div>\n

Well, I learned that the two of you have already gone further\u00a0than any other Black dancing couple on the show, which is insane to me but I\u2019m so proud and you deserve it. What does that mean to you? It is a beautiful\u00a0representation moment in the fact that you can inspire many other people who see themselves\u00a0in you. <\/strong>
Armstrong:<\/strong> So look, I grew up doing\u00a0ballroom since I was 11 years old and I would go to these ballroom competitions, there\u2019s one in England\u00a0called Blackpool, it\u2019s like our world championship and there was one other Black dude at that Blackpool and there\u2019s 800 couples in one division, right? There\u2019s probably 2,000 couples there at the whole\u00a0thing and there\u2019s one Black dude and he was this guy from South Africa, and then it was me. And so, I guess I say that just because I think that it\u2019s cool, it\u2019s impressive to me, the percentage chances of me being here are slim to none, right? And so, the\u00a0fact that I am here, the fact that I am Black, I think it adds that. I think on the flip side of the coin, representation is so important, I think it\u2019s important,\u00a0however, that you\u2019re specific to what you represent and I don\u2019t necessarily\u00a0represent coming from an environment where ballroom is not obtainable or it\u2019s not accessible, and I think that\u2019s where the conversation needs to start for me as a professional that is Black on\u00a0the show. I want Black people, African American people, people of color, and everybody to look\u00a0at me and see potential. But we also have to be realistic that that potential came from being\u00a0raised in a community where I had access to ballroom dancing.<\/p>\n

The communities that a lot of\u00a0people who look like me come from do not have access to that ballroom dancing and that is\u00a0something that I\u2019m very passionate about, and I want to be very clear about because\u00a0even that conversation has been very diluted now in 2024 and with the movements and\u00a0with the this and the that, it becomes just a cloud of whatever. We gotta be specific with\u00a0what we\u2019re talking about here. I don\u2019t represent the African American kid from Crenshaw Heights, South Side Chicago, Philadelphia, or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I don\u2019t represent them.\u00a0I want to and that\u2019s why I\u2019m going to work to bring this style and this art to those communities but we gotta be realistic with what I do represent and so, I\u2019m very passionate about it and I want to be very clear about it because I would love to see\u00a0the ballroom floor look completely different than it was when I grew up but we have to do that by\u00a0going to that community.<\/p>\n

Kinney: <\/strong>Yeah, agreed. I think also, it\u2019s all-encompassing, too, do you know what I mean?\u00a0This is just a piece of the puzzle. And so, it\u2019s just important that we continue.\u00a0It\u2019s funny, we\u2019ve talked about this, and yes, it definitely is a moment of\u00a0excitement, joy, and pride and then, it\u2019s also a little frustrating and confusing that we\u2019re literally in the big year of 2024 and we are the one Black couple that has\u00a0made it the furthest in this competition in 33 seasons and 20 years. And so,\u00a0there is a lot of responsibility that comes with that and we feel that, and we are\u00a0excitedly shouldering it because we do want to represent, we understand how important that is.\u00a0But yeah, it\u2019s definitely like a big feeling. I think there\u2019s a lot wrapped up [in it].
Armstrong:<\/strong> Yeah, but if you think about it, out of 33 seasons, there\u2019s been three Black pros\u00a0on Dancing with the Stars: Keo, <\/strong>Britt, and me.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"Disney\/Eric McCandless<\/div>\n

It\u2019s a conversation that needs to be had because\u00a0we should have a lot more diversity in the ballroom.
Armstrong:<\/strong> Yeah, it\u2019s just hard because ballroom is such an expensive, expensive, expensive\u2026
Kinney: <\/strong>It\u2019s a much broader conversation.
Armstrong:<\/strong> It\u2019s a huge conversation.\u00a0I wouldn\u2019t have been able to do that if it wasn\u2019t for people donating money and\u00a0paying for my lessons. My family could not afford that. I did not grow up in the means to\u00a0be able to do this. I got very lucky.<\/p>\n

Lastly, if you two could create a themed night for the show, what would you pick and which dance style would you combine it with? <\/strong>
Armstrong:<\/strong> Okay, I think this would be cool. I think it would be fun to\u00a0do a West Coast versus East Coast music night. So West Coast music, East Coast music artists and they verse each other. I think that\u2019d be fun and the best part\u00a0about it is you would have West Coast and East Coast teams, and whichever team ends with\u00a0the highest accumulative score on the night, they win immunity, you know what\u00a0I mean? Something that\u2019s fun like that. I think that would be fun.
Kinney: <\/strong>I don\u2019t know if I\u00a0have any good answers.
Armstrong:<\/strong> My wife would say Bridgerton. She always tells me that, she always says that, string\u00a0versions of all the songs.
Kinney: <\/strong>I think that\u2019d be really cool. <\/p>\n

Armstrong:<\/strong> Isn\u2019t that sick? Dressing up as the\u00a0<\/strong>ballroom.
Kinney: <\/strong>Yeah, I like that one. Those are good ones. I think it would be so cool if we all just did like Viennese waltz too and then it\u2019s just like\u00a0an even competition because everyone\u2019s doing the exact same style.
Armstrong:<\/strong> And live orchestra, come on.
Kinney:<\/strong> Yes, that would be beautiful. Everyone in the audience is dressed to the nines, they serve tea, and crumpets in the skybox. Wait, now I\u2019m getting on board!<\/p>\n

To vote for<\/strong> Chandler and Brandon, you can text CHANDLER to 21523 or vote online here<\/a>, ten times each during the live show. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\t\t<\/p>\n

\n

Like this:<\/h3>\n

Like<\/span><\/span> Loading…<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Related<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
\nn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;
\nn.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
\nt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,
\ndocument,’script’,’https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js?v=next’);\n<\/p>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source thenerdsofcolor.org \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n


\n \u2018O artigo anterior pode incluir informa\u00e7\u00f5es divulgadas por terceiros\u2019
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Alguns detalhes deste artigo foram extra\u00eddos da seguinte fonte celebrity.land \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chandler Kinney and professional dancer Brandon Armstrong are partners on season 33 of\u00a0Dancing with the Stars. You can watch new episodes live on Tuesdays at 8 PM ET\/PT on ABC and Disney+, and stream the next day on Hulu. Disney\/Eric McCandless \u201cDancing with the Stars\u201d pairs celebrities with trained ballroom dancers to compete in themed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1235279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-estrelas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1235279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235279\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1235279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1235279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1235279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}