The Bachelor’s Joey Graziadei on How ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Moves Will Spice Up His Wedding Dance (EXCLUSIVE)
Every newlywed couple brings their own style to their first dance. For Joey Graziadei, the most recent star of The Bachelor, his time on Dancing With the Stars is a crash course in ballroom technique and he exclusively told First for Women what moves he’ll surprise fiancée Kelsey Anderson with on their big day.
“I think there are a lot of moments where I can commit even more when it’s Kelsey and me!” Graziadei, 29, told First for Women after performing a sensual rumba with partner Jenna Johnson during the Tuesday, September 24 episode.
Before his performance—where he scored an 8 from Carrie Ann Inaba and 7s from Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli—Graziadei expressed his hesitation to embrace Johnson in the romantic way the rumba demands out of respect for Anderson. Dancing to “Shallow” from A Star Is Born, the tennis pro told the cameras that bringing his feelings to the dance floor would be tricky, given both his privacy with Anderson and the lack of romantic connection with Johnson.
“My emotions, when I show them, are behind closed doors with Kelsey,” Graziadei said as part of his pre-dance package. “I'm trying to find a way to act with someone I don't have a romantic relationship with.”
Graziadei’s worries eased when Johnson brought in her husband, professional dancer Val Chmerkovskiy, for a quick lesson. The training paid off—Graziadei had an amazing performance and banked new moves to try with Anderson at their wedding reception.
“The [rumba] was so close, there’s a lot of me leading which Kelsey would love for me to be doing that,” Graziadei told First for Women after the show. “There will be moments that I'll definitely try to bring into our wedding dance.”
So when is the wedding, exactly? Anderson exclusively told Woman’s World that while wedding planning is in progress she and Graziadei aren’t racing to the altar. “We rushed our engagement, and we don’t want to rush marriage, so we’re taking our time,” she revealed on September 16. “Within the next six months, I think we’ll have a date and a location … but it’s kind of on pause right now because Dancing With the Stars is a lot of work. He’s training 24/7 and is pretty tired after the training. So we just like to relax.”
Anderson’s support is evident week over week, attending the September 24 performance and stunning in a red mini dress. As her fiancé advances to the next week of competition, fans will surely be treated to more moments shared between the couple and Anderson’s votes of confidence.
And while their connection is strictly platonic, Graziadei and Johnson have quickly formed a strong bond as dance partners. “You know that feeling when you meet someone and you feel like you’ve known them for 100 years? That’s how it felt day one of meeting each other,” the season 26 winner told First for Women. “Everybody says we look like we’re related, so maybe in a past life we were actually siblings. We have similar work ethic, similar mindsets, and it’s just really easy to get along with him. I’m really grateful for this friendship and this partnership, it makes the hard work that goes into this season so much more enjoyable.”
Off-camera, Graziadei and Johnson are just as charming as they are during their live Dancing With the Stars performances, and it wouldn’t have been right by the First for Women readers if we didn’t have the Bachelor hunk comment on his now-two week streak of not wearing a shirt during competition. Graziadei admitted that going shirtless wasn’t planned for week two, but it felt like the right choice to give the audience and viewers at home a little extra skin. Until next week, we wish these two the best!
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