Dancing With the Stars Season 32 Finalist Calls Out Judges For Harsh Criticism: ‘My Eyes Are Rolling’
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Charity Lawson faced intense scrutiny from the judges during Season 32 of Dancing With the Stars, and she is now sharing her candid thoughts on their harsh feedback.
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While appearing on the July 8 episode of the Trading Secrets podcast, host Jason Tartick asked the former Bachelorette about the criticism she received from judges Bruno Tonioli, Carrie Ann Inaba and Derek Hough for her lack of confidence and emotion. “Yeah. Sorry, my eyes are rolling,” Lawson responded with a laugh.
Lawson agreed that the judges were “not wrong” with their feedback in the beginning, but added that as Season 32 went on, it became too much. “Obviously, the first few weeks I was like, ‘Oh, OK, they want to see more. They’re pushing me to see more,’” she recalled. “But when it got to the point where I was getting the consistent comment the whole season, I was [like], ‘Literally, what am I doing wrong?’”
The Georgia native explained that she grew up cheerleading, which focused more on technique, so she had a hard time conveying emotion during her performances. “Dance is a very vulnerable thing,” she said. “I think a lot of people don’t realize that, but if you have ever taken dance you understand that it is not just about technique … dance is different it’s coming literally from within.”
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Lawson admitted that the feedback was very “hard” on her and she left rehearsals feeling “frustrated.” She also noted that she felt people weren’t seeing the real her. “They see me as this person who’s always put together and is perfectly poised, and I’m like, ‘But that’s not me,’” Lawson explained. “People know me, but it’s like, I now have to truly let the world in. Obviously The Bachelorette, it’s an emotional journey, it’s an emotional experience. Y’all saw that. But you’re not seeing it in the way where it’s translated through dance.”
While Lawson praised her partner, Artem Chigvintsev, as both a “phenomenal” dancer and artist, she wished they had worked less on technique and more on the emotional element. “I do think there were times where I was like, ‘OK, maybe we should not focus on technique. This is the area that I really need help on. Let’s just take one whole rehearsal doing this and this alone, not just a minute and 30 seconds on it,’” she said. “That’s where I was getting frustrated and it was really tiring to kind of go through that. It became a lot on me throughout the experience.”
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Despite the harsh feedback, the pair consistently earned high scores and made it to the finals. Inaba, who had been was particularly hard on Lawson all season, then gave the couple a 9 on their seemingly flawless tango, preventing them from receiving a perfect score. “I did see something that looked like maybe it was a mistake,” the judge said. “I honestly don’t know but I have to call it in order to be fair.” Hough, on the other hand, claimed he didn’t see any mistakes and called the dance the “best dance of the night.”
The scoring mishap sparked outrage online, which both Chigvintsev and Lawson addressed. “Sorry was just reading all the comments about Charity’s dance and the mistake that she did, please let me reassure you there was no mistake in that dance and she did every step of that dance as I choreographed it,” Chigvintsev wrote on Instagram. While speaking to Us Weekly after the finale, Lawson admitted that she was a “little confused,” but was ultimately happy with her dance and fourth place finish.
“I don’t really know what the error was, but I feel really happy with that dance,” she told the outlet. “And despite that, I mean, obviously,Bruno and Derek still gave me a great score and great feedback, too. So, it’s OK. It happens.”
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