Skai Jackson, 18, and Alan Bersten, 26, wowed with their tango during the Dancing With the Stars season 29 premiere. Their fierce performance earned them a 21 out of 30, and they tied for the highest score of the night. Even though she looked super confident, Skai told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY that she was incredibly nervous for her first dance.
“In my head was just, don’t fall,” Skai revealed. “Get through the dance, get through it, go, keep pushing. I was freaking out in my head. But like Alan said, I blacked out as well. So I don’t really remember dancing. I just remember starting and finishing.”
Alan entered the DWTS ballroom as the reigning champion after winning with Hannah Brown, 25, and he definitely feels the pressure this season. “I went on the floor, and I blacked out,” Alan admitted. “The pressure was gone. We worked so hard that it became muscle memory. But there is pressure. It feels great that I just won, but now I feel like a lot of people are going to be expecting great things. And I’m just so lucky that I’m partnered with Skai, that she can come out here and show these great things. She came out here and did an incredible tango. She came out with a split out of nowhere. I made her stretch. She doesn’t stretch.”
There is a major height difference between them — Skai is 4’1″ and Alan is 6’0″ — and it’s something they’re working on. “I feel like we work really well together, so the energy really helps that,” Alan told HollywoodLife. “But in ballroom, for example, when we’re in a frame that’s something that we have to work on. That’s the whole point of the show [is] getting better. But I’m really excited to see Skai in a Latin dance where we’re not connected the whole time.”
Alan raved that he and Skai “connected instantly.” He added, “It’s crazy that we vibe over the smallest things. We also see eye to eye on a lot of big things. So it’s a lot of fun energy in the room.” Dancing With the Stars airs Mondays on ABC.