Skai Jackson and Alan Bersten’s cha-cha to “Say So” by Doja Cat and Nicki Minaj during the Oct. 19 episode of Dancing With the Stars wasn’t their best performance of the season, but they’re not letting their mistakes get them down. They’re looking ahead to the coming weeks. HollywoodLife talked EXCLUSIVELY with Skai and Alan after the show, and they both admitted that they “blanked” during the routine.
“I mean, if we had stopped I didn’t know where I would go, so we had to keep going,” Alan said. “I want to thank Nicki Minaj for saying ‘kiki’ because it really reminded us of the next step. Because when that little blunder happened, I messed up.”
He added: “It was so strange because this never happened to us. But from this, you just got to keep moving forward. I mean, a lot of people already mentioned in Skai’s package she mentioned that you can’t let little things keep you down. You’ve got to work, and you’ve got to keep going. And that’s exactly what she did. Every performance, you got to start strong, you got to finish strong. So we did. It’s all about being together. I feel like we connected with each other. We were both a little frightened. We looked at each other and were like, you know what, we got this, and we kept going. And the rest of the routine was, in my opinion, incredible. I love that Skai was able to come out there and fight for what she knew she could do.”
Skai’s positivity is one of the many incredible things about the 18-year-old. She is wise beyond her years. Skai talked about what she was thinking during the performance after messing up. “I’ve always told myself and my fans there’s going to be things that you do in life that are really hard and that you might mess up at, but just know that you worked hard,” Skai told HollywoodLife. “And you didn’t work this hard for no reason and just keep pushing no matter what. So that’s kind of what I was thinking through that routine and through that dance. I was like, you know what, I could stop right now, but I’m going to keep going and keep pushing because I just want it so bad.”
For her latest dance, Skai rocked a blonde and pink wig. She loved the new look and always embraces whatever the DWTS creative team wants to try. “I had no say in it,” she admitted. “My hairstylist was like, we’re doing this. This is what Dancing with the Stars, the creative team, wants. I was like, okay, cool. I am so excited to do it. I love trying new looks. And that’s one thing I love about this show. Of course, I could pick what I wanted to do, but I choose not to because I love to step out of my comfort zone and try new looks every week. What the Dancing With the Stars team puts me in is just so cool. So the pink hair is different for me. I never thought I would do pink, but I like it.” Skai and Alan will be back next week for Halloween Night. DWTS airs Mondays on ABC.