Kaitlyn Bristowe, 35, and Artem Chigvintsev, 38, wowed in the Dancing With the Stars ballroom in week 6 with a samba to Justin Bieber’s “Sorry.” They earned a 27 out of 30, but Carrie Ann Inaba, 52, admitted that she wasn’t “super impressed” with Kaitlyn’s performance. She thinks Kaitlyn still has “more” to give. HollywoodLife talked EXCLUSIVELY with Kaitlyn to get her reaction to Carrie Ann’s criticism.
“I feel good, but I agree with her that I could give more,” Kaitlyn told HollywoodLife. “I think that is something that even when I think back on like being a young girl dancing, I was always shy on the dance floor, which is so random because I’m not shy at all. But I think that was always some feedback I got before, like stop holding back, and my mom had told me that. Now going into this, she’s like, don’t hold back. Artem’s told me, I know it’s in you. You can do this, just step it up a little bit with the energy. I don’t know why I not doing that. But it gives me room to grow. So I totally agreed with her feedback, and it was something that we’ve been working on as a team as well.”
Kaitlyn admitted that she found the samba “the most challenging” dance so far. Every way she looked at it, week 6 was a tough week. “My whole body was sore,” she continued. “I was tired. I found the dance hard. So samba was definitely a challenge.”
Both Kaitlyn and Artem’s significant others, Jason Tartick, 32, and Nikki Bella, 36, have been supporting them every week by posting on social media to vote for the DWTS couple. HollywoodLife asked Kaitlyn and Artem about what it feels like to be getting so much love from Jason and Nikki.
“It means the absolute world because at the end of the day that’s what we’re coming home to,” Artem gushed. “I always say you can appreciate what you do if you can share it with someone… It’s just like your life feels complete, so I think it’s extremely important.”
Kaitlyn added: “It’s everything. If we did what we love to do and came home to either nobody, which is also fine or somebody that wasn’t so supportive, that would kind of take away from it. So I feel like we’re both really lucky that way.” Dancing With the Stars season 29 airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on ABC.