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The 'Dancing With the Stars' Relay Will Allow Couples to Perform Together During COVID Times

From Woman's Day

In the midst of a highly competitive season, Dancing With the Stars is shaking things up by requiring the remaining couples to perform two dances on Nov. 2 — one of which will be the show's first ever Dance Relay. Usually at this point in the season, contestants begin to perform with one another, either as a group or duo. But this year, due to COVID-19 restrictions, producers had to find another way to get them to perform together. Enter the Dance Relay. Not sure how the DWTS Dance Relay will work? Allow us to explain.

The official DWTS Instagram shared the rules of the relay dance, which are as follows:

  1. All remaining couples will be sorted into three relay groups based on dance styles they've already done.

  2. Couples within each relay group will compete against each other for bonus points

  3. Each judge will critique only one relay group and will rank those couples accordingly

  4. Bonus points for each relay dance will be awarded based on those rankings.

And if those rules have you raising an eyebrow and thinking, "huh?" don't worry, you're not alone. "Very confusing," one fan commented. "I'm going to be confused," another agreed.

Essentially what will happen during the episode is that each couple will dance a "solo" routine to a style they haven't performed yet. For example, AJ McLean and Cheryl Burke have already danced the jive, foxtrot, quickstep, cha-cha, waltz, samba, and tango during previous weeks, so each of those dance styles will be off the table.

For the dance relay, each couple will be sorted into one of three groups consisting of three couples. Each group will be assigned one judge to critique them. The groups and judges are as followed:

Samba Relay

  • Kaitlyn Bristowe and Artem Chigvintsev

  • Skai Jackson and Alan Bersten

  • McLean and Burke

  • Bruno Tonioli, Judge

Viennese Waltz Relay

  • Justina Machado and Sasha Farber

  • Johnny Weir and Britt Stewart

  • Derek Hough, Judge

(Jeannie Mai and Brandon Armstrong were slated to perform the Viennese Waltz, but Mai had to leave DWTS due to a medical condition. )

Cha Cha Relay

After each couple in the group has performed their relay dance (DWTS hasn't clarified if each couple in a group will be performing the same style), the judge assigned to them will rank the performances from best to worst. Then, each couple will get bonus points depending on how they ranked, with the team in first place receiving the most extra points and the team who placed third receiving the fewest.

To watch the first episode with relay dances, tune in to Dancing With the Stars on ABC, Monday Nov. 2 at 8 p.m. EST.


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