Emma Slater and Jackson Olson take ballroom to the ballpark before DWTS premiere

Dancing with the Stars professional Emma Slater and her new partner Jackson Olson have danced together in public for the first time, on the field with his baseball team.

The performance took place at Grayson Stadium in Georgia during a Savannah Bananas home game, as reported by Deadline on 12 September. Slater is paired with Olson for season 35 of the ABC dance contest. The timing is tight. The new season begins on Tuesday.

Slater and Olson danced to "Rewrite the Stars" from The Greatest Showman soundtrack. Bananas players joined them on the field in front of the home crowd. No scores. No votes. It was a showcase before the competition starts.

Olson plays second base for the Savannah Bananas. Off the field, he is a content creator known for baseball insights and tales about family, relationships and food. His Instagram account (@jacksonolson_) lists 1.1 million followers Instagram.

His move to the ballroom had been building for weeks. Knox News reported on 2 September that the Bananas player would star in the season 35 cast. He was then quizzed about Slater, Taylor Swift and the Bananas in a Page Six video interview on 4 September. Slater, a long-serving pro on the programme, now has a partner with a ready-made fan base and no previous ballroom record.

Season 35 opens with a two-night premiere on 15 and 16 September on ABC. One male celebrity and one female celebrity will be sent home after that opening, so two couples leave at once. It is the first time since 2018 that the show has started with that kind of split double elimination, where one man and one woman go out together.

For fans, this means Tuesday will test more than first-night nerves. A ballpark crowd is a warm room. A two-night cut, with an early exit for one favourite pairing, is quite another test.