Mark Ballas Is Back on Dancing With the Stars for Season 35
Mark Ballas is back on the dancing line-up for Dancing With the Stars season 35, and his partner is Maura Higgins. The pair met while Ballas was taking part in The Traitors, the reality game show, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which interviewed him this week.
Ballas is a professional dancer. That means he is one of the trained partners who teach each celebrity their routines, week after week, until the final performance. He is one of the best-known names on the show's team, and his history with it is long.
He danced on the show in every season from 5 to 22 in a row. He then left the line-up, and came back for season 25. Since his return, he has partnered with several celebrities. He competed in season 31 with Charli D'Amelio and in season 34 with Whitney Leavitt.
Ballas has also worked on the show's family of programmes. He served as a judge on the first season of The Next Pro, a spinoff, which means a companion series built around the same format. In that role he gave feedback to new dancers rather than performing with a celebrity.
Away from the ballroom, he has been working on stage. The Hollywood Reporter reports that Ballas and Leavitt performed together in the musical Chicago on Broadway after season 34 ended. Broadway is the main theatre district in New York City, and Chicago is one of its long-running musicals.
In the interview, Ballas also named who he would most like to dance with if he were to take part again. He chose his wife, the singer-songwriter BC Jean. He told The Hollywood Reporter that she is the celebrity he would want to partner with in a future season.
For viewers, the news is simple. Season 35 has a dancer they know from earlier series, paired with a celebrity they first met on another reality show. For the cast and crew behind the scenes, the season means the usual schedule of rehearsals, costume fittings and weekly live performances.
Dancing With the Stars is a long-running competition in which celebrities are paired with professional dancers and scored by a panel of judges, with the public voting for who stays. Each season brings a new mix of partners, and returns like Ballas's show how the cast can shift from year to year.
