Dancing with the Stars 25: Mark Ballas returning; Alan Bersten full-time pro
Let’s start with Mark, given that this fall season marks his first time dancing on the show full-time since he took a breather to do Broadway and to get married following season 22. He’s long been one of the show’s most-popular contestants, so we cannot say that we’re all that shocked to see him back now. He’s also been one of the best overall choreographers and no matter who he is paired with, there are reasons for other dancers to be concerned.
Meanwhile, with Alan this promotion is much-deserved and comes after the former So You Think You Can Dance contestant has been a part of the troupe for the past couple of years. He’s often been a fill-in performer for injured pros, mostly notably when he danced with Heather Morris after Maksim Chmerkovskiy suffered a serious injury.
Joining these two pros for the upcoming season are a familiar roster of notable names: Val and Maksim Chmerkovskiy are back to along with Peta Murgatroyd, Sharna Burgess, Gleb Savchenko, Artem Chigvintsev, Keo Motsepe, Linday Arnold, Witney Carson, and reigning champion Emma Slater. Of this group everyone still has something to prove, though personally we’d love to see people like Gleb, Artem, and Keo make it fairly far since they often are not paired with the most athletic of partners on the show. Keo in particular has been eliminated early on a number of different seasons, with one of his few bright spots in terms of performance being when he was paired up with Jodie Sweetin of Fuller House.
The celebrity partners for all of these dancers are going to be named early next month on GMA, but odds are there will be some cast leaks that come out long before then. That does tend to be often the case when it comes to this show, just because of the fact that there are so many paparazzi in Los Angeles and many people start rehearsals before the cast for the show is actually named. Right now, there are a few names that we’d be excited to see on the show, but it’s a little too early to say for sure what’s going to happen.
If you missed the announcement on the show this morning, we’ve got you covered! You can see that in its entirety below, coupled with a brief interview with Ballas where he discusses more at length his past year and why he’s so happy to be returning to the show now.
What do you think about this lineup of Dancing with the Stars 24 professionals? Share now in the comments below!
Meanwhile, be sure to head over to the link here in the event you want some additional news right now when it comes to the series. (Photo: ABC.)