What Is ‘DWTS’ Alum Sharna Burgess Doing After Shocking Exit?

Now that Dancing with the Stars pros Sharna Burgess and Artem Chigvintsev have some extra time on their hands this fall after producers chose not to bring them back, the two have found a new outlet for their dancing skills. They both joined rival dance show So You Think You Can Dance. The two will work together to choreograph new dance routines for the Fox show.

“I’m about to head to my second rehearsal for So You Think You Can Dance because yes, I’m choreographing this week,” Burgess said in an Instagram Story post on Tuesday, reports Entertainment Tonight. “But guess what, it’s not just me. I am choreographing with Artem. We have teamed up and we are doing a routine for So You Think. I can’t tell you what it is. I can’t tell you who it’s with, but I can tell you it’s a lot of fun and that you definitely shouldn’t miss out on it.”

Both Burgess and Chigventsev have experience with the SYTYCD franchise. Before she joined the U.S. version of DWTS as a troupe member in 2011, Burgess appeared on the Australian versions of DWTS and SYTYCD.

In 2011, Chigvintsev worked as a choreographer on SYTYCD. He also appeared on Strictly Come Dancing, the original British version of DWTS, from 2010 to 2013.

Last month, Burgess and Chigvintsev, two fan-favorite dancers, were not included on the list of pro dancers for Dancing With The Stars Season 28 in the fall. It was particularly shocking to hear Burgess would not be on the show, since she won the mirror ball trophy with Bobby Bones at the end of the previous DWTS season.

“What an incredible almost 12 months of new adventures, new challenges, being outside my comfort zone and realizing the things I am capable of,” Burgess wrote on Instagram on Aug. 2. “It has been thrilling, terrifying, satisfying, soul feeding and dream making. … When I reflect I can’t help but be grateful for [DWTS] and for the opportunity it gives me to grow, learn, and create for all of you guys to make you smile, cry and laugh. To work with someone and get to show them how to share their story through dance like I’ve known my whole life. It’s beautiful, it’s a gift and I treasure it. I treasure the life DWTS has given me. A life I couldn’t have imagined in my wildest dreams.”

The decision to not include Chigvintsev in the show was also a shocker, even to him. He said he was told just five days before the list of pro dancers was announced publicly.

“It’s not even a job, it’s a lifestyle if you’ve been doing it for a very long time. There was never a thought in my mind that I’m not going to be doing it,” Chigvintsev, who is dating Nikki Bella, said on The Bellas Podcast. “There’s always a chance, as a pro, you might be doing some performances on the show and there’s still an involvement in some sort. But getting this call, [hearing] ‘There’s gonna be no involvement in the show from now on,’ it’s like going through a breakup after 10 years.”

Dancing with the Stars Season 28 starts on Sept. 16 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. The SYTYCD Season 16 finale airs on Fox the same night.

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