‘Dancing With the Stars’: JoJo Siwa and Amanda Kloots Defend Previous Dance Experience Before Show

Despite their backgrounds in dance, JoJo Siwa and Amanda Kloots don’t expect their Dancing With the Stars experience to be a cakewalk. A Dance Moms alum, Siwa joins Season 30 already making history by competing as the first contestant with a same-sex dance partner, and she’s well aware that the road ahead will be a much different journey than her previous reality TV experience. “My partner actually texted me and said, ‘Don’t let your dance experience get to you because there’s a lot of dancers in this season, but also it’s totally different than anything you’ve ever done,’” Siwa told Us Weekly during a press announcement. “I think for me, the best analogy that I came up with was it’s like a football player trying to play baseball or soccer or basketball. It’s truly different. It’s different muscles, it’s different styles.” Though she recognizes her dancing knowledge has potentially given her “the ability to pick up and comprehend faster” this season. 

As for The Talk’s Amanda Kloots, who has a history of dancing on Broadway, the daytime host says her known style of dance has actually offered a different learning curve for her to overcome. “Ballroom dancing and Broadway dancing — the Broadway dancing that I used to do — are honestly like English and Japanese. I am learning a completely new language,” she told Us. “I have to throw everything I know out the window, and it’s like starting from day one. I think the only thing that’s similar is the grueling rehearsals, the blisters, the sore body, the sore muscles and the want to learn and just do better. But I’m kind of throwing myself into a new boat here.”

She also mentioned that she’s “never partnered with a man on Broadway,” so dancing with her partner has already pushed her to gain a new skill. “This whole being held by a man, being led by a man is completely different. [It’s] a whole new world,” she said. Kloots comes to the show following the tragic loss of her husband, Nick Cordero, who died last year due to COVID-19 related complications. Kloots admits she wanted to join the show as a way of moving forward and re-embracing her passions. “I went through a really tough part of my life and I’m a mom. Through those two things, you kind of lose yourself a little bit. You lose who you used to be. Dancing and performing was such a huge part of my life. I left it and I started my own fitness company. And then, so much has changed since then,” she told Us. “When Dancing With the Stars called, I was like, ‘Yes,’ because I want to find that part of me again. I want to do that. It’s going to feel so good. It’ll be so cathartic and therapeutic for me. So I’m looking at it like that. I want to find myself again.”