As one of Dancing With The Stars longest-standing pro dancers, Witney Carson has been part of the series for over a decade and after launching her new fitness app Finesse, has made more of a mark than many. Witney, who joined Dancing With The Stars at just 20 years old, has been competing on the show with celebrity partners almost every season since joining.
While Witney has been to the final six times since joining Dancing With The Stars in 2014, she’s only won one mirrorball trophy with partner-turned-host Alfonso Ribero in 2015. Witney’s competitive spirit has always been noticeable, and as her DWTS tenure has continued, she’s made it clear that she’s always in it to win it with her celebrity partners, no matter their skill level.
Branching out from Dancing With The Stars, Witney has competed of her own accord on So You Think You Can Dance, and has been nominated for an Emmy for her choreography in the past. In creating her new venture, Finesse, Witney took the time to speak with Screen Rant about her vision for her passion project, and shared what to expect from DWTS season 34 with Robert Irwin.
Screen Rant: Witney, congratulations on Finesse! Can you walk me what led you to create this app?
Witney Carson: Yeah, well it’s kind of been a passion project, I would say for many years, but we just didn’t really know how to kind of bring it to the world until earlier this year. We knew we wanted it to be an app, but with an in-home experience for users. For many years, we have been talking about having a curriculum, or a way to give back to the dance community for those who don’t necessarily have all the opportunities that I was given as a young girl in the dance community. I was very fortunate enough to have amazing mentors and teachers, and just really blessed in that way, and I know not a lot of not everyone gets to have those opportunities. We definitely wanted to make it affordable, and we wanted to make it accessible for everyone.
That’s where the app kind of came into play. It’s very accessible on your phone, and not a lot of people feel comfortable training – dance can be a very vulnerable experience for people, so we wanted to make sure that people felt comfortable, like they could do it at home and be able to train and learn how to dance. What I love about this app is we’ve really made it and structured it so that anybody can train. So, if you’re just never danced before, but you love dance and you want to try it out, this is for you. If you’re a dancer that really wants to like level up and learn really cool new choreography, then this is for you. We kind of make sure that we break it down really simply for beginners, and we challenge those who already have some dance experience. It’s a really cool, unique way for the dance community to come together, which I really love.
Screen Rant: Absolutely, I love that. How hands-on were you in designing all the content, considering you’re featured in, I believe, all of it.
Witney: My husband [Carson McAllister] and I, we really spearheaded the content and wanted to make sure that we had enough variety [to reach everyone]. If you didn’t want to learn how to dance, but you just love dance and want to watch it, there was enough for that user [along with those training]. We definitely wanted to make sure that there was something there for everyone.
The Mirror Me feature, I really love – because that is that’s a way to kind of take this tool and dance alongside the pros, dance alongside me, dance alongside Robert [Irwin]…and be able to post it and share it. [We can] create this community where, you know, you look at TikTok and it’s become such a phenomenon of this dance community. That’s kind of what we wanted to build there, where it’s just kind of fun, and you can follow along. Many, many hours went into this app, training, and building, and choreographing. Many late nights and lots of heart went into this app.
Screen Rant: You can definitely tell how much effort was put into it.
Witney: Thank you – I love the behind the scenes tab that we have. We wanted to make it more like a TikTok or Instagram entertainment fix, where you can go in there and watch these episodes [of a series]. There’s a series called Skill Swap on there, where I actually go and swap skills with different sorts of celebrities or people who teach me [what they do], and then vice versa. We kind of have this fun banter back and forth, and it’s just a really cool series that I love.
We also have exclusive like behind the scenes content for this season of Dancing With The Stars, which I know everyone has been loving. Robert is obviously very popular, so it’s been really fun to show the ins and outs of what we actually go through as professionals, and our team dynamic. So that’s a series I really love, as well.
Witney’s Former DWTS Partner Danny Amendola Joined Her For A Skill Swap
Screen Rant: You mentioned the Skill Swap series – is there a skill you’ve tried so far that you found the most fun to test out?
Witney: The skill swap with [former DWTS partner Danny Amendola] was really, really fun. [laughs] I had actually never really taken a deep dive in football at all, and I just respect the sport so much more now. I mean, I think people know it’s very physical, but it is…I mean, I almost threw up after doing the drills. I was like, this is so hard! I was dizzy, like those football players are athletes, no joke. They’re so skilled.
It actually was really fun. It was really fun to learn all the footwork, and all of the intricate details that they have to do. Danny was such a good sport, too – and I think he actually enjoyed it a little bit too much, putting me through the ringer [laughs] because I’ve put him through so much [on DWTS]. He got a little bit of payback [laughs]. He was such a good sport about it, and he’s been so supportive, posting about Finesse. He’s a great buddy.
Screen Rant: I do want to ask a little bit about Dancing With The Stars – obviously, you mentioned Robert earlier. He’s become quite a fan favorite, especially after last week’s dance. How do you balance choreography decisions like, you know, ripping Robert’s shirt off or things that generate buzz, against preserving that dance integrity that the judges are looking for?
Witney: Anytime I’m choreographing, I always kind of think of the balance of making sure that we create kind of a show-stopping routine, or there’s something in it that there’s kind of a wow factor, but then everything else is very much technical. I try to keep very much to the dance style. I take a lot of pride in my art and in my job. I take it very seriously, so I really try and get that balance just right and make sure it’s something that people get excited to watch, but also makes the judges happy. I’m always looking for a good balance.
I didn’t anticipate how much the shirt rip would cause that much of a commotion [laughs] I was like, well, I knew it would definitely be talked about, but the way that it’s been talked about has very much exceeded what I thought. [laughs] I don’t know if the shirt will be coming off again, but it happened and it was fun for Robert.
Witney & Robert Irwin Will Cha Cha to
DWTS Pro Witney Carson On New App Finesse & Robert Irwin Partnership
