The latest “Dancing With the Stars” finale was definitely one for the history books. To start with, its producers nearly put the audience into cardiac arrest when they kept the two most loved duos in the bottom two. Thankfully, this turned out to be simply a production stunt, and they kept all five of the duos. It was the first time the show saw five finalists make it to the final episode. This is also the first season to have two married pros make it to the finale: Daniella Karagach and Pasha Pashkov. This season also marked the first time the winners would be awarded with the Len Goldman Mirrorball Trophy, named after the “Dancing With the Stars” judge who had worked on the show 17 years before he announced his retirement last season, followed by his passing last April.
The episode began with a recap of the trials and tribulations each couple had to go through to get to finale night. The opening dance number ended with the five finalists on top of mirrorballs hanging from the ceiling. Then, each couple got a chance to redeem a dance that they had previously received low scores on, with Xochitl Gomez and Jason Mraz both receiving perfect scores on their revised dances.
Next, the reigning champs, Charli D’Amelio and Mark Ballas, showed the world why they won season 31 in the first place with a stunning Latin routine. Although D’amelio did have previous dance experience, none of it was in the ballroom style, which kept the competition fair.
Unexpectedly, the hosts of the show, Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough, performed a stunning routine to “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” To do this Christmas classic justice, the hosts brought back fan-favorite winners Witney Carson who won season 19 with Alfonso Ribeiro, Hanna Brown who won season 28 and Rashad Jennings who won season 24. Witney Carson is an all-time favorite in the viewers’ eyes, but made the difficult decision not to return for this season of the show to focus on herself and her family.
The second half of the finale consisted of the long-awaited freestyle dances, with each couple getting to perform a dance that had no specific style, just something that describes them. Contestant Charity Lawson put some of her past into her dance by incorporating intricate lifts and flips with the cast of Netflix’s ”Cheer,” earning a perfect score. Hitting the dance floor with a joy-filled dance that left the judges and the audience wanting more, Jason Mraz earned a perfect score along with Ariana Maddox after she executed a show stopping empowering dance to “Run the World (Girls)”. Alyson Hannigan referenced her role in “American Pie” by shouting, “This one time, at Dancing With the Stars, I made it to the finale” in her jazz and latin fusion freestyle. Finally, Xochitl Gomes paid tribute to her heritage in her mind-blowing freestyle to “Que Calor” by District 78, earning her a perfect score.
With the totals from last week’s performances combined with the totals from this week’s performances, Xochitl and Val were at the top of the leaderboard with perfect scores, leaving Alyson and Sasha at the bottom with 104 out of 120 points. Still, points are not the only thing that decides who wins the mirrorball; audience votes are also a huge factor in selecting a winner. It finally came down to Jason Mraz and Xochitl Gomez, and when the confetti rained down, Xochitl Gomez stood as the winner of season 32 of Dancing With the Stars.
What did Glenbard South think of this finale and the season as a whole? Ellen Hill, teacher and director of costumes and hair and makeup at Glenbard South, commented,“Another spectacular season of one of the best reality television competition shows out there! The best dancer definitely won the title. I was rooting for Mraz and Ariana, but Xochitl clearly outdanced the competition. My favorite moment may have been watching the hosts surprise us with not only a dance number, but a song that brought back some former winners! My least favorite moment was probably watching the finalists enter from giant, flying, disco balls during the opening number… This season was pure joy for me. It finally felt like they didn’t have several competitors with a heavy dance background, and most of the contestants started on a pretty even level. And Barry stole my heart!”.
That is all for season 32 of Dancing With the Stars, but you can catch the cast of pros on tour this upcoming year with some fan favorites from this season, like Marvel star Xochitl Gomez and Bachelorette star Charity Lawson.
