Cheryl Burke’s ‘DWTS’ Blog: The Halfway Point

“Dancing with the Stars” professional dancer – and two-time mirrorball champion – Cheryl Burke joins AccessHollywood.com as our behind-the-scenes celebrity blogger for Season 18 of ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.”

Here is Cheryl’s latest post as she talks about moving past the switch-up and getting back on track with Drew Carey for Week 5!

It was a good time last week with James Maslow. For me, I was able to choreograph a professional tango routine for him, so it’s been a while since I’ve been able to do that. So that was actually really challenging for me just to be able to figure out the chemistry and we actually did great [Cheryl & James earned 35 points for their sexy tango].

I was a little bit nervous at the beginning. I didn’t know if it was going to be hard enough or if my routine was too easy, but he ended up doing great. He put a little bit of his taste and moves into it in the beginning and we worked really well together, so it was a fun switch up.

Back To Work With Drew

Poor Drew is exhausted. We were in Palm Beach, Fla., last week. He is back on “The Price is Right,” so he’s been doing two shows a day and so we’ve only been able to work two hours in the morning and three hours late at night, so Tuesday we did like 7 PM – midnight and then Wednesday, Thursday we did 8-10 in the morning and then 7-10 at midnight and it’s the quickstep this week, and it’s Disney week.

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He’s a little bit stressed because the quickstep is a fast dance, a longer dance this week because there’s only a few more couples left – there’s like nine or eight couples left and so he’s just got lots of steps to learn and poor guy, he’s just exhausted, so it’s really hard for him to retain information right now, but it is one of his favorite movies and songs that we’re dancing to for Disney Week. I know he’ll be great for Monday, but right now, we’re just still trying to figure everything out and on Thursday night we took his jet over to Palm Beach and then we only each got like two or three hours of sleep. On Friday, as soon as we finished rehearsal, he had to do two shows that night and two shows Saturday night, stand up.

Powering Through The Grind

For me, I’m just used to this schedule. I just go with the flow this week. It’s not even my schedule, it’s his schedule. I don’t even know how he’s doing it. He’s the hardest working man in show business and I just hope that – he came from such a strong week last week so I’m pushing him extra hard. I definitely upped the choreography and I’m challenging him.

I just wish we didn’t have quickstep this week because of his schedule, but he is mentally and physically exhausted and normally, we’re at the halfway point and everyone just naturally gets that way, but on top of his travelling schedule and shooting “The Price is Right,” he’s feeling it, he’s feeling really tired. I’m trying to stay as positive as possible. I know we’ll get through it. I know he will, he’s a performer, but right now, we’re going through the, ‘Oh my God, are we going to be able to do this type thing???’

Cheryl Burke’s ‘Price Is Right’ Cameo

— Cheryl Burke