Ilona Maher and partner Alan Bersten chat with THR at the 'Dancing With the Stars' premiere and dish on creating their viral TikToks for the show. Plus, Ilona gives thanks to her supporters on this journey saying, "having them is a blessing."
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00:00You guys did amazing tonight. How did it feel stepping on the ballroom dance floor right now?
00:04Honestly, more fun than I thought it was. And I think afterwards I was like, all right,
00:07let's run it back. Let's get a little more time. We are ready. Can we just one more time? Thank you.
00:13And you have a lot of people from the Olympics rooting for you. I'm really around the world
00:17on TikTok and everyone. Does that add more pressure to you when you hit the dance floor?
00:22No, because I love it. And they're the reason I'm here. So I know they would literally love
00:28if I just stood there and did like this or something. They'd vote for me, you know,
00:31so I think it just having them is a blessing. And I think it's really just
00:35going out there and doing it for them. And you received such praise from Carrie-Anne,
00:39who some people would say is probably one of the toughest judges to like,
00:43please. How did that feel for you? I honestly can't remember a lot of it.
00:48We blacked out. We blacked out because I was like, that was a...
00:52But I do remember good praise. And I think what maybe can set me apart is how I perform and like
00:58show my personality. So I hope I can show that better and then also dance better.
01:03This show is about growing and becoming a great dancer. I don't want to start too good. If we
01:08started up there, where would we go? But boring. Boring. We're working our way out. Yes. Yes. We
01:14have a plan. And speaking of getting better. So this is week one in the books. What are we going
01:20to improve on for week two? Dancing. Hips, toes, hands. Honestly, I think now that you know what
01:29it feels like to be on that stage, it's a completely different feeling. You know? Yeah,
01:33I think we're just going to actually dancing it because I know the steps. I got I just get like a
01:37little like caught up in it. But I know the steps. We've done it so many times. So I think just like
01:41trusting it and then dancing it actually because I do think I can dance. I just feel caught up
01:45sometimes. And I would say you're like the queen of TikTok right now. Have you been teaching some
01:51of the older contestants like what to do on TikTok? She's been teaching me. I'm not teaching,
01:56but like whenever I can, I love to get more people on my TikToks. And I made a really good
02:00one with Danny Amendola. I have more ideas for other people. And I think we all can use as a
02:04time to build our brands, get our names out there again. It's a great show, even a boost the show.
02:08So I think it's just fun. And Alex is a good partner. He encourages me to do it. So we're
02:12creating magic. Maybe not on the dance floor yet. Not yet. But on the phone. Check out the TikTok if
02:19you want to see magic. Check out the TikTok if you want to see the real magic.