Another Dancing With the Stars alum is weighing in on the recent “lift” drama involving Carrie Ann Inaba, Jenna Johnson and Harry Shum Jr.—and he thinks the ballroom rulebook could use an update when it comes to the use of backup dancers in the routines.
In a video posted to Instagram, original DWTS pro Louis van Amstel sided with Inaba over her critique of the couple’s samba—but with a caveat.
“I’m not being diplomatic here, but Carrie Ann was right to call out that lift,” van Amstel, 54, said in the Oct. 17 video. “That was a lift. Two men assisted Harry off the floor.”
“The rules are not very specific,” he added. “This was three men lifting the guy. The rule is for a couple in the ballroom dance industry. You cannot do that. Carrie Ann is right to call it out. But, you can also blame the producers for not being clear on the rule when there is more than just a couple on the dance floor. You can also blame Jenna a little bit because she’s playing with fire. She’s poking the bear by putting in a lift, knowing that rule. But, then again, in her defense, she didn’t lift him.”
The DWTS Season 1 pro noted that the confusion with Johnson and Shum’s routine comes because Johnson technically wasn’t the person who lifted her celebrity partner. Van Amstel suggested the DWTS rulebook should be changed to clarify: “You cannot do a lift whether it’s by your partner or any extra dancer in the entire number.”
“Then, I would say that rule is waterproof,” he added.
The DWTS veteran also noted that Johnson’s husband, Val Chmerkovskiy, did a “full-on lift” with his partner Jenna Dewan in their paso doble during last week’s show but that it was overlooked by the judge.
“Carrie Ann did not call that out. That, to me, is inconsistent,” van Amstel said. “That’s been my issue. I don’t mind the ‘lift police.’ She’s right to do it, but be consistent!”
Van Amstel’s comments about the inconsistency with the lift rules were in line with those of fellow DWTS alum Maksim Chmerkovskiy, who is Johnson’s brother-in-law.
On Oct. 15, Chmerkovskiy appeared on The Viall Files podcast where he addressed Inaba’s “reading off the rulebook.”
“But then that same rulebook that’s applicable in ballroom with lifts is only applicable to a couple dancing,” Chmerkovskiy, 46, explained on the podcast. “You’re not talking about extra background dancers running out.”
“There’s no ‘three other people’ in the rulebook,” he continued. “The point is: Carrie Ann, get some consistency. A lift is a lift if a partner lifted his partner. … If you’re going to have [the] troupe run out and throw someone in the air, that’s not a lift. That’s Dancing With the Stars creative direction, and you should complain to the creative director.”
During the Oct. 13 episode of Dancing with the Stars, Inaba called out Johnson over the lift she spotted in her samba with Shum Jr., reading the definition from a paper: “A lift is any movement during which one of the dancers has both feet off the floor at the same time with the assistance or support of their partner.”
Johnson took the feedback in stride, but her husband, Val Chmerkovskiy, was not happy. The dancer posted and deleted a TikTok comment that threatened, “You almost saw Fresh Prince enter the ballroom last night.” The comment was a reference to Will Smith’s famous altercation with Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars.
Chmerkovskiy has since apologized and has been suspended from the competition for this week’s Dedication Night.
Related: DWTS Pro Brandon Armstrong Says Ciara Miller’s Scrapped Dedication Night Dance Would Have Been ‘Unbelievable’
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