Cheryl Burke: ‘DWTS’ partner Ryan Lochte is ‘prepared for the worst’
Cheryl Burke returned to “Dancing With the Stars” this summer, after a three-season break, and was welcomed back with an Olympic-sized task: Take disgraced swimmer Ryan Lochte – fresh off a disappointing performance in the pool and far-more disappointing behavior outside of it while at the Summer Games in Rio – and make America love him again.
Or at least not hate him quite so much anymore.
So far, it’s hardly been a cakewalk for the 32-year-old professional dancer. During the live season premiere on Sept. 12, as Burke and Lochte were listening to the judges’ comments after their foxtrot, two men stormed the stage in protest of Lochte’s participation on the reality show. The incident shook up the entire cast and led to increased security.
After the Week 2 performances, Lochte and Burke were the last couple to be called safe, narrowly avoiding elimination. They were called safer sooner in Week 3, this past Tuesday night, but they still notched the second-to-lowest scores for their cha-cha-cha.
But Burke – who is now in her 19th season as a professional dancer on one of ABC’s most-popular shows – has said she loves underdog stories. And she’s certainly helped write them before.
In fall 2011, she helped make over Rob Kardashian’s “not-so-great” (Burke’s words) image and turned him into a heck of a dancer; they finished second. In fall 2013, she partnered with Jack Osbourne and lifted them to a third-place finish despite a recent diagnosis of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.
Burke also made a mirrorball champion out of former NFL running back Emmitt Smith in 2006.
“I always like to have a dance partner who is going through change or controversy, because I like to be able to affect their life more than just teaching them how to dance,” says Burke, who during her hiatus from “Dancing With the Stars” created and directed a stage show in Japan called “Love on the Floor” and competed on the short-lived NBC reality show “I Can Do That.” “So with Ryan, before I met him, I was like, ‘Hopefully, he’s a great guy – because I would love to change people’s perception.’ ”
We spoke with Burke this week about her experience so far with the six-time gold-medal-winning swimmer who is still trying to recover from the fallout from his drunken encounter at a gas station in Brazil during the Summer Olympics (and who lived in Charlotte from October 2013 till Rio while training under SwimMAC Carolina’s head coach David Marsh).
Q. On Tuesday night, Ryan appeared to be incredibly relieved and almost a little shocked when Tom Bergeron (the show’s host) announced you two were safe. Is he constantly kind of preparing himself for the worst but hoping for the best?
Oh, for sure. We both think like that. He’s told me, “I always prepare myself for the worst, so that if something happens that is not that bad, I won’t be as bummed out.” And I actually have been taught that way, too, from my ballroom-dance coaches and also my mom. Maybe that’s not the right way or the most positive way to live, but I never like to feel completely defeated. And I think same with Ryan.
Q. Did you have any sort of hunch last night going into it, one way or another?
I mean, I think you saw my reaction – I almost fell to the floor. The reason why we were so relieved and happy is because we both want to be here, and Ryan’s journey just started. You can see him slowly improving, but I haven’t done what I do on this show, which is turn non-dancers into dancers. It’s only Week 4 that we’re coming into right now, and I just know that there’s still so much more I can do with him. There’s still so much more I want the world to see. We’ve only touched on it a little bit because we’ve had distractions the last couple weeks.
Q. Yeah, having had two and a half weeks to let it sink in, what are your thoughts about the incident with the protesters?
In the moment, it was scary. ... I’ve been a part of this show for so many years – for a decade of my life – and never have I experienced or has anyone experienced what happened. Never did we ever have anyone come and try and personally attack someone on the dance floor. So when that was happening, my initial reaction was I thought the producers were up to something, and in my head I was thinking, “This is too soon.” ... Then we realized it was actually happening, and it was scary in the moment. But the security team will always have our back; they’re amazing.
And I was actually more scared because Ryan, I was trying to boost his confidence up for three weeks before the premiere, and I didn’t want him to go back down. It took me awhile just to have him start kind of believing in himself. He needs to be able to build his confidence up again, and know that he’s not a bad guy. He made a mistake, he has admitted to whatever he did – let’s be done. People need to stop judging. There’s so many other problems out in the world that people need to focus on.
Q. Backing up a bit: Did you go into the partnership with any preconceived notions about Ryan?
I didn’t really know too much other than what happened in Rio. And I think in a way that helps me. I typically haven’t known know who a lot of my partners were before meeting them, whether they’ve been certain sports players or even actors, because as a kid, all I did was compete – I lived in this shell of competition and being able to do well in school at the same time. So I think that has helped me through my decade on the show, because I’m not really star-struck, or I don’t go in judging.
Q. Did you feel any extra pressure, knowing that this was probably going to be a storyline that the producers would play up a lot?
I don’t know about pressure. I was more excited. I wanted to figure out who this guy really was. ... I actually applauded Ryan for even wanting to do it in the first place, and I felt like it was just gonna be a great opportunity for him to redeem himself. He was really wanting to work and put everything behind him. I think “Dancing With the Stars” is all about second chances and redemption.
Q. So have you figured out who this guy really is?
Oh, for sure, and I think that what they show on the show is reality. The producers aren’t scripting this and telling him, “Make sure you’re goofy this week.” He is that person. After spending almost seven weeks now every single day together, I know that this is who he is: He’s charming, he’s funny, he’s down to earth, he is a mama’s boy, and he is a gentleman. He just wants to feel accepted again by everybody. ...
(His experience in Rio) made him really grow up mentally and made him realize that, you know what? Not everything is gonna be a fairy tale, or not everything’s gonna go your way, and you have to be prepared for the punches that are being thrown at you.
Q. How well do you think he’s been handling the pressure?
(After the incident with the protesters) his first thought was, “I need to get out of here. I don’t want to be a part of this. I don’t want to affect someone’s life. The show doesn’t deserve this, Cheryl doesn’t deserve this.” He didn’t want be a burden. And then when we all rallied behind him and he felt the love from the other celebs and dancers on the show, he was like, “OK, I’m gonna stay.” ... This show is really intense, and it’s every single day. You’re going out there, you’re doing something you don’t know how to do in front of millions of people on a live television show. I mean, that alone is so scary. But in a way, the fact that it’s so time-consuming has been good for Ryan because it’s distracting him from all the other stuff. Instead of reading about or Googling himself, he’s focusing on this.
And every time we get (mediocre scores) it’s making him stronger and it’s making him want to work harder. And every time that we’re out there and he is in jeopardy, in the bottom, he realizes he’s just got to step it up. This is not easy for him. He had zero dance experience. He’s supposed to be underwater, and now he’s on land.
This story was originally published September 30, 2016 at 9:36 AM with the headline "Cheryl Burke: ‘DWTS’ partner Ryan Lochte is ‘prepared for the worst’."