DMM DANCE WATCH · PROFESSIONAL PIPELINE · DWTS SEASON 35

Adele Zaikman Won The Next Pro. One DWTS Routine Later, the Career Test Began.

Adele Zaikman won a televised audition for one of dance television’s most visible jobs. Fifteen days later, her first celebrity partnership ended. DMM follows the career after the elimination.

By Dance Mogul Magazine | DMM Dance Watch | September 17, 2026

On August 31, Adele Zaikman won Dancing with the Stars: The Next Pro.

Fifteen days later, her first celebrity partnership on the flagship show was over.

Those two facts are close enough together to sound like a twist written for reality television. For a working dancer, they describe something less tidy: the distance between winning an opportunity and controlling what happens after you receive it.

Zaikman did what the new franchise asked. She survived a competition explicitly designed to test whether an up-and-coming dancer could handle the job of a DWTS professional. She reached the finale, partnered with Season 29 runner-up Nev Schulman, performed a samba and a freestyle, won the title and earned the Season 35 pro position.

Then Season 35 began. She and celebrity partner Conner Leavitt performed one salsa, received 12/30, and were eliminated on Premiere Night One.

The prize was a job, not a guarantee

ABC described The Next Pro as a grueling audition for one coveted place on the Season 35 professional cast. The episodes make clear that the audition was broader than technique.

The series began with jive and samba technique. It tested storytelling and connection. It put contestants into group work under time pressure. One late-season episode made the professional obligation explicit in its title: But Can You Teach? Contestants had two days to coach ballroom novices and prepare them to perform.

That episode matters now.

A DWTS professional is not hired only to execute difficult movement. The job combines dancer, teacher, choreographer, rehearsal director, strategist, emotional regulator and television collaborator. The professional has to make another person functional inside a form that may be completely unfamiliar to them.

Zaikman won after being tested across that bundle of responsibilities.

Premiere night measured the partnership, not the full professional résumé

Leavitt and Zaikman’s salsa to Tag Team’s “Whoomp! (There It Is)” earned three 4s for 12/30. The performance had energy; the judges identified a technical gap in timing, hip action and refinement. In DMM’s premiere analysis, the clearest issue was not willingness to perform. It was that the showmanship was moving faster than the underlying salsa structure could support.

That is a legitimate competition result. It is not a complete evaluation of Zaikman’s professional capacity.

The distinction is easy to miss because celebrity dance formats fuse two careers into one score. The professional may choreograph well, teach intelligently and build trust, yet the celebrity’s learning curve, public support, nerves or execution still shape whether the pair survives. Conversely, a professional can benefit from a celebrity who arrives unusually prepared.

The scoreboard belongs to the couple. The employment consequences do not land equally.

The voting failure is part of the record — not an explanation

Premiere Night One was complicated by an online-voting outage. The show directed viewers to text voting, and DMM documented the failure in its breaking-news coverage.

That fact should not be turned into a rescue narrative for Zaikman or Leavitt. There is no public evidence establishing that functioning online voting would have changed the elimination. The outage is verified. The result is verified. The counterfactual is unknowable.

Keeping those facts separate is important because the professional-dancer story does not need speculation to be meaningful.

The career question starts after the elimination graphic

Legacy recap coverage naturally moves to the remaining 14 couples. A dance publication has a different obligation.

Zaikman now has a national franchise credit that did not exist before the summer. She won a televised professional audition. She completed a season built around technique, storytelling, group work, teaching and live performance. She entered the flagship cast. She experienced the compressed reality of a celebrity partnership that ended before the usual development arc could begin.

What happens next will tell us whether The Next Pro is a casting mechanism or a career pipeline.

Why the teaching episode matters more now

The most revealing challenge in The Next Pro may not have been the finale. It may have been the week contestants were asked to teach superfans.

That assignment acknowledged something the flagship show can obscure: the celebrity’s improvement is labor performed by two people. A professional must read how another body learns, decide which correction can be absorbed today, protect enough confidence for the celebrity to attempt the correction tomorrow, and still deliver choreography that works on television by showtime.

Zaikman was tested on that job before she won it.

One salsa with one partner cannot erase the audition. It also cannot substitute for what a full season would have revealed. Both statements can be true without turning the article into advocacy.

The first winner carries a question larger than herself

Because Zaikman is the first Next Pro winner, her path will quietly define the meaning of the prize for dancers who consider the competition after her.

If the only durable reward is the title and a brief debut, the series functions mainly as television casting. If the winner enters a larger professional ecosystem—touring, choreography, teaching, recurring franchise work or another celebrity partnership—the competition begins to look like something rarer on mainstream television: a visible bridge into employment for a dancer.

That distinction cannot be settled this week.

It can only be reported over time.

On August 31, Zaikman won a job.

September 15 began the harder test: whether the job can become a career.

Reader questions

Who won Dancing with the Stars: The Next Pro?

Adele Zaikman won the first season on August 31, 2026, earning a professional spot on Dancing with the Stars Season 35.

Who was Adele Zaikman’s Season 35 celebrity partner?

Adele Zaikman was partnered with Conner Leavitt. They were eliminated on Premiere Night One after a 12/30 salsa.

What is DMM tracking about Adele Zaikman after elimination?

Whether winning The Next Pro creates durable professional opportunity beyond one celebrity partnership: touring, troupe work, choreography, teaching, recurring franchise appearances and future partnerships.

Sources & reporting

DMM separated documented biography and reported facts from its own dance analysis. Primary sources are prioritized below; outside reporting is used where it contains direct comments or judges’ feedback not available in the press release.

• ABC/Disney Television Press — Dancing with the Stars: The Next Pro overview
• ABC News / GMA — Adele Zaikman crowned The Next Pro winner
• ABC/Disney Television Press — But Can You Teach? Coaching Superfans with Witney Carson
• ABC/Disney Television Press — Season 35 two-night premiere release
• TV Insider — Premiere Night 1 scores, judges’ feedback and elimination
• Dance Mogul Magazine — Conner Leavitt & Adele Zaikman elimination / voting-failure report

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