Britt Stewart, DWTS and the Work Behind “Justice for Britt”

Dance Mogul Magazine · DMM Dance Watch · Professional Dancers · Season 35

Britt Stewart, DWTS and the Work Behind “Justice for Britt”

A new interview asks what a television elimination can and cannot tell us about the dancer responsible for building the performance. The more important story reaches beyond the Mirrorball.

October 13, 2026 · Dance Mogul Magazine · DMM Dance Analysis

There is a difference between a dancer losing a competition and a dancer failing at her profession. The distinction is essential to understanding Britt Stewart’s latest reflections on Dancing with the Stars, and it is often lost in the speed of a televised elimination.

Stewart and celebrity partner Taylor Hanson left Season 35 on September 29 after a foxtrot to the Doobie Brothers’ “What a Fool Believes.” The dance received 18 points from the judges, their best total of the season. The result ended their competitive run after three weeks. It did not measure the totality of what Stewart had taught, choreographed or built with Hanson during those weeks.

In an October 13 interview conducted by Perrie Samotin for Glamour, Stewart discusses the immediate self-doubt that followed the elimination, the audience campaign for her to receive a stronger celebrity partner, and the career that preceded her arrival as a DWTS professional. DMM’s interest is not to reproduce that interview, but to examine what it reveals about the work of dance.

The Elimination Measured a Result, Not a Career

The official Season 35 record is straightforward. Hanson and Stewart performed a foxtrot on Yacht Rock Night and were eliminated at the end of the September 29 episode. ABC News confirms the result, and ABC/Disney Television Press confirms the foxtrot assignment.

That result matters, but it answers a narrow question: which couple advanced under the show’s combination of judges’ scores and viewer voting? It does not answer whether the professional taught effectively, whether the celebrity grew, or whether the partnership might have become technically stronger in another three weeks. The individual viewer-vote totals have not been made public, so neither DMM nor anyone else can calculate how much of this particular outcome came from audience preference.

In a competition that packages an entire rehearsal week into a few broadcast minutes, the professional can be judged by a result that depends on much more than professional skill. A technically demanding routine may produce visible improvement while still failing to connect with enough voters. Conversely, a highly popular celebrity can survive while judges continue to identify technical weaknesses. Those are different forms of success, and they should not be collapsed into one score.

The Job the Camera Cannot Fully Show

A DWTS professional does not simply stand beside a celebrity and execute steps. The professional must assess the celebrity’s existing coordination, musical instincts, mobility, memory and tolerance for correction. Then comes the difficult part: turning a complex dance vocabulary into instructions the student can apply while cameras move, music plays and an audience watches.

For a foxtrot, that can mean building recognizable travel and continuity rather than relying on the star’s stage charisma. It means managing frame and partnership, guiding weight transfers, choosing how much technical content a beginner can retain, and designing choreography that looks intentional without disguising the required dance altogether. The rehearsal is a process of testing, adapting and sometimes removing ideas that will not survive live performance.

Stewart’s work with Hanson offered a particularly useful teaching case. Musicianship is not the same as ballroom competence. A musician may understand phrasing and performance pressure, yet still need to learn how a partnered dance organizes posture, footwork and movement through space. In the three scored weeks available, the pair moved from a 16-point quickstep to a 15-point cha-cha and then an 18-point foxtrot. The final score was their highest, though the brief sample does not establish what a longer trajectory would have looked like.

That is why DMM separates technical development from competition survival. A professional can make a meaningful correction, and the couple can still go home. The result is public; the total teaching process is not.

What Would a “Ringer” Actually Change?

Following Stewart’s elimination, supporters began arguing that she deserves a celebrity partner with a better chance of reaching the final. The language of a “ringer” often suggests that prior dance experience would solve the problem. The Glamour conversation is valuable because Stewart does not treat that premise as a simple guarantee.

Previous training can help with rhythm, spatial awareness, movement retention and the discipline of rehearsal. But ballroom and Latin dances demand specialized mechanics. A professional dancer from another field may need to unlearn habitual posture or weight placement, while a natural entertainer may connect with viewers despite struggling technically. The celebrity’s audience relationship remains a separate variable from what happens on the floor.

DMM has examined this distinction throughout Season 35, particularly in its analysis of whether previous dance experience creates a DWTS advantage. A celebrity who learns choreography quickly changes the professional’s teaching problem; that celebrity does not eliminate the problem. Choreography still has to be shaped for a new discipline, a new partner and the pressures of a live broadcast.

A strong future partnership for Stewart could mean a celebrity with technical promise, exceptional work ethic, musicality, a compelling public connection or some combination of those traits. There is no verified announcement about her next DWTS celebrity partner, and no reason to present a fan campaign as a producer decision.

A Career That Began Long Before the Ballroom

Stewart’s experience did not begin with television ballroom. Her career spans early training across multiple dance disciplines, commercial and screen performance, concert work and choreography. She joined the DWTS troupe in 2016 and became the program’s first Black female professional dancer in 2020. The official ABC cast biography identifies Hanson as her Season 35 celebrity partner.

Her professional background matters because it reveals a broader industry reality: commercial dancers are frequently asked to move between forms, audiences and production environments. The same artist may need to deliver concert choreography, television partnering, teaching, rehearsals and live touring. Each context demands a different kind of preparation, even when the public sees only the finished performance.

Stewart also serves as president of Share the Movement, an organization that describes its mission as supporting young BIPOC dancers through financial, educational and inspirational resources. That work belongs in the professional record. Representation is not merely being seen in a ballroom costume; it also concerns access to training, mentorship, professional opportunity and leadership.

For young dancers, the visibility of a Black woman holding a high-profile professional role can be meaningful independently of her place in a weekly ranking. It demonstrates a possible path into the field. The larger question for the industry is whether that visibility is matched by durable opportunity: training support, recurring creative assignments, credited choreography, teaching work and long-term career development.

Stewart’s marriage to Daniel Durant, her former Season 31 celebrity partner, is part of her publicly documented personal story. The professional significance of that partnership is also worth remembering: it brought attention to the communication and adaptability required when a teacher and a student work across different experiences of movement and language. DMM does not infer unverified behind-the-scenes methods from their relationship.

What DMM Will Watch Next

Stewart’s interview leaves an unusually productive set of questions. What kind of celebrity partnership would allow viewers to see more of her teaching and choreography? Will the franchise give eliminated professionals meaningful creative work in its broadcast and touring productions? How are the contributions of professional dancers credited when the public conversation centers on celebrity advancement?

The confirmed 2027 DWTS live-tour cast includes Stewart. That provides a documented professional stage beyond her Season 35 elimination, but it does not announce a new celebrity partner or guarantee a future finale. DMM will continue to distinguish verified employment and performance opportunities from speculation about the next season.

The strongest conclusion is not that one elimination was unfair; the unreleased viewer-vote totals do not permit that judgment. It is that the show’s most important labor can be difficult to see. Stewart’s story is a reminder that the professional dancer is not the accessory to the celebrity. The professional is the teacher, choreographer, performer and keeper of a craft that television has made visible to millions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why was Britt Stewart eliminated from DWTS Season 35?

Stewart and Taylor Hanson were eliminated after their September 29 foxtrot scored 18/30. The show combines judges’ scores and viewer votes, but individual vote totals were not disclosed. The precise voting contribution to their elimination is therefore not publicly established.

What is “Justice for Britt”?

It is a fan-led response to Stewart’s early elimination, with supporters arguing that her skill and contributions merit a partnership capable of reaching the final. It is not an official DWTS campaign or announced casting plan.

Is Britt Stewart returning to Dancing with the Stars?

Stewart is included in the announced 2027 live-tour cast. No future season’s celebrity pairing has been confirmed by ABC in the sources reviewed for this report.

Has Britt Stewart won a Mirrorball Trophy?

As of October 13, 2026, Stewart has not won the Mirrorball Trophy as a competing DWTS professional.

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