The ‘Dancing with the Stars’ pros explain the slippery conditions behind their viral ‘Sports Illustrated Swimsuit’ runway fall in May and share why they’re grateful everyone was okay
NEED TO KNOW
- Val Chmerkovskiy says his only instinct during the viral Sports Illustrated runway fall was making sure Emma Slater didn’t get hurt
- Emma Slater reveals the slippery, rain-soaked rehearsal became so dangerous that the performance had to be stopped and filmed later
- The Dancing with the Stars pros also open up about what they love most about sharing the ballroom with their partners, Jenna Johnson and Alan Bersten
When Dancing with the Stars pros Val Chmerkovskiy and Emma Slater slipped during the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit runway show earlier this year, the unexpected moment quickly spread across social media.
But it wasn’t just the fall that went viral, fans quickly praised Chmerkovskiy’s instinctive reaction as he caught Slater before she hit the ground. In a video shared by Hello! Chmerkovskiy, 40, slipped first and took Slater, 37, down with him.
Now, two months later, the dancers are detailing exactly what went down.
“It was definitely an ego cleanse, just because, man, I was feeling myself, right?” Chmerkovskiy tells PEOPLE exclusively at Dancing with the Stars Con at Palm Desert’s Acrisure Arena on Friday. “I was the only guy performing at Sports Illustrated. I was surrounded by all of these beautiful people, and I felt like I was, you know, not intruding, but I felt like I was part of this exclusive club.”
Credit: John Parra/Getty
“I felt cool and this, and then, you know, God was like, ‘Yo, chill, chill out for a sec,’” he continues with a laugh.
Standing beside her husband, fellow DWTS pro Jenna Johnson couldn’t help but jump in before Chmerkovskiy finished his answer.
“Can I say something really quick?” she says. “It was the epitome of just an amazing partner because if you noticed, he did not let Emma hit the ground. She had no arms and he somehow, like, braced [her] to fall.”
Despite the attention the clip received online, Chmerkovskiy says his focus never shifted beyond protecting his longtime friend and dance partner.
“Again, it’s instinct. I’ve dedicated my life to this, and it’s not like I was thinking about anything outside of just reacting and making sure that she doesn’t get hurt,” he says.
While he admits the moment was difficult to relive, he says experience has given him perspective.
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“I don’t wanna say embarrassing, because again, I’m now old enough and wise enough to understand that this is all part of the game,” he explains. “Things happen.”
“I really wanted to make sure that I got to do that again and redeem myself, which I did,” he adds. “It did happen in front of everybody. There’s no such thing as pre-tape anymore, right? Because everybody’s out on their phones, and it gets broadcasted. It’s all part of it. I’m human. We’re both, we’re all human. It was raining, it was very slippery, and yeah, I’m glad everybody was okay.”
Slater says the viral clip didn’t tell the full story.
“Actually on that incident, it was the dress rehearsal,” she tells PEOPLE. “We weren’t wearing shoes because it was very hard to grip the floor. So we had no shoes and it was raining. We were dancing on perspex, it was raining. It was a perfect formula for a very, very, very slippy surface.”
She says several people had already lost their footing before she and Chmerkovskiy did.
Credit: Emma Slater/ Instagram
“What people didn’t see is there was a few slips right before,” Slater explains. “It was really hard. We had to actually stop the performance and then film it at a later point because we just couldn’t get through it.”
As for Chmerkovskiy’s reaction, she says it perfectly reflected the kind of partner he is. “Val is ever the gentleman. That’s just the most amazing partner,” she says. “He really cares for the person he’s dancing with.”
“I actually saw the replay and he caught my head before it hit the floor,” she continues. “That is so Val.”
She was especially touched by the response from viewers.
“I was really happy to see the comments of, like, ‘Wow, Val is such a supportive person,’ because he is,” Slater says. “I want people to see that.”
Chmerkovskiy and Slater’s viral moment happened during the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Runway Show in Miami Beach on May 30, when the pair slipped and fell while performing group choreography.
After clips of the fall spread across social media, Slater poked fun at the mishap on TikTok, joking that she expected to see runway photos but instead found “videos of me and Val falling onstage.” She later explained in the caption, “Plexiglass runway and Florida rain.”
Dancing with the Stars returns this fall with a two-night Season 35 premiere on Sept. 15 and 16, airing at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+.
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