12 Former Dancing With The Stars Pros: Where Are They Now?
Published on April 3, 2017. Updated July 19, 2018Dancing with the Stars has been around for a very long time! The ABC reality dance competition series premiered back in 2005 and is now onto the 26th season! Over the past 12 years, we’ve seen a lot of contestants come and go, but also dancing pros! Aside from the core group of dancers, DWTS tends to have a revolving door and it’s probably because of its demanding schedule. Many pros take a short hiatus once in a while, but there’s also few who seemed to have disappeared entirely! Here’s a look back at 12 former Dancing with the Stars pros to see where they are now!
12. Edyta Sliwinska
This Polish ballroom dancer was a pro on Dancing with the Stars for the first 10 seasons of the show. During her time on the show she married fellow pro, Alec Mazo in 2007, but left the show in 2010. The DWTS couple announced they were expecting their first child and in 2014 welcomed a son, Michael. She spent most of her time away from the show raising their child, but has participated in Dancing Pros Live and has also starred in and produced Dance Temptation. After an 11 season hiatus she returned to DWTS in 2016 for season 22 and was partnered with journalist Geraldo Rivera. Unfortunately, it was a short return for her as the two were eliminated on Week 2 of the competition. She has not been back since and as of June 2017 she welcomed her second child, Leia Josephine, into the world.
Jen Lowery/SilverHub/REX/Shutterstock11. Ashly Delgrosso
Ashly Delgrosso, also commonly known as Ashly Costa, starred on the first three seasons of Dancing with the Stars, and returned for season 10 after a long hiatus. She left the show in 2006 after season 3, moved to Massachusetts with her then-boyfriend Michael Costa, a field producer for DWTS. The couple got married and welcomed their first child in 2007 and another in 2009. She returned for her fourth season in 2010 after a long hiatus and was paired with astronaut, Buzz Aldrin. The two made it to 10th place before they were eliminated. She hasn’t returned back to the show since, but instead continued growing her family with Michael. She gave birth to a daughter, Naomi, in 2011 and another son, Samuel in December 2014.
10. Chelsie Hightower
Chelsie Hightower joined the cast of Dancing with the Stars as a pro in season 8 and appeared in every consecutive season after that up until season 15 except for season 13. She did not return for season 16 and has not been seen on the competition dance show since 2011. So what has Hightower been up to since? She moved back to Utah where she practices her faith regularly and has continued to dance on the touring show, Dancing Pros Live, alongside other DWTS alumni like Edyta Sliwinski and Karina Smirnoff on Shall We Dance On Ice.
Broadimage/REX Shutterstock9. Tristan MacManus
Irish dancer Tristan MacManus appeared on Dancing with the Stars from season 13 to 17. He had first appeared on the show as part of the dance troupe in season 12 and was offered the coveted position as a pro the following season. His last season on the show was in 2013 when he was paired with Valerie Harper. The two didn’t perform well and were eliminated in Week 3. After he left the show, MacManus joined the British edition of DWTS, Strictly Come Dancing, as a professional dancer in the 12th series. In March 2016 it was confirmed that he quit the show and wouldn’t be returning for the 14th series.
PA8. Alec Mazo
Alec Mazo is the lucky Dancing with the Stars pro who won the very first season back in 2005 when he was paired with Kelly Monaco! He later competed sporadically in seasons 4, 5, 7, and 9, but hasn’t made a comeback in a long time. He also participated in four DWTS tours. During his time on the show, Mazo married fellow pro, Edyta Sliwinska, and the two welcomed their first child in January 2014. Outside of his work with DWTS, Mazo and Sliwinska made some fitness DVDs and booked a few acting gigs, but the majority of their time has been spent at their family dance studio and running their production company, Dancing Pros, Inc. They’ve also recently announced they are expecting their second child in June 2017!
7. Henry Byalikov
Henry Byalikov gained fame in America through Dancing with the Stars when he joined the Dance Troupe in 2012, prior to that he’d been on one season of Dancing with the Stars Australia. He spent four seasons in the Dance Troupe before he was promoted to a professional dancer on the show in season 18. Unfortunately this was his only season as a pro on the show. In season 19 he returned to the Dance Troupe and in 2014 and 2015 he had moved to another stage, as a performer in the musical Sway: A Dance Triology. He also starred in the musical In Your Arms in 2015 and Forever Tango. Byalikov can now be found performing in the musical Dirty Dancing. Hopefully he makes the jump back to the DWTS stage!
Ryan Miller/REX Shutterstock6. Dmitry Chaplin
This Russian, Emmy nominated choreographer appeared on three seasons of Dancing with the Stars, seasons 8, 9 and 12. He came pretty close to winning in season 9 when he placed second with his partner, Mya. We haven’t seen him on the show since 2011, and it’s mainly because he’s switched gears. Instead of focusing on dancing and choreography, he’s now getting into acting! Chaplin has made guest appearances on shows like Bones, Broken at Love, Baby Daddy, Agent X, and Manhattan Love Story. He still dances and works as a choreographer, but these days you’re more likely to catch him on-screen than on stage.
Rob Latour / Rex Features5. Julianne Hough
Even though Julianne Hough isn’t a professional dancer on DWTS, we all know what she’s been up to because she’s still on the show! She performed as a pro on five seasons of Dancing with the Stars and even won twice! Her last appearance as a pro was in 2008 when she partnered up with her then boyfriend, Chuck Wicks, but the two were eliminated in Week 8. During her time off, she still made a few guest appearances on the show to perform, but was mainly focused on building up her music career. Unfortunately, her music career never took off, but her acting career has! She’s appeared in the following films: Burlesque, Footloose, Rock of Ages, Safe Haven, Curve, Paradise and Dirty Grandpa, as well as television shows like Speechless, Nashville, and Grease: Live. In 2013, she returned to DWTS as a guest judge and in 2014 she was announced as the show’s fourth permanent judge — a role she still holds today!
Photo by Broadimage/REX/Shutterstock4. Lacey Schwimmer
The So You Think You Can Dance winner joined the cast of Dancing with the Stars in season 7 when she was paired with Lance Bass of ‘N Sync. She went on to appear on seasons 8, 9, 11, 12 and 13, but has not been seen on the show since 2011. She left the show so she could focus on her music career and open her own dance studio. She released her first official song in June 2011 called “Love Soundz” and in 2012 she was featured on the It Boys! single, “Burning Up.” There have been rumors that Schwimmer underwent plastic surgery to get breast implants and lip injections in 2012, but other than that, it’s unclear what she does now. She’s still extremely active on social media, and she also made an appearance on Lifetime’s The Pop Game.
MediaPunch/REX/Shutterstock3. Cheryl Burke
The American dancer, TV host and model has been a big part of the DWTS fame. She’s won two Mirrorball trophies and performed on 19 seasons of the show! Burke’s whereabouts are no mystery, but she’s included on this list because she’s becoming less and less active on the show, although she did participate on season 23 with Ryan Lochte and the two came in 7th place. She decided not to return for season 24 so that she could resume her live stage tour with Love on the Floor and to network for new hosting opportunities. Who knows if this fan favorite pro will ever find her way back to DWTS or not, but we’re not ready to write her off just yet!
Chelsea Lauren/REX/Shutterstock2. Louis Van Amstel
Dutch-American ballroom dance champion, Louis van Amstel, was a big part of Dancing with the Stars from the very beginning! He joined the series in season 1 and continued to appear on the show sporadically until season 21 with a total of 10 seasons under his belt. Amstel has always kept busy in between performing on DWTS. He started a not-for-profit dance company, choreographed Ballroom With A Twist and a few dances on So You Think You Can Dance, appeared on a few TV shows, and started a dance fitness program called LaBlast. In the fall 2014, Amstel appeared as a judge on the Dutch show, Celebrity Pole Dancing. He most recently made headlines in January 2017 when he married his health coach, Joshua Lancaster!
MediaPunch/REX Shutterstock1. Tony Dovolani
Tony Dovolani was part of the early success of Dancing with the Stars and is now one of the longest standing pros on the show. He joined the show in season 2 and has appeared on every season consecutively until season 22. The season 15 Mirrorball Torphy winner left the show in 2016 for personal reasons which he later revealed was because his sister was diagnosed with breast cancer, which she subsequently beat. At the time she was forced to undergo a few weeks of chemotherapy and he wanted to be by her side. Even though he’s hung up his dancing shoes for the time being, don’t write him off just yet! He recently stated he misses the show and could definitely see himself returning for another season!
Derek Storm/Everett Collection