Dancing With the Stars is bringing team dances back for season 35, restoring the group-performance format after the show went without it last season.
The returning twist will be part of Disney Night, when the eight remaining couples divide into two groups for an additional routine. Hosts Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough will also enter the action, each joining one of the teams for its performance.
Cynthia Erivo is set to appear as a guest judge during the week, adding another significant element to a night that could reshape the competition’s standings.
How the Team Scores Could Change the Competition
The group routines are more than a Disney-themed showcase. Judges will evaluate each team as a whole, with every couple on that team receiving the same score. That result will then be added to each couple’s individual-routine score, creating their combined judges’ total for the night.
According to an ABC press release, the live viewer votes cast during the show will be combined with the judges’ scores to determine who may be in danger of elimination.
However, viewers will not vote on the teams themselves. Audience votes apply only to the individual couples, even though the shared team score will become part of each couple’s overall judges’ total.
The professional dancers assigned to each group are responsible for choreographing the team numbers, just as they handle the routines performed with their regular partners.
Connor Wood and Tatyana Ali Lead the Two Teams
Connor Wood and Tatyana Ali are serving as this season’s team captains. Historically, Dancing With the Stars producers have selected captains based on the lowest-scoring celebrities, either across the competition or during a specified stretch of episodes.
The selection process includes a coin toss to decide which captain gets the first pick. From there, the captains alternate choosing from the available couples until the two groups are evenly divided.
Ali’s group, Team Slaytopia, will include Ribeiro along with Tatyana and Jan, Maura and Mark, Amber and Pasha, and Julia and Ezra.
Wood’s Team Wildcats will feature Hough alongside Connor and Rylee, Ezra and Dani, Jenna and Val, and Harry and Jenna.
The Disney Night Songs
Each team will perform to a song tied to a different Disney project.
Team Slaytopia is taking on Shakira’s “Zoo,” from the Zootopia 2 soundtrack. Team Wildcats will perform “We’re All In This Together” from High School Musical.
The choices give the two groups notably different assignments while keeping both performances within the Disney Night theme. They also put the hosts directly into the group numbers, with Ribeiro appearing as part of Team Slaytopia and Hough joining Team Wildcats.
ShowBiz Take
The revival matters because it introduces a shared result into a competition otherwise built around individual partnerships. A strong team performance can boost every couple in that group, while a weaker result can affect all four couples at once when the score is added to their individual totals.
That makes the format especially consequential with only eight couples remaining. The contestants still have to deliver in their own routines and attract live viewer support, but their positions will also be influenced by how well their larger group performs.
The team dances also expand Disney Night beyond separate couple performances. With the professional dancers jointly choreographing each number, two captains overseeing evenly divided groups and the hosts taking part, the returning format turns one portion of the competition into a full ensemble challenge.
What Happens Next?
On Disney Night, both teams will perform for the judges, including guest judge Cynthia Erivo. Their team scores will be added to the couples’ individual scores, while live viewer votes for the individual partnerships will also factor into which contestants may face elimination.
After a full season without team dances, the format’s return means the remaining couples will once again have to balance individual success with a result shared by an entire group.