{"id":643797,"date":"2026-10-28T13:14:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T13:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/643797\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T13:14:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T13:14:17","slug":"maura-higgins-transforms-into-vampire-mode-and-sinks-her-teeth-into-dancing-with-the-stars-partner-during-horror-movie-night-as-they-are-judged-by-his-mum-shirley-ballas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/643797\/","title":{"rendered":"Maura Higgins transforms into ‘vampire mode’ and sinks her teeth into Dancing With The Stars partner during Horror Movie Night as they are judged by his mum Shirley Ballas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maura Higgins<\/a>\u00a0threw herself into character as she transformed into ‘vampire mode’ during Horror Movie Night on Dancing With The <\/a>Stars (DWTS) on Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Love Island star sank her teeth into partner Mark Ballas as they closed the hit competition with a powerful Contemporary inspired by The Lost Boys.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maura wowed in a blood covered white dress with spooky white contact lenses and her brunette tresses in a wet loose do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The reality star was under a lot of pressure as her professional dancer partner’s mum Shirley Ballas<\/a>, 66, was a guest judge on this week’s ABC show.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But there was no favouritism in sight as she scored the pair lower than the rest of the judging panel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The model, who performed shoeless, had her footwork critiqued by the\u00a0Queen of Latin, ‘rotate your feet a little bit more for flow,’ she said. ‘Once you get that, everything will start to flow.’<\/p>\n

\"Maura <\/p>\n

Maura Higgins threw herself into character as she transformed into ‘vampire mode’ during Horror Movie Night on Dancing With The Stars on Tuesday<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The Love Island star sunk her teeth into partner Mark Ballas as they closed the hit competition with a powerful Contemporary inspired by The Lose Boys<\/p>\n

Shirley added: ‘I like the dynamic parts where you use the height changes. You have the lifts; you go down towards the floor. It was powerful. Your arms are getting quite better.’<\/p>\n

Fellow judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli all praised Maura for\u00a0being a ‘phenomenal and magnetic performer’.<\/p>\n

Bruno said: ‘This girl, you throw a sack at her, it looks amazing. You have a fantastic lyrical quality, and you are a magnetic performer.<\/p>\n

‘Now, in Contemporary, now you have to learn to get everything from the ground through the body and really get it coming from the floor.’<\/p>\n

Derek added: ‘Maura, you are a phenomenal performer, and you made that weirdly and creepily seductive.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

The TV personality scored a seven from Shirley with eights and a nine from the fellow judges\u00a0for a total of 32 points.<\/p>\n

Maura added: ‘I\u00a0weirdly loved it.\u00a0I wish we could do this every week!’<\/p>\n

The Celebrity Traitors US star later shared a gallery of snaps to Instagram and penned: ‘Vampire mode @dancingwiththestars’.<\/p>\n

Actor Harry Shum Jr and his professional dance partner Jenna Johnson topped the leaderboard with a perfect score of 40.<\/p>\n

But it was a double elimination week which saw reality star Tyler Cameron and his partner Sharna Burgess and baseball player Jackson Olson and his dance partner Emma Slater leave the dancefloor.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Maura <\/p>\n

Maura wowed in a blood covered white dress with spooky white contact lens and her brunette tresses in a wet loose do<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The reality star was under a lot of pressure as her professional dancer partner’s mum Shirley Ballas, 66, was a guest judge on this week’s ABC show<\/p>\n

\"But <\/p>\n

But there was no favouritism in sight as she scored Maura and Mark lower than the rest of the judging panel<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The model, who performed shoeless, had her footwork critiqued by the Queen of Latin, ‘rotate your feet a little bit more for flow’, she said. ‘Once you get that, everything will start to flow’<\/p>\n

\"Fellow <\/p>\n

Fellow judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough, and Bruno Tonioli all praised Maura for being a ‘phenomenal and magnetic performer’<\/p>\n

Elsewhere on the show Shirley made her pitch to land a permanent spot on the DWTS judging panel, as she earned praise for her ‘brutal’ scoring during her guest appearance.<\/p>\n

The Queen Of Latin earned a reputation for her hard scoring on Strictly<\/a> judging panel, so it was no surprise she didn’t hold back when she appeared on the US version.<\/p>\n

American fans were stunned as Shirley opened her debut by giving actress Julia Stiles just four points for her\u00a0Argentine Tango, leaving even her co-judge Bruno Tonioli<\/a> shocked.<\/p>\n

The dancer has previously gushed it was her ‘dream’ to appear on DWTS, but has also insisted she’s ‘100%’ not leaving Strictly despite reports all four judges are planning to quit.<\/p>\n

Viewers were quick to praise Shirley for her ‘brutal’ judging methods, writing on X: ‘SHIRLEY BALLAS GAVE A 4 TO JULIA AND EZRA;’<\/p>\n

‘Okay I already think Shirley Ballas should be a permanent judge; Shirley Ballas giving a 4 on the first dance, oh mother did NOT come to play;<\/p>\n

‘Shirley loudly disagreeing with them I’m cackling; Ms Shirley is scaryyyyy she even got Derek actually critiquing;<\/p>\n

‘BUT NGL… I DID LAUGH WHEN SHIRLEY PULLED THAT 4 OUT. LIKE PEOPLE THOUGHT SHE WAS GONNA LET STUFF SLIDE. YALL THOUGHT WRONG LMAOOO;<\/p>\n

‘Obsessed with Shirley’s ominous a*s entrance. I know these pros are scared; Damn a four right off the bat. Shirley is so brutal, tonight will be interesting.’<\/p>\n

This week Shirley has brushed off rumours that she could waltz away from Strictly Come Dancing, despite landing her dream stint on DWTS.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The TV personality scored a seven from Shirley with eights and a nine from the fellow judges for a total of 32 points<\/p>\n

\"Maura <\/p>\n

Maura added: ‘I weirdly loved it. I wish we could do this every week!’<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The Celebrity Traitors US star later shared a gallery of snaps to Instagram and penned: ‘Vampire mode @dancingwiththestars’<\/p>\n

Posing on the cover of Prima<\/a> magazine for its December issue, she said: ‘I have an opportunity this year, judging for the first time on Dancing With The Stars for Halloween<\/a>.<\/p>\n

‘So I’ll do Strictly and then I’ll fly over to the US and judge that, then come back again.<\/p>\n

‘So it’s double duty this year. That was a job I’ve always wanted. It’s been on my wish list.<\/p>\n

‘I feel that Dancing With The Stars will be a slightly different audience. I think I can probably be more strict.<\/p>\n

‘It’s going to be very interesting. But I’m 100 per cent not leaving Strictly!’<\/p>\n

Just like Shirley, her Strictly co-stars Motsi Mabuse, Craig Revel Horwood and Anton Du Beke’s contracts also come to an end this year, with insiders previously warning that ‘any of them could walk away’.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2023, they angered BBC bosses by asking for an 11 per cent pay rise, and sources have recently said it is unlikely they will receive rises this time amid the corporation’s budget cuts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maura Higgins\u00a0threw herself into character as she transformed into ‘vampire mode’ during Horror Movie Night on Dancing With…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[46625,557,16811,156,315645,111,139,69,315644,437,1766],"class_list":["post-643797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-bruno-tonioli","tag-dailymail","tag-dancing-with-the-stars","tag-entertainment","tag-maura-higgins","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-shirley-ballas","tag-tv","tag-tvshowbiz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}