“Live from Pittsburgh, it is Dancing with the Stars!” boomed the unmistakable voice of British announcer Alan Dedicoat, filling the Petersen Event Center on Sunday, Feb. 22. Then, “Everybody dance now!” blasted through the speakers, and 10 professional dancers — Val Chmerkoviskiy, Jenna Johnson, Daniella Karagach, Pasha Pashkov, Emma Slater, Alan Bersten, Brandon Armstrong, Britt Stewart, Ezra Sosa and Hailey Bills — took the stage, one-by-one introducing themselves.
DTWS Live brought the show to the stage, its professionals traveling across America to deliver the show’s high-energy performances to fans in an up-close experience. Unlike a traditional stage production such as a play, the show doesn’t demand silence, nor does it prohibit videos or photography. Yet, it also doesn’t invite the jumping-up-and-down excitement of a musical concert. DWTS Live occupies a space somewhere in between that is as polished as it is playful. The audience remains seated, but certainly not quiet.
Given the 20-year longevity of the ABC show and the wide variety of stars it features, DWTS attracts a remarkably broad audience. At the live show, this diversity was on full display, from elementary school children to senior citizens filling the arena, everyone prepared for a night of ballroom dance.
Maryann Markovic, a 63-year-old Pittsburgh native, has been attending the tour since its genesis in 2006, this time accompanied by her granddaughter. .
“I’ve been to every single one of these since the tour began,” Markovic said.
As a longtime fan, Markovic acknowledged how much DWTS has evolved over the years.
“It’s amazing how much it’s changed. Even just the costumes and the production level is all so much bigger,” Markovic said.
Brynn Kovacs, a recent University of Pittsburgh alumna , also saw the tour in 2025 at the Benedum center.
“It was a smaller venue, so a much smaller crowd,” Kovacs said. “But all the grandmas and little kids in the audience [were] the same.”
Kovacs noted a difficulty in acquiring tickets for the show in the face of its growing viewership,
“Oh, it was just as hard to get tickets [last year] too. Last year the only ones left that I could get were VIP tickets, so I got to meet the cast, which was super cool,” Kovacs said.
Now wrapping up its 34th season, DWTS is seeing an uptick in an uptick in ratings and viewership it hasn’t seen in years. The last seasons’ semifinals reached over 7 million viewers, and audience audience voting has shattered records set by the show almost a decade in the past. The cast acknowledged tThe cast acknowledged the new heights of DWTS in the tour, thanking audiences for helping the show grow into the spectacle it is today.
After acknowledgements and introductions, it was time for some ballroom. True to the nature of the show, DWTS routines cover a wide range of dancing styles and genres. The tour was no different, with costumes and choreography moving seamlessly from pop hits to 1920s flapper, from the salsa to the foxtrot and music from Marilyn Monroe to Bad Bunny.
Due to the short-sprint style of athleticism ballroom dancing requires, several routines included acting interludes that gave dancers a brief reprieve. But the energy never lagged for long, especially during some crowd-pleasing highlights. Phones shot up to record a four-person sultry routine set to a cover of Drake’s “Hotline Bling,” featuring pros Karagach, Johnson, Bills and Chmerkovskiy at the center.
When the mood shifted to romanticism, the audience followed, falling in silence to watch a dramatic cover of Taylor Swift’s “Opalite,” featuring four couples performing a precise rumba. Later, Karagach brought the energy back up. Living up to her title of “The Ferrari” — donned to her this past season by host Derek Hough — Karagach and Chmerkovskiy did a lightning-fast samba to “Hyptonitze” by Biggie Smalls.
One traditiontradition of DWTS Live is to bring a special guest star on eacheach leg of the tour, typically a popular contestant or finalist from the most recent season. For Pittsburgh, this was quarterfinalist Andy Richter, who placed in seventh.
Kathryn Porter was disappointed that internet celebrity Alix Earle performed exclusively in Earle’s hometown of New Jersey.
“My friend got to see [Alix Earle] at one of the Jersey shows. I’m so jealous,” Porter said. “I’m also sad there’s no Gleb [Savchenko] on this tour. He was my man crush.”
Other season 34 pros on the show who were not on tour include Witney Carson, Mark Ballas, Jan Ravnik and Rylee Arnold.
Richter, who made a career off of comedy and as sidekick-commentator to Conan O’Brien, fit comfortably in the co-host role of the show. With his background in entertainment, Richter brought some extra silliness to contrast the professional levels of athleticism, acting as a surrogate for the fandom with his comments about DWTS’ various showmances.
Much like the romantic spirit of ballroom dance, many of the pros are in fact in relationships with each other. The live show did not shy away from this fact as every couple got their moment. Slater and Bersten did a duet to “Ordinary” by Alex Warren and married couples Karagach and Pashkov and Johnson and Chmerkoviskiy did a four-person routine to “WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!” by Raye.
After two hours of lifts and flips, DWTS Live’s final routine was a slowed-down, group ballroom number set to a cover of “Defying Gravity” from “Wicked.” The routine moved at a gentler pace than the earlier tangos and cha-chas, but it didn’t lack magnitude. Dressed in matching emerald green, the dancers executed every step polished and synchronized. Making for a perfect finale, this final number wholly captures the essence of the show, balancing pop culture spectacle with technical mastery.