Britt Stewart is currently competing on season 29 of "Dancing With the Stars" alongside two-time Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir and she is documenting the experience for "Good Morning America."
Ahead of the semi-finals, tonight at 8 p.m. ET on ABC, Stewart, the show's first-ever Black female pro, reflects on earning a perfect score last week and their team's mindset going into tonight's battle on the dance floor.
Here is her latest installment.
Last week was "Icons Night" and boy was it a roller coaster for Team Brijo!
Johnny and I paid homage to one of his musical icons, Amy Winehouse. We performed a quickstep to "Valerie" and earned our first PERFECT SCORE!! We got absolutely amazing feedback from the judges. Carrie Ann Inaba even said that she had never seen a quickstep like ours in 29 seasons!
After such a high, to our surprise we still ended up in the bottom 2. After getting a perfect score we truly thought that we would be safe. Thankfully, we were saved by the judges and got the chance to continue our journey to the semi-finals!
For the semi-finals we are performing two dances. Our first dance is a "redemption dance" selected by the judges. We walked into rehearsal without knowing our judge, style of dance or song! When we got into our studio we found out that our judge is Carrie Ann. Unfortunately she wasn't feeling well with the flu, so we worked with her virtually.
MORE: 'Dancing With the Stars' pro Britt Stewart on earning highest score of the season and her upcoming salsa performanceShe revealed that she wants us to redeem the salsa and dance to "X" by the Jonas Brothers and Karol G.
She gave Johnny some really great critiques and advice on how to elevate the salsa from the last time he performed it in week 6. I know Carrie Ann will be judging with a critical eye, but I am confident that Johnny will apply all of her notes and bring in a completely different -- and better executed -- salsa than the first one.
His growth and progress as a dancer will not go unnoticed with this dance!
I am very excited about our second dance. We are doing a jazz to "I Lived" by One Republic. This jazz will be uplifting, feel-good and inspirational.
This song, dance and story is one that is close to Johnny's heart. He will be sharing that retirement from public skating performances is in the near future and that the unknown can be intimidating and scary -- but also hopeful and full of possibility.
Johnny is a true inspiration in every way, and I was excited to create a performance that is all about no matter where our paths in life take us, we can run freely and intentionally knowing that possibility is abundant and very exciting.
This week was a tough one for Johnny and I. This competition is both physically and mentally demanding and draining. This week we felt both.
After Monday and being in the bottom 2, we realized that there is a lot that is out of our control in this competition. That even after earning perfect scores we weren't safe.
MORE: 'Dancing With the Stars' season 29 recap: AJ McLean sent home in shocking eliminationComing to this realization was difficult but we also decided together to release it and keep pushing forward! We needed to stay motivated and positive to make these semi-finals fantastic and memorable.
Nerves are high going into Monday! It's a double elimination and we will need all the votes that we can to make it into the finale. I believe with all my heart that Johnny is so deserving of making the finale and taking home the Mirrorball.
He has been so committed and dedicated to this process and journey. His hard work has shown in his growth and progress. He is so talented and still after 10 weeks exceeds my expectations on a daily basis. But most importantly, he is a good person with the most beautiful and kind heart.
Time to go dance our hearts out and get my guy to the finale! #TeamBrijo for the win!
