Dancing's Derek Hough: The Response to Bindi's Dance Is "Beautiful and Lovely"

Derek Hough, Dancing with the Stars | Photo Credits: Craig Sjodin, ABC

Hey guys!

Hope you had a good week!

Thanks for your votes and all your messages about our dance this week. It was an extraordinary experience. The whole week was incredibly emotional and just very special. It was a privilege and an honor to be able to be part of it and to help Bindi through that.

Bindi was great the whole night. It's not easy going last, especially with such a special routine. I prepared her for the package beforehand. I basically just closed her ears so she wouldn't hear it and we were making random noises. We knew it was going to be almost impossible for her to dance if she heard it. But I was watching it a little bit and my eyes were welling up with tears. I was like, "Oh, I'm fine! I'm fine!" It's extraordinary to see the response from people. It's been beautiful and lovely. I can't believe it was only three days ago. I heard that the YouTube views were already at 5 million or some crazy number, which is insane after three days!

Bindi said the most beautiful things to me afterward, things that I would feel weird repeating. They're very, very kind. She was constantly thanking me and I just want to thank her for the opportunity to help her express her feelings. She's never actually done this with anybody on a public level, talking about the grief, the heartache and heartbreak. It was a pretty big step. She was just thankful that I was there for her and we got through it together. It's funny -- we were saying how it's kind of weird that now we're apart for the switch-up. But I thought about it a little bit and it's actually great because we cried all last week together. It was really intense and emotional. We need a little break from each other!

I have Alexa for the switch-up and she's awesome. She has an amazing capacity for movement. She can truly be a great dancer. My goal with her is polishing everything. I want refinement and to make her look clean and strong. We have a pretty cool concept in mind too for our tango. It's only her second ballroom dance after her first this week, but I don't feel like she's behind or anything. She's doing great and learns quickly. I also teach differently on the show than I would in a regular class, like how to do the proper technique for the tango frame. I think we all do on some level because of the constraints of the show. For me, it works better in this setting even if it's not the proper way to teach it. You always have to adapt on the show.

Bindi is doing the cha-cha with Val. Val came up to me the other day, like, "Dude, she's good!" He was very complimentary about her. He's doing a great job with her. I saw their dance and it looks fantastic. He's very good at making partners look good and slick. Some people aren't for the switch-up, but I like it. In real life, you have multiple dance teachers, not just one, and I think it's good to have different perspectives and voices. Val might teach Bindi something I haven't yet or refine something we've been working on. Dance is a shared experience, so it's all for the better.

See you Monday!

Derek

This article, Dancing's Derek Hough: The Response to Bindi's Dance Is "Beautiful and Lovely", originally appeared on TVGuide.com.