Appearing on World of Dance this summer has been a game-changer for many of the acts performing on the NBC show. Even though Denys Drozdyuk and Antonina Skonina aka DNA have competed in ballroom all around the world, WOD brought something extra special to their career.
“The overall experience was very positive and artistically enriching,” Denys told Dance Dish at the World of Dance Tour finals in July. “We grew as performers so from that point of view, it was amazing.”
“We went into this show with zero expectations,” explained Antonina. “We didn’t know what it was going to be like, but we left the show with so many new friendships and new memories. It’s incredible, we joined this whole new world of dance.”
One of their biggest takeaways was the feedback and appreciation judge Derek Hough had for the work DNA was doing out there on stage. Their Qualifying round and Duel round dances were both technically very challenging.
“We took a lot of risks on the show. We did a lot of tricks, we didn’t try to do traditional ballroom because we knew from the judging criteria that it had to be skillful,” shared Antonina. “We went all out, so it was nice that Derek appreciated it.”
Their final performance on the show was in the Duel round against Luka and Jenalyn. The duo performed a gorgeous number that didn’t go as planned when Denys fell out of a tour en l’air at the beginning of the piece. Their recovery was miraculous when Antonina pulled the two of them together to seamlessly finish the piece.
“I’m not sure if it was adrenaline because I’ve never had a mistake like that — something weird happened,” said Denys.
“For me, I was so ready for this performance and it was like watching it in slow motion. I was coming from the back and I see Denys fall. I just picked him up and thought, this can’t be happening,” she said. “Everything stopped in my mind, but I knew we had to keep going. I was praying to God, let us live through this performance.”
Even though their physical recovery onstage was quick, the error sat with them for a long time after the show wrapped.
“We were depressed for months after that because it was hard,” Antonina revealed.
“You always want to do your best job,” Denys added. ”We always want to challenge our skills, especially artistically. That’s why we try more difficult things to push ourselves.”
For DNA the show goes on as they continue to perform under the World of Dance umbrella. Fans will be able to catch them in three cities in August for the World of Dance Live Tour.
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