‘Dancing With the Stars’ Pro Witney Carson Teases What’s to Come on Season 35

After much anticipation, the Season 35 premiere of Dancing With the Stars airs tonight, Tuesday, Sept. 15, and Witney Carson is ready for the competition. While the 32-year-old professional dancer and choreographer has two Mirrorball Trophies under her belt already (courtesy of her Season 19 win alongside comedian Alfonso Ribeiro and her 2025 victory with conservationist Robert Irwin), she is vying for a third, this time with comedian Guillermo Rodriguez by her side.

We recently had the opportunity to catch up with Carson to learn all about her preparation for the ballroom, as well as what’s fueling her in between rehearsals.

Life outside of the ballroom

This time around, Carson’s experience in the ballroom will be a little bit different, as she is currently four months pregnant. She and her husband, Carson McAllister, are incredibly excited to welcome their third baby, and Carson’s pregnancy isn’t slowing her down in the slightest.

“ It’s such a blessing to be able to grow my family and to work at the same time,” Carson tells SI Lifestyle. “I love dance so much and I love the show and I love competing, so if I can do it and the baby’s healthy, then that’s what I want to do. I really think it’s important for me to not lose myself within having babies and even though they are my No. 1 priority, I still love what I do. I think that women can have both if they choose to, and I kind of just want to prove to myself this season that I’m capable of it.”

Carson is making sure to listen to her body when it comes to her workout routine these days, which, in addition to rehearsals for DWTS, consists of both strength training and Pilates. As for nutrition, she loves preparing balanced meals for her family, which makes Carson’s new Two-Step Tuesdays partnership with Campbell’s—which pairs a protein with one of the brand’s new sauces for a quick, tasty meal—a natural fit.

“It’s very much important to me that we have that family time, especially because I am so busy and I am traveling a lot and I’m not always home for dinners,” Carson says of family meal times. “It’s really important to me that I try and make that effort ... [and with] Two-Step Tuesdays, we’re really trying to encourage people to make dinner time easy and make it fun.”

What to expect on Dancing With the Stars this season

While fans of the show eagerly anticipate the Season 35 premiere of DWTS, Carson admits she too has been anxiously awaiting tonight’s premiere episode, which airs at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. She teases that in addition to Rodriguez, the cast is stacked with tons of “amazing” and “sweet” celebrities that will make voting a tough task for fans this season.

Guillermo Rodriguez and Witney Carson | Jason Howard/Bauer-Griffin/Getty Images

“It’s been really fun and really exciting to have Guillermo as a partner,” Carson says. “He’s so much fun, so kind and hilarious, so we’ve just been laughing in rehearsals. He’s getting better day by day, so that’s very encouraging as a teacher and the fact that we get to perform live is very exciting.”

She teases that in the coming weeks, fans can expect some super fun themes, “really fun surprises,” and “really, really good dancing.” And while she and her fellow professional dancers are very competitive with one another, Carson says she chooses to take the competition one week at a time rather than looking too far down the road.

“ I think with every partner it’s a different challenge, and there’s different strengths with every partner,” Carson says. “ ... That’s kind of the fun of it and that’s the beauty of the show, is different walks of life, [different] people that come into the show wanting to learn how to dance and wanting to be vulnerable and get out of their comfort zone. You get to find their strengths and weaknesses and be able to try and push them and make them into dancers. So this season, I’m really looking just to make Guillermo better each week, each day, each hour.”

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