It's been a longstanding rule on Dancing with the Stars that it's OK for celebrity contestants to have some prior dance experience, even on a professional level — just not ballroom dance experience. So why is Hilaria Baldwin, an already controversial star, competing this season despite having previously competed in ballroom dance competitions? That's the question many fans are asking as the competition heats up and contestants who land on the lower end of the scoring leaderboard are beginning to get voted off the show.
The debate ramped up further after fans online found old records from Hilaria's past dance competitions, including one from the 2004 Blackpool Dance Festival, known as the world's first and most famous ballroom dance competition. Hilaria (then competing under her birth name, Hillary Hayward-Thomas) and her partner placed 245th in the Amateur Rising Star Latin category. DWTS pro Emma Slater was also competing and landed just below Hilaria at 242nd place. And Emma wasn't the only DWTS pro competing that day: former pro Peta Murgatroyd finished 13th, Mark Ballas landed 96th, Val Chmerkovskiy placed 187th and former pro Sharna Burgess finished 223nd.
© DisneyHilaria attempted to downplay the resurfaced competition results in a post-show interview with reality TV influencer Zachary Reality last week, saying she and Emma had been "trying to investigate" the situation, that she's never actually danced the tango before and arguing that the scoring results "might not be true" — despite the fact that the entire official list of results from that competition is still available online.
"The ballroom competition that people are telling me is -- I've only went twice and I think I was, like, 19 or 20, and I think she's five years younger than me, which should have put her in juniors," Hilaria said. She 20 during the time of the competition while Emma was 15, but the official list of results makes no mention of splitting up the Amateur Rising Star Latin category into age groups. "And I also know that I didn't do very well in this competition, which meant that there might have been, like, 700 people better than me. And then I stopped dancing. It would not be a competition, but Emma actually -- we were trying to figure it out, neither one of us could understand it. It wasn't like tonight, where you could tell."
© Disney/Eric McCandlessHilaria also addressed her prior ballroom experience during the season premiere, noting that she was sidelined "a long time ago" with a hip injury. Her husband, Alec Baldwin, also appeared in her pre-taped rehearsal package to reflect on her return to the ballroom. "She's a hard worker," Alec said. "This was her life until she got injured. so she's just going to give it everything she has. And I'm proud of her. Very proud of her." The judges seemed to agree: "It makes me so happy to see you back out here," Derek said, following Hilaria's cha cha to "Let's Get Loud" by Jennifer Lopez.
Not everyone in the DWTS family agrees that Hilaria competing on the amateur ballroom dance show is fair. Sharna shared her own thoughts on her Instagram Story prior to the premiere: "I don't know how they are gonna go scoring Hilaria who has a better technique starting the show than anyone who has ever done it," she wrote. "She's competed in Blackpool, which is the holy grail of ballroom competitions. I've seen a sneak peek and… like technically (on that small piece) no notes. I could be off base and the first ep will say alot but man that's going to be hard to judge. Like logistically for her journey, you don't want 9s and 10s every week."
© Disney/Andrew EcclesPreviously, some competitors with previous dance experience have raised eyebrows, though fans ultimately embraced their talents and went on to vote for many of them to win it all. Some past dance-forward stars include Dance Moms alum JoJo Siwa, The Bachelorette star and former Denver Broncos cheerleader Gabby Windey, Disney star Chandler Kinney, former Broadway musical performer Wayne Brady, TikTok dancer Charli D'Amelio, Glee star and former Beyoncé backup dancer Heather Morris, to name a few. Pro Ezra Sosa has also said that his dream celebrity partner would be Blue Ivy Carter, maintaining it wouldn't be a problem that the young teen has danced on a professional level alongside her mom, Beyoncé.
