2024 Olympic double bronze medalist Stephen Nedoroscik and professional dance partner Rylee Arnold earned kudos from the judges and collected their first perfect score of the season on Tuesday’s Halloween Nightmares-themed episode of ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.”
Based on his fear of the dark, Nedoroscik portrayed what he called “a nightmare character that lurks in the dark” in his and Arnold’s contemporary dance to Hidden Citizens’ version of A Flock of Seagulls’ 1982 classic, “I Ran (So Far Away).”
Judge Carrie Ann Inaba awarded the pair their first 10 of the season, and judges Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli gave them 9s.
“Your athletic skills and your ability are undoubted, but tonight you found your dramatic persona,” raved Tonioli of Nedoroscik. “You became somebody else and you gave us something that was special and beautiful.’
Inaba deemed the pair’s performance the best dance of the night thus far – with only one pair left to perform – and Hough applauded Nedoroscik’s commitment to his character.
“For such a happy-go-lucky, joyful man that you are, I really love seeing you in these dramatic roles,” Hough said. “It really is incredible.”
Nedoroscik credited his and Arnold’s high-scoring dance to his new level of intensity since last week’s Disney Night routine in which he portrayed Hercules.
“I thought I was locked in before, but this week, I knew something changed,” he said. “I locked in so much harder and I’m so proud of the performance.”
Nedoroscik also credited Arnold for her enthusiastic partnership.
“Rylee is an amazing person,” he said. “We’re both very positive-outlooking people, and I think our positivity bounced off one another and can create something beautiful on the dance floor.”
Following dance-offs for bonus points, “The Bachelorette” contestant Jenn Tran and professional dance partner Sasha Farber were eliminated at the end of the episode.
Nedoroscik, a Worcester, Massachusetts, native who turned 26 on October 28, won the 2021 world title and four consecutive U.S. national titles on pommel horse from 2021-24. In 2020 he earned a degree electrical engineering at The Pennsylvania State University, where he won the NCAA pommel horse title in 2017 and 2018. He claimed bronze medals on pommel horse and in the team final at this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris.
