No One Knows Until—Daniella Karagach Opens Up About DWTS Casting Secrets

"Dancing With the Stars” pros don’t have as much of a heads up that they’re cast in a new season as fans might think. “DWTS” pro Daniella Karagach is pulling back the curtain on when the dancers are notified.

When Do Dance Pros Find Out About ‘DWTS’ Casting?

 

 

 

 

 

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As fans eagerly await the full cast announcement for “Dancing With the Stars” season 34, one dance pro is giving the inside scoop about when they will find out if they’re part of it or not.

In a June 2025 interview with Cinema Blend, Karagach explained that pro dancers aren’t given much advance notice that they’re in the mix each season.

“We usually learn about that like a few days [before it’s announced on] ‘Good Morning America,’ like around that time,” she revealed.

Karagach added, “There’s like a few days where we kind of start practicing with our partners, and when we do our first meet, like a few days before that, is when we find out. So, around August time.”

Given that they have such a short lead time, the dancers have to be in tip-top shape.

Karagach shared that she and her husband, fellow “DWTS” pro Pasha Pashkov, “always try to go to the gym and just like take care of ourselves, eat properly before the craziness starts, because you have to be healthy like from within for the show, it’s so taxing.”

She noted, “You want to be able to like be drinking and hydrated and all that. There’s definitely a preparation that goes into the season.”

Dance Pro Clears Up Common ‘DWTS’ Misconception

 

 

 

 

 

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In a June 2025 interview with People, Karagach and Pashkov discussed one of the misconceptions about the show — the level of competitiveness.

“I think that people really think that everyone is against each other in terms of competition. I feel like everyone is very like, ‘They’re competing against each other. They probably don’t want the other person to do well,'” Karagach shared.

The dance pro noted, “That’s actually not how it goes at all. It’s actually insane how much we support one another.”

As a married couple who are both “DWTS” pros, Karagach and Pashkov are very supportive. “Pasha helps me with my choreography all the time, and vice versa,” she said. “If we ever need anything, always the first person I would ask is Pash, or vice versa.”

The ‘DWTS’ pro continued, “Having both of us on the show, it’s been so nice to just work together. That has never been a competition, but also, [between] us with other pros has also never felt like a competition.”

Karagach noted, “We’re actually all really happy for each other, and we all want each other to succeed,. When Jenna [Johnson] won [last season], we were so excited and happy because we see how much work goes into it. We know how hard it is.”

She shared that since the pros are spending so much time with their celebrity partners, they don’t focus on what other competitors are doing.

“I feel like that bond that you’re creating [with your celebrity] takes so much time out of your day and so much work that you don’t really care about anybody else in the competition,” Karagach explained. “You’re just so focused on yourself.”