Stephen Nedoroscik is going from zero to hero for his and Rylee Arnold’s Dancing With the Stars Disney Night performance — with the help of a spray tan.
“Oh he is so ready to be hercules on @dancingwiththestars tonight!!!” Arnold, 19, captioned an Instagram video of the gymnast, 25, getting his very first spray tan on Tuesday, October 22. “We are so excited 😂✨🫶🏼 be sure to vote for us at 8/7c by texting “STEPHEN” to 21523 ten times or go to dwtsvote.abc.com we love you guys🥹❤️🔥.”
Nedoroscik poked fun at the clip — where he appeared shirtless and wearing Team USA shorts during his inaugural tan — in the post’s comments, writing, “I literally thought I’d never get a spray tan hahaha.”
The pair will perform a Charleston to “A Star Is Born” from the 1997 Disney animated film Hercules during Tuesday’s episode of the ABC competition series. While the two will take on roles from the movie for their latest dance, Arnold poked fun at another set of Disney characters fans wanted to see them portray earlier this week.
“This was for the people who wanted to see us as Sharpay and Ryan for disney night 😂✨🫶🏼🤭,” Arnold captioned a hilarious TikTok video of herself and Nedoroscik lip-syncing to the song “I Want It All” from High School Musical 3: Senior Year during rehearsals on Monday, October 21.
While the duo won’t channel Ashley Tisdale and Lucas Grabeel’s iconic HSM sibling pair on Tuesday night, they will perform a group dance to The Lion King’s “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” with fellow couples Dwight Howard and Daniella Karagach, Danny Amendola and Witney Carson and Phaedra Parks and Val Chmerkovskiy.
Nedoroscik put his gymnastics skills to the test while rehearsing the group number by jumping over Howard’s (who is 6’10) shoulders. “Jumpman, Jumpman, Jumpman, them boys up to something,” he captioned an Instagram clip of his impressive stunt on Sunday, October 20.
Last week, Nedoroscik and Arnold earned their first nine of the season for their Dedication Night Argentine Tango to “Seven Nation Army” by the White Stripes. However, they did get some criticism from judge Carrie Ann Inaba, who told Nedoroscik he could be “a tiny bit wobbly” at times.
“I mean, I totally get what she’s saying, because I think sometimes when we go and do our dance, we put so much energy into it, and it’s not necessarily grounded,” Arnold exclusively told Us Weekly after the October 15 episode. “I definitely think that’s something we can take into our next weeks to just really get grounded in all of our dances so we can feel in the floor, and it’ll help us a lot. So, I’m glad she said it.”
Nedoroscik dedicated the night’s performance to men’s gymnastics — this year’s U.S. men’s team brought home their first Olympic team medal in 16 years at the Paris Olympics earlier this year.
“I just want everyone to know, like, it’s possible,” he told Us of what he hoped other aspiring gymnasts took from his performance. “Look, me making the Olympic team, me making national team, me making it to the NCAA, all of it was super unlikely, but I just kind of held my head high and just tried my hardest, and I just want to let everyone know that has those dreams that they can do it if they work their butt off.”
Dancing With the Stars airs simultaneously on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays on ABC at 8 p.m. ET. You can stream episodes on Disney+ the next day.
