- I'm here with Cecily Strong!
(audience cheers and applauds)
And that cute dress or shirt.
I don't know what it is but it's cute.
My next guest is one of the best dancers
this side of the Mississippi, y'all.
She is an Emmy and two-time Mirrorball Trophy winner.
You can see her each week doing her thing
on "Dancing With the Stars" on ABC.
Give it up for Cheryl Burke!
(upbeat music)
(audience cheers and applauds)
- I can't hug you!
So, hello, I love your outfit first of all.
And have you met Cecily before?
- No, hi! Nice to meet you.
- Hi! Nice to meet you,
- [Cheryl] This is so crazy. This is great.
- This way.
- I know, it's weird, they're all live.
- It's so crazy.
- I just, I've had a couple friends on the show this season.
They're like, wait, are those, like, real,
or are they video?
- [Cheryl] Yeah, right?
- Like, is it just tape?
And I'm like nope, they're real.
- On "Dancing With the Stars" I wish we had this.
- [Kelly] No, it's really cool.
- This is great.
- It's very helpful, like, just with laughing,
and, like, you know, real clapping.
- Exactly, exactly.
- So, okay, so, well, congrats on your 23rd season on
"Dancing With the Stars."
Has it been challenging with COVID?
Everybody's kind of navigating that.
- It is. It is, 'cause, you know, we're dancers,
so we're very touchy feely, you know, so, like,
just to pass people on set and just do, like,
a social distancing hug, hi, is really hard.
But they've been doing great because, you know, for us,
now, we feel safe on set,
and I think that's very important.
- Yeah.
- But they do keep us just to our dance partners.
We get tested every day except for weekends,
and, like, today, I took my third COVID test,
so we're good.
I'm negative three times, so we're good.
- I'm telling you.
I have this conversation with Carson from "The Voice"
all the time.
I don't know how often y'all are tested, Cecily,
but we are tested so much, like, I am a COVID free zone.
- Exactly, yeah.
- It's insane, 'cause nobody will take anybody else's test.
- [Cheryl] Right.
- You have to do them for all the individual, it's crazy.
- [Cheryl] Yes.
- But we're all safe, so it's good.
Well, you're partnered with a Backstreet Boy, AJ McLean,
so, did you have his poster on your wall growing up?
Were you a fan?
- So, NSYNC was my...
Sorry, AJ, but he knows this already.
I loved NSYNC 'cause of the dancing.
- [Kelly] Yes.
- But I loved Backstreet Boys' music, so I think, you know,
it was half and half
But I also had, like, Luke Perry's poster.
- [Kelly] Oh my God.
- New Kids on the Block, Bedsheets, you name it.
- Oh, my sister had all of that.
Oh my gosh, like, buttons and towels.
- [Cheryl] Yes, everything.
- I was like, it's a lot, Alyssa.
Yeah. Were you into boy bands, Cecily?
- I, my only two pictures...
I had, like, my posters were Broadway shows.
- I love you.
- And then I was like, oh, I should have a boy on the wall.
And so I cut out these two tiny pictures from
Seventeen Magazine of Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Renfro.
- That's awesome.
- Right, and I was like, they are real actors.
- Real actors.
I was such a messed up kid, man, I mean,
'cause I feel like you're too young to have, like,
Steven Tyler on your wall when you're a little girl,
like, it's a little weird.
Like, you definitely know the girl has daddy issues
if you're walking into her room
and there's Steven Tyler on the wall.
But I love him.
- Alicia Silverstone, that music video. I was obsessed.
- Oh my God, "Jaded."
No, that wasn't "Jaded." That was -
- [Cheryl] It was - - "Crazy"?
- Yes, "Crazy."
- [Kelly] Or maybe, yeah, that was good, yeah.
- [Cecily] Or, "Crying."
- Or "Crying," yes.
- "Crying," "Crying."
- Isn't it weird to imagine, like, you,
like doing your dad's friend's video?
'Cause they were really close.
Like, Liv and -
- That was, yeah, Liv and...
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love that one.
Okay, so, Cheryl, who sustained more injuries,
I'm just curious, over the years, you or your partners?
- Well, I've had 22 partners
'cause I danced with Emmitt Smith twice, so -
- I thought you were gonna say I've had 22 injuries.
- Oh, I hope not.
- I was like, oh my God, never be a dancer.
This is the PSA.
- But it's never been, not so much me,
more like, I've been injuring my partners.
Just 'cause it's the, first of all,
the schedule is just really crazy.
So, we have seven days a week for about 3 1/2 months, right?
And we're just pounding our bodies.
And especially for the celebrities that come on the show,
they're not used to doing this.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- They're moving body parts that they've never moved before.
Even, so, athletes get injured.
I injured... I wouldn't say I.
I wouldn't take full responsibility,
but I am definitely taking some.
Ray Lewis was my partner last season.
First football player to ever get injured.
My fault.
Then we had Tom DeLay, I danced with.
Fractured both his feet.
Cristian de la Fuente, broke his arm live on television
when we did the samba, and the very end we had this dip.
And then all of a sudden I feel my head
just crash to the dance floor.
And then Tom Bergeron at the time had to cut to commercial
'cause he broke his arm.
- I don't think that you're the best person
to promote yourself as a dance partner.
- No, probably not.
But you know, it's okay, it's all right.
I'm just saying, caution.
- Yeah.
No, that's a lot of work.
I've only gone on there and sang.
- Yes, yes, I remember.
- And like, watching everyone, I'm like,
oh my God, this is a lot of work for these people to do.
- Well, we used to pass each other a lot.
Like, when you did "Idol."
- [Kelly] Yes!
- So, I started back in season two, 2006.
- [Kelly] Wow!
- So, I remember you guys.
- I came every season, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, okay, so you also designed a face mask.
- [Cheryl] Yes.
- That you can wear while you dance.
- Yes, yeah.
- [Kelly] So, that's pretty cool.
So, is it, like, ventilated or something,
'cause it's gotta be so hot.
- No, it's actually, so, I wanted,
I had this thing going on way before the pandemic.
I did a live stage show in Japan,
and I saw all these beautiful Japanese women and men
wearing, like, designer clothes,
but then they had a dental face mask.
And I was like, went up to my agent, and I was like,
we gotta come out with face masks.
And she was like, you're crazy.
And then, a series of -
- [Kelly] Oh, who's laughing now.
- [Cheryl] Exactly.
A series of unfortunate events, obviously, happened,
and I was like, okay, now's the time to do it.
And I don't know about you, but when I would wear masks,
I would be swallowing my mask.
Like, you'd be laughing, crying, you're swallowing it.
- [Kelly] Oh, it sucks it in.
- It sucks it in, right?
And so, I was like, there's gotta be a way of
creating something that you can actually breathe in
while still being CDC approved,
and that's what happened.
So, and then I just said, why not add some glitter?
'Cause I love glitter. Who doesn't?
- And I wanted that glitter. I love you.
Well, you can see "Dancing With the Stars" Mondays on ABC.