Born to dance: Robert Irwin’s show-stealing DWTS debut
Robert Irwin revealed another wild side at the premiere of America’s latest season of Dancing with the Stars, stealing the show with a slick jive that had the judges and audience in awe.
Source: Disney+
Wearing khaki pants and shirt, the 21-year-old wildlife warrior and son of the late Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin began his routine with pro dance partner Witney Carson by leaping from the bonnet of a Land Rover as the sound of laughing kookaburras filled the air and an image of Uluru provided the backdrop.
The pair then tore up the dance floor to Steppenwolf’s Born to Be Wild, with Irwin looking like he was born to dance as he kept pace with Carson through the fast-paced jive steps.
At one point he even jumped over her head and executed a perfect tumble landing, much to the delight of the vocal audience.
The DWTS judges described the performance as “absolutely brilliant”. One, Derek Hough, said it was “probably the best first dance I’ve ever seen on this show”.
Immediately after the routine, Irwin ran to the side of the stage and hugged his sister Bindi, who was in the audience with the rest of his family. Bindi won the US competition herself in 2015 with Hough, who was then one of the show’s professional dancers.
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight after the show, Robert said the hug wasn’t planned.
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“I finished that [performance] and just this sense of warmth, and just relief and joy,” he said, becoming emotional when explaining what it meant to him to have his sister’s support.
“Bindi said, ‘This will feel like flying’, and now I know that feeling.”
The pair’s mother, Terri Irwin, was also at the live show, alongside Bindi’s husband Chandler Powell and four-year-old daughter Grace, who Robert told ET was a better dancer than him.
“She got her best blue dress … she said, ‘I want to look like Cinderella’ – Disney Princess was going, you know. She came in and she was just so excited, she was fist pumping … she said it was good so that’s like the highest praise I can ever receive.”
With the third judge (Carrie Ann Inaba) missing the season premiere due to illness, Hough and fellow judge Bruno Tonioli awarded Irwin and Carson 15/20, which saw them share top place with Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Whitney Leavitt and pro Mark Ballas.
Other celebrity contestants in the 34th season of the show include actor-musician Corey Feldman, retired NBA star Baron Davis, and Freakier Friday actress Elaine Hendrix.
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Robert Irwin’s biography on the DWTS website describes him as a “passionate wildlife conservationist”, nature photographer and TV presenter who lives with his family at Queensland’s Australia Zoo and operates the charity Wildlife Warriors.
It also notes that his favourite animal is the crocodile: “There is nothing he enjoys more than heading out into the Crocoseum to participate in daily croc demonstrations.”
The show is just the latest adventure for Irwin, who earlier this year joined Julia Morris as co-host of Ten’s I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here.
He also made headlines in June after going viral when he posed in boxer shorts while cradling pythons and other reptiles for a Bonds campaign.
Irwin has said previously that he has dreamed of being on Dancing with the Stars since watching Bindi on the show:
“I remember being a little 11-year-old – little 11-year-old Robert about this big with a little bowl cut, you remember that?” he told Hough. “Watching you and Bindi just having the most incredible time, lighting up the dance floor, I just thought, ‘One day that’s going to be me’.”
Despite his impressive debut, Irwin revealed on Instagram on Wednesday that he had started rehearsals “without the slightest idea of how to dance”, crediting Carson with being an incredible teacher.
“This show means the world to me and I am pinching myself that I get to live out a childhood dream,” he wrote in a post that began “BEST NIGHT EVER!”.
“How special to have my family here to celebrate with me. Team IrWINit are here to bring passion and positivity into the ballroom! Week one done, onto the next!”
