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2020 has been one for the books, to say the least. From the global pandemic to the announcement that Keeping Up with the Kardashians will stop filming after 14 years- nothing is surprising. And with a dramatic year like 2020, it is only right that the season 29 lineup for Dancing With the Stars is the most interesting, chaotic, and alluring to say the least. The lineup was announced last week and along with a new host by the name of Tyra Banks , the lineup is studded with relevant stars. The most shocking being the phenomenon that was Tiger King‘s infamous animal “activist” Carole Baskin.
Baskin is known for her feud with the show’s star Joe Exotic. Exotic not only made multiple threats to murder and assault her but accused her of killing and feeding her husband to her tigers. And just when we thought that tigers have gone through enough, Baskin confirmed to TV Guide on Wednesday that she will be making her debut on the show by dancing to the Rocky theme song ‘Eye of The Tiger.’ “We are doing ’Eye of the Tiger,’ I’m so excited about that,” she gushed. Baskin had rules about the shows flamboyant outfits and she told the costume department, “’No fur, no feathers, no leather. But anything else, I don’t care how wild.’ I just said to have a blast. I can’t wait to find out what they come up with.”
Now, this may come as a shock but apparently, Baskin isn‘t exactly “Twinkle Toes.” She has zero experience dancing and owed that to how she grew up. “I was raised in a fundamental Christian family where dancing was a sin, so I was never allowed to dance,” said Baskin. “Even when my husband and I got married on the beach, we played Rod Stewart’s, ’Have I Told You Lately That I Love You.’ But we didn’t dance to it, because we don’t dance.” Given this information, she is already injuring herself. She explained, “Yesterday I tripped [and fell] into the security guard on my way out of rehearsal. I’ve got so far to go. I’m really hoping that was a one-off and I got that out of the way.”
Hopefully, Baskin’s spirit animals carry her past the first performance. TV Guide asked what inspiration she‘s drawing from her big cats to take into her dancing and she said she’s channeling the Leopard. In Baskin’s words, “They manage to do everything they do by just using the absolute least amount of energy necessary to achieve their goals. Like, when they kill an animal they can pull an animal that’s something like ten times their weight up into a tree, and that way they don’t have to fight off lions and hyenas. So I really think the way the leopard moves is something that I want to bring to the dance floor.”
The 29th season lineup includes Baskin and other celerity dancers like Monica Aldama of Netflix‘s Cheer, Kaitlyn Bristowe of The Bachelorette, Super Bowl champion Vernon Davis, Disney Channel star Skai Jackson, Backstreet Boys’ AJ McLean, Jeannie Mai of The Real, Rapper Nelly, Nev Schulman of Catfish and more.