Jenna Dewan has defended her upcoming run on Dancing with the Stars amid backlash about her experience.
On Wednesday, the dancer-turned-actress was unveiled as a celebrity contestant for the 35th season of the long-running dance competition.
Her casting prompted backlash online, with people claiming she had an unfair advantage over the other contestants due to her extensive dance experience.
Dewan, who began her career as a backup dancer for Janet Jackson and starred in the 2006 dance movie Step Up, defended her casting in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, insisting, "I do not know how to ballroom dance."
"Let's be clear. It's two different languages," she explained. "There's parts of my dance training that's helpful, obviously. I've learned choreography, I can perform, but there is a certain sense of unlearning for me. It's a new technique, brand new technique. It almost threw me off initially because I had to unlearn a lot of – I don't want to say bad habits – but just habits of the style that I'm used to."
The Rookie star, who is paired with Val Chmerkovskiy, added that her dance background almost makes her "a little more nervous" to take part in the show and learn dancing styles that feel "really foreign".
"It's not like you're giving me a style that I've done – I can go out there and do that," she added. "It has its advantages, but it also has its challenges. But that was part of why I wanted to do it. I really wanted to challenge myself."
Fellow DWTS contestant Harry Shum Jr. had a similar argument when defending his casting in an interview with People.
"I think everyone's idea is like, 'Oh, you dance, so you should be able to dance anything.' And I mean, that's just not true," the Glee star said. "There are hundreds of styles, not dozens, hundreds all over the world."
In addition to playing dancer Mike Chang in Glee, Shum Jr. also starred in Step Up 2: The Streets and Step Up 3D.
They will compete against actresses Julia Stiles and Tatyana Ali, singer Taylor Hanson, Jimmy Kimmel's sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez, and reality TV personalities Maura Higgins, Ciara Miller, Tyler Cameron, Sarah Jane Nader, and Conner Leavitt, among others.
The new season of the dancing show premieres on 15 September.
