Laurie Hernandez Writes Of Her “Most Memorable Year” Dance On Dancing Wit The Stars

Laurie Hernandez has written a new blog at US Weekly. She writes of how much her dance means to her this week and why. Read on for more…

DWTS’ theme this week is one of my favorites. It’s “My Most Memorable Year,” where every contestant will talk about a meaningful time in their lives. I’m really excited to hear everyone else’s stories because you always learn so much about all the contestants when they talk about something that’s super important to them. I’m dancing to “Rise” by Katy Perry, which is the song she wrote for the Olympics. They sped it up a little and added a few beats just because we’re doing a paso doble, so it’s a little more intense — but like the song already was, it’s very intense and dramatic.

I did pick 2016 as my most memorable year, but it’s more acknowledging what happened leading up to this year. The dance is about how I dedicated my whole entire life to gymnastics, but it wasn’t until this year that I could really come out and show the world what I had been working on since I was 11 years old.

Everybody just saw the Olympics and saw that I got medals, but they didn’t see all the hard work that went behind it. So that’s what we’re going for this week: Not just to show that I got a silver medal in beam, but all the dedication I put into getting to that point. I don’t think everyone realizes that I was extremely nervous before right I got up on the beam in Rio. We were talking about it yesterday, and I still got jittery just thinking about it! [Dance partner] Val [Chmerkovskiy] said, “Are you OK?” And I said, “I’m still nervous just talking about this!”

To read Laurie’s full blog, see US Weekly.