Derek Hough’s Post DWTS Finale Blog – TV Guide

This guy writes a great blog, chock full of information. I’ve put a few excerpts below, but you’ll have to go to TV Guide to read the whole thing.

Our freestyle never went that well in dress rehearsal and rehearsal. There was always a misstep. I was so happy and elated that it went as well as it did on the show. That was the first time I felt like it was just the two of us there. There were no nerves or inhibitions. It was one of those moments where when people ask you why you dance, you go, “That’s why.” It’s going to that place of no mind, where you’re not thinking, you’re just doing and you can feel the audience with you. You can sense the feeling in the room. When we finished, I looked over and I started crying. I tried not to, but I couldn’t! My mom was in the audience and I hadn’t seen her in a long time, so seeing her just brought me to tears.

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Honestly, I did feel at times that we should be doing something bigger. Since they’ve introduced the super-sized freestyle last season, I think it’s easy to forget that it’s just an option and it’s easy to feel obligated to do something huge and extravagant. After I told the producers who handle the set production my plan, they were like, “Are you sure you don’t want to add anything?” And I had a little bit of doubt. I do love big productions. I was thinking about the hammock thing and some other things, but I felt like I would be doing those things for the sake of doing them and not because they made sense. So I trusted my instinct. The super-sized element was going to be the emotion. There are performances where you’re giving out the energy and there are performances where you draw people in. I wanted to go for the latter. I knew that everybody else would be shooting the energy out.

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My neck is good! But I was watching our freestyle and my feet was coming off the floor when Kellie was leaning forward with her feet around my neck, and that could’ve gone so wrong had my feet come completely off! But it’s fine. I took care of my body this season. I iced a lot. My doctor told me that if people iced more, they’d be out of business. But he said people don’t know the power of icing — something so simple — and it solves so many problems. Inflammation causes so many injuries. I also juiced a lot this season — kale, beet, celery, carrot and a bunch of green stuff. It really helped me stay strong and healthy and mentally clear. I will admit that I deviated from that last week. We were exhausted — we were doing 14-hour days every day last week. We would be there until midnight. I don’t drink caffeinated drinks and I was hitting the double juice! I had a lot of Red Bull. Maybe that’s why my neck wasn’t feeling so hot on Sunday!

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As for next season, I don’t know yet if I’m coming back. We’ll see. I don’t want to be the guy who says, “I’m not coming back” and then I come back — which is what happened this season! I already did it once, so I’m not going to do that again. I love the show and I always want to be part of it in some way. It’s a huge part of my life. It’s hard for me to say at this moment. There are so many other factors and the new season is a while away. I feel like right now, next season is possibly in the future for me. But this season just ended and I just want to enjoy this. This season has been very special for me. I’m so glad I did it and I’m even more grateful that I met Kellie and experienced this with her.

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What’s next for me is a new project I’m working on and I can’t tell you too much about yet. It lies at the core of all of what I do — dancing, performing, connecting with people. That’s all I can say now. I’ll be working with Meryl Davis and Charlie White this summer on their Olympic routine and I’m also doing something with the L.A. Philharmonic Orchestra at the Disney Concert Hall. I’ve got some other stuff planned too. But I’ll be honest — I’m very excited about a beach and a margarita right now. I’m not sure when that will happen, but I’m excited for when that day comes!