Harry Shum Jr. is spinning his way into the top of Dancing With the Stars.
And while, yes, he comes in with a wealth of dance experience—from playing Mike Chang on Glee to being a backup dancer for the likes of Beyoncé and Jennifer Lopez—he’s adamant that doesn’t necessarily give him an advantage.
“I think a lot of people who had dance backgrounds don't make it very far,” Harry told E! News after the Sept. 15 premiere. “That tells you everything you need to know about what the show is. It's beyond just dancing. It's like storytelling—who you are, your personality, your connection between, not just your partner, but with the audience.”
He added, “That's what I love about the show. Because I used to see it as dancing only, and when I watched last season, I was like, ‘Oh, there's just so much more.’”
So far, however, it would appear he’s got both the dancing and storytelling down, with his and partner Jenna Johnson’s cha-cha earning the highest score of the evening at 21. But the pro isn’t letting them get caught up in their success—after all, only half of the contestants performed during the premiere.
“We still have the females to go, and they are going to crush it,” Jenna said. “But no, I think honestly, my approach is to take each week for face value and kind of forget about it. Like we start over technically tomorrow, learning a new style, a new dance. We're going back into the studio and we're grinding.”
Not to say she won’t give her partner his flowers, with his debut even blowing past her own expectations.
“I was like, ‘Oh, he is a showman,’” she said to Harry. “Because you go full out every single time we rehearse, but the way that you came alive with a full audience in front of you, I was like, ‘That's my partner right there!’ I was so proud.”
And as Harry and Jenna look to next week and the new dance they need to learn, Harry thankfully has a lifetime of picking up moves on the fly under his belt.
“When I was growing up, I really loved watching wrestling, like WWE, WWF, and I would just mimic the,” the Grey's Anatomy actor explained. “I'm not a martial artist, but I would do them at home and just try and get it right. So, mimicry became kind of an entry point.”
As he noted, “I never had the proper training, so being here to have someone to tell me exactly what I'm doing wrong—because even on those jobs, it was always just I was just trying to survive, I was just trying to pick up as fast as I could so I wouldn't get fired. So, I always felt anxiety over it and that's kind of why I stopped.”
On Dancing With the Stars, however, the name of the game is learning proper technique, and mistakes are just part of the process.
“I got emotional when they were just giving notes,” Harry admitted, “but also like giving such good feedback because I don't usually get that. So, this is really nice to have this.”
For a closer look at the celebrity-pro pairings going to head-to-head with Jenna and Harry on season 35 of DWTS, read on.
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The Love Island UK alum is hoping her love for DWTS doesn't betray her as she manifested this experience.
"I have a vision board and I redo it every year," she told E! News in May. "This year is the first year that I stayed at home by myself on New Year's Eve. I did not go out at all. I made myself a bowl of pasta and a glass of red wine and I redid my vision board for the year. Dancing With the Stars was already on it from the year before. However, I added five more Dancing With the Stars on the board."