Anna Trebunskaya on Dancing Her Way to Stardom on ABC’s ‘Dancing with the Stars’
Gary Busey and Anna Trebunskaya in Season 21 of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. Photo Credit: ABC/Bob D’Amico.
When the fiery redhead Anna Trebunskaya, 34, first waltzed her way onto the dance floor with Jerry Rice, a former NFL wide receiver, in season two of Dancing with the Stars, she had no idea she was beginning a near decade long journey that would propel her career into the center of Hollywood’s gaze.
Luckily, fear of the unknown never stopped Trebunskaya. In fact, it’s that same unknown that lit a fire deep inside her, persuading her to join the cast of a virtually nameless show with little credibility to its name — well, at least at the time (present day tells a different story!).
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“A lot of the dancers — even some of the dancers who became season favorites — were like: ‘what is this show? It sounds super cheesy!’ But that was never my case. It was always more that this is exciting and a totally different take on dancing. I [wanted to] see what [could come] out of this,” Trebunskaya tells GALO in an exclusive interview.
“I don’t think it really actually clicked for me until three or four seasons later what the whole thing was about, because I was so competitive and I was so in the stream of dance competitions,” she further adds.
Trebunskaya soon learned that the main focus of the show lies not so much with the dancers, but with the celebrity talent. “At the end of the day it’s about entertainment, and what you can do to make your celebrity partner look as best as they can look,” she says.
Over the course of her 12 seasons, she has had to make some pretty big names look light on their feet in front of a panel of merciless judges. Trebunskaya has danced with everyone from the likes of professional athlete Sugar Ray Leonard in season 12, to singer Drew Lachey (former member of 98 degrees) in season 15, to this season’s partnership with actor Gary Busey (The Buddy Holly Story, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas).
“When actors do [DWTS], it doesn’t surprise me that they do so well, because they are used to being in front of people and performing and creating chemistry with their acting partners, so that doesn’t come as a surprise,” Trebunskaya tells us of her experience on the show.
However, according to the dancer, there was no way to prepare for the experience of dancing alongside Busey. Trebunskaya soon learned just how unpredictable the 71-year-old Texan could be.
“You just never know what is going to come out of his mouth,” she recalls. Put simply, it was an experience that the professional ballroom and Latin dancer absolutely reveled in! “That was just so fascinating; the way his brain works and how he has no limitations on his mind — he just goes for it. To be a part of that was just really, really exciting.”
Episode 2102: Gary Busey and Anna Trebunskaya in Season 21 of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. Photo Credit: ABC/Adam Taylor.
Episode 2104: Gary Busey and Anna Trebunskaya in Season 21 of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. Photo Credit: ABC/ Adam Taylor.
Unfortunately, that excitement wasn’t enough to get them the coveted mirror ball trophy. Because on October 5, after giving it their all in a Buddy Holly-themed jazz number, the duo was eliminated from the show. Although Trebunskaya admittedly misses hanging out with Busey every day, it helps her to sometimes think to herself, ‘What would Gary do in this moment to make it more exciting?’
Despite the elimination, Trebunskaya told us that she has managed to keep herself busy by helping out with the remaining episodes of the season, including tonight’s season finale. Whether it is by lending a hand — or foot, technically speaking — with a dance (like in the case of Paula Deen’s Madonna themed dance this season), or running the live feed in the sky box, she is still an active member behind the scenes.
She is also hard at work on Luis Bravo’s internationally acclaimed Broadway dance show Forever Tango, which opened in Texas on November 7. She’ll be touring and dancing in cities like San Francisco, Arizona and Los Angeles alongside other pros like Dmitry Chaplin (So You Think You Can Dance) this fall.
With so much success in this year alone, it may seem like she’s done it all, but Trebunskaya still has one more thing to cross off the old bucket list.
“I’ve done stage. I’ve done TV. I think it would be really fun — and it’s on my to-do list — to do something in a feature film. If I could do that — that would be very interesting to me,” she says.
Catch the two-part season finale of “Dancing with the Stars” Monday, November 23 at 8 p.m. ET/PT and Tuesday, November 24 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on ABC. For more information about Anna Trebunskaya and her endeavors, you can follow her on Twitter @atrebunskaya or by visiting her official website (www.annatrebunskaya.com).
