Alexa PenaVega Stealing Bindi Irwin’s Shtick By Dancing With A Snake On ‘DWTS’
Alexa PenaVega stole Bindi Irwin’s partner during last week’s episode of Dancing with the Stars, and now she’s coming for the animal advocate’s slithery friends.
Next Monday is Famous Dances night on Dancing with the Stars, and Alexa PenaVega will be performing what just might be her sexiest dance yet. According to ABC, Alexa and her pro partner, Mark Ballas, were tasked with recreating Britney Spears’ steamy (and slithery) “I’m A Slave 4 U” performance from the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards.
Many Dancing with the Stars viewers probably thought that Bindi Irwin would be the first celebrity competitor to dance with an animal this season. After all, she is the daughter of the Crocodile Hunter, and she did grow up around a wide array of animals at the Australia Zoo. According to Us Weekly, Bindi even introduced DWTS pro Val Chmerkovskiy to an anaconda named Angelina during Switch-Up week. The snake made a great ice breaker.
— Valentin (@iamValC) October 13, 2015
However, while Bindi is the show’s animal expert, former Spy Kids star Alexa PenaVega is the performer doing all the animal-themed dances. According to the Daily Mail, she and Mark Ballas will turn their Britney Spears dance into a trio routine by adding a huge snake to their routine. Alexa broke the big “I’m a Slave 4 U” news in an Instagram video.
https://instagram.com/p/84G5PcSOWc/?taken-by=vegaalexa
Alexa PenaVega looked slightly terrified of her temporary dance partner in a photo that was shared on the Dancing with the Stars Instagram page.
This isn’t the first time Mark Ballas has asked Alexa PenaVega to get in touch with her wild side on Dancing with the Stars. During Week 2, Alexa dressed up like a jungle cat to perform a sexy salsa. The dance was one of the highest-scoring of the night, and it helped prove that Alexa would be one of the show’s top competitors. In fact, Alexa became the first competitor of the season to earn a perfect score last week. Derek Hough helped her reach her full potential after the show’s couples were all switched up, and now Mark Ballas is probably hoping that he can help his partner match those high marks. Britney Spears is one of the most beloved pop stars of all time, so even if their “I’m A Slave 4 U” dance isn’t a huge hit with the judges, voters might fall in love with the routine.
The week before she earned her perfect score, Alexa PenaVega flubbed a few steps during her foxtrot, and this mistake resulted in the actress receiving her lowest score of the season. In his Entertainment Weekly video diary, Derek Hough said that Alexa suffered from a similar problem during their Switch-Up week dress rehearsal, but he wouldn’t let it shake her confidence.
“Dress rehearsal didn’t go very well,” he revealed. “We kind of messed up a little bit, but I was talking to Alexa and hopefully she can have confidence. She got a little bit nervous, she got a little bit her head and forgot the steps and I really want her to do well.”
During one of the DWTS video clip packages that aired last week, Alexa PenaVega seemed to suggest that Mark Ballas is partly to blame for her lack of confidence in herself, and she was shown piling on the praise for temporary partner Derek Hough. However, Alexa later told Glamour that the clips were cleverly cut to make her comments about Mark and Derek look more meaningful than they actually were.
“When I got all those 10s, I couldn’t figure out who to hug first: Mark, Derek, or Carlos!” Alexa said of her perfect tango with Derek Hough. “I would never have been able to go out there and do what I did with Derek if Mark hadn’t have gotten me to this place. Derek just helped refine me a little bit, and now I’ll go back to Mark with these new tools.”
During an interview with Good Day LA, Mark Ballas claimed that he’s not jealous that Alexa PenaVega earned her first perfect score with Derek Hough — he said that it would be “insane” to feel that way. Alexa continued doing damage control by saying that she really missed Mark during her week away from him, and she revealed that she and husband Carlos PenaVega have discovered that they can’t practice together.
“If we try to dance together, it’s awful. It’s so awful,” Alexa said. “Carlos just sort of fakes the lead.”
Carlos has already begged the Dancing with the Stars wardrobe department to let Alexa PenaVega take one of her costumes home, and he might be doing the same thing again after her Britney Spears performance. You can check out Britney’s original dance below to see if you think that Alexa can pull it off.
[Featured image credit: Jason Merritt/Getty]
