Paige VanZant And Mark Ballas Performing ‘Toy Story’-Themed Quickstep On ‘Dancing With The Stars’

Paige VanZant and Mark Ballas threw a few punches at each other in the octagon during last week’s episode of Dancing with the Stars, but the partners won’t be fighting tonight. Instead, they’re going to celebrate friendship by performing a quickstep to the beloved Toy Story tune “You’ve Got a Friend in Me.”

On Saturday, Mark Ballas tweeted that he was watching Toy Story 3 to prepare for Disney Night on DWTS. He revealed that he was icing his back while taking in the animated movie, so he’s not completely over the injury that kept him from performing two weeks ago. However, he and celebrity partner Paige VanZant will get plenty of time to rest up and relax before they hit the ballroom floor tonight. According to PureDWTS, they’ll be the final couple to perform their Disney-themed dance, and their placement may be a sign that they’re one of the couples receiving the most viewer votes.

Judging from a Dancing with the Stars Instagram post, it looks like Mark Ballas and Paige VanZant are going to perform as Buzz Lightyear and the space ranger’s Toy Story love interest, Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl.

In Toy Story 3, Buzz Lightyear’s personality changes dramatically when he’s switched to Spanish mode. He becomes a passionate Don Juan who tries to sweep Jessie off of her feet using romantic poetry and smooth dance moves. It’s possible that Mark Ballas and Paige VanZant will be paying homage to “Spanish Buzz” during their performance, and perhaps they’ll even dance to “Hay un Amigo en Mi,” the Spanish version of “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” that was featured in Toy Story 3.

In the movie, Jessie and Buzz perform a Paso Doble to the spiced-up, sped-up take on the popular tune. According to Inside the Magic, Disney/Pixar actually enlisted the help of Dancing with the Stars pros Cheryl Burke and Tony Dovolani to make sure that the Paso was perfect. The Gipsy Kings later helped promote Toy Story 3 by performing “Hay un Amigo en Mi” live on Season 10 of DWTS.

Mark Ballas and Paige VanZant aren’t the first Dancing with the Stars competitors to channel Toy Story characters. As Rickey reports, Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Hope Solo danced a Foxtrot to the English version of “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” during Season 13. They dressed up like Jessie and Woody for their performance.

Paige recently told MMAJunkie that Toy Story wasn’t her top choice for Disney Night—she was really hoping that she would get to portray a classic character from the House of Mouse’s hand-drawn animation days.

“I’m a Disney person. I love Disney. I wanted to do Alice in Wonderland, but (Mark) did it last year (with Willow Shields),” Paige said. “So he came up with the idea of doing Toy Story. We’ll be doing Toy Story, and he chose the quickstep.”

Last week on Dancing with the Stars, Paige VanZant celebrated her most memorable year by turning the ballroom into a faux UFC fighting ring. She chose to revisit 2014 because it was the year she made her UFC debut and won her first fight, as well as a $50,000 bonus. In her pre-dance package, Paige revealed that she decided to take up mixed martial arts as a way to cope with being bullied.

Mark Ballas and Paige VanZant performed a Paso Doble last week, but the judges criticized Mark for choreographing a dance that looked more like a contemporary routine. They scored a respectable 23 out of 30 points, which left them tied for third place alongside Fuller House star Jodie Sweetin and her partner, Keo Motsepe.

Next week is Switch-Up Night on Dancing with the Stars, and Paige VanZant really wants to rumba with one of the DWTS pros. She’s also retweeted a few fans who want to see her steal Kim Field’s partner, Sasha Farber, so he seems to be the pro that she’s hoping to get paired up with.

Really hope I get rumba for #DWTSSwitchUp???? vote vote vote!

— Paige VanZant (@PaigeVanzantUFC) April 11, 2016

this is all I ask for #DWTSSwitchUp #PaigeandSasha pic.twitter.com/b0nSE8qJmi

— Sam (@obsesseddwts) April 6, 2016

You can watch Paige VanZant and Mark Ballas tell their Toy Story when Dancing with the Stars airs tonight at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

[Image via Paige VanZant/Facebook]