Jan Ravnik of Dancing with the Stars has a message: Don’t try to get him to spill any tea on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.
He understands why you might be curious, as the Slovenian-born, newly minted pro did just spend more than a year as a dancer for the superstar. And it’s his respect for Swift that makes him roll his eyes when yet another person asks him for the gossip.
“People giving me a paycheck, people who changed my life, I will not talk about them,” he tells me. “I know that everyone wants to get information, but they got the wrong person because I really don’t care and I’m going to make it awkward.”
Ravnik is still getting used to being in the public eye. He prefers being in the background, performing alongside artists like Swift, Mariah Carey, and Paula Abdul on tour. But Eras and now DWTS, on which he is partnered with The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Jen Affleck, have thrust him into the spotlight.
He loves the dancing portion, but the online drama, press, and fans’ opinions? Not so much.
“Is it new for me? Yes,” he says of his first season. “Do I have anxiety, still, every day? Absolutely. Do I sleep? No. Am I tired? Yes, I’m dying. Do I enjoy it? I do enjoy it, but it’s a lot and I think the internet [has] so much hate.”
This week, though, fans will have perhaps even more to talk about. During the show’s Halloween episode, Affleck and Ravnik will be performing to Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do,” and if you read it as a clapback to the haters, you wouldn’t be wrong.
According to Ravnik, Affleck had wanted to use a Swift song all along, but he thought it made more sense to wait.
“Haters are going to say, ‘Oh, you guys are using her song to get a vote.’ I was like, ‘Let’s prove ourselves first, and then maybe we can use some of our songs that you like.’ She said, ‘I really want “Look What You Made Me Do.”’ And I said, ‘I think that’s for Halloween.’ If you watch the music video, it’s such a strong song. You can use it now for all the haters, because she’s coming from a show where you love one girl, but you hate another girl.”
