Adele Zaikman Heads Into 'Dancing With the Stars' Season 35 After Historic 'Next Pro' Win

For most professional dancers, the road to the Dancing With the Stars ballroom runs through years of competitive circuit work and quiet apprenticeship. Adele Zaikman took a different route — one that led her straight from a reality competition spinoff to a spot in the main cast, and into one of the most talked-about rookie seasons in recent memory.

A win, then an instant realignment

Zaikman, 24, became the first contestant to win Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro, the spinoff that pitted 12 dancers against each other for a place on the season 35 roster. The victory was announced just days before the full cast of celebrities and pros was revealed, giving her almost no time to process the shift.

"It's been surreal, honestly," she told The Hollywood Reporter. "I would never expect my life to change so quickly. It's a lot to take in."

She also acknowledged the emotional whiplash of going from competitor to cast member in the space of a week. "I'm nervous in a good way. I'm excited, I'm thrilled," she said. "I'm all of these emotions."

Selling the nerves, gaining the confidence

For Zaikman, the value of The Next Pro wasn't just the trophy. It was the compressed, high-pressure format, which forced her and her fellow contestants to build, teach and polish routines on a two-day turnaround — a schedule far more punishing than the main show's weekly rhythm.

"I feel like if I've done it in two days, I can do it in a week," she explained. That experience, she says, taught her to think on her feet, identify a partner's strengths quickly, and be more creative as both a dancer and a choreographer.

"The Next Pro allowed me to figure out who I am on a deeper level as a dancer," she said. "What can I bring to the dance floor? Maybe something new that people haven't seen before."

Conner Leavitt: "Exactly What I Need"

Zaikman's season 35 partner is Conner Leavitt, whose connection to the show runs through his wife, Whitney Leavitt, a season 34 semi-finalist. According to Zaikman, the pairing is a strong fit for a debut season — she has described Leavitt as "exactly what I need" in a first celebrity partner, though she hasn't publicly detailed why in the way fans might expect. What is clear is that the dynamic matters to her, and she's spent the pre-season studying it.

A reunion on premiere night

Before the competition proper begins, Zaikman will share the ballroom with three of her Next Pro co-stars. In a mid-September video shared to the show's Instagram Stories, she appeared alongside Allen Genkin, Selena Hamilton and Erik Linder to tease a group routine for the two-night premiere.

"Hi everybody, we're back," Zaikman said. "We're going to be all dancing together. It's going to be fire."

Genkin, 36, echoed the sentiment. "It feels absolutely amazing to be back with these four right here," he said.

Noticeably absent from the reunion is British dancer AJ Pritchard, who finished as a finalist alongside Selena Hamilton and Zaikman. His absence follows off-camera drama stemming from a Next Pro semifinal routine with pre-existing pro Rylee Arnold, during which Arnold told the judges that Pritchard had been overly critical without offering positive feedback. Pritchard's fiancée, influencer Zara Zoffany, responded on social media, later issuing a public apology to Arnold. Pritchard has not publicly addressed the situation.

Advice from the veterans

As a first-time pro, Zaikman has leaned on the show's established dancers, including Daniella Karagach, for guidance. She hasn't disclosed the specifics of that advice, but the larger point is structural: on Dancing With the Stars, the pros are not interchangeable. They build fanbases, they're paired and re-paired, and their reputations carry weight with the audience.

"I'm receiving a lot of love on social media, a lot of nice messages of people supporting me," Zaikman said. "It's been great."

What's at stake

Season 35 kicks off with a two-night premiere on ABC and Disney+ on Tuesday, September 15 and Wednesday, September 16 at 8 p.m. ET. With 16 couples, it ties season nine and season thirty-one as the largest cast in the show's history.

For Zaikman, the stakes are straightforward: prove that a spinoff winner can hold her own among veterans, and translate a viral moment into staying power. The show's team has long maintained that the pros are "at the core" of the franchise, as showrunner Conrad Green has put it. Zaikman now has a season to show what that means for her.