As she heads into Week 7 on Dancing with the Stars, Xochitl Gomez is reflecting on her experience competing on the show so far.
And itās safe to say, itās bananas (B-A-N-A-N-A-S!)
In an interview with TooFab alongside her DWTS pro, Val Chmerkovskiy, the Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness star opened up about going through the dance competition seriesā rigorous training, including learning firsthand how a dancer can easily get injured.
Last week, Xochitl and Val received three 9s and a 10 for their stunning contemporary routine to āGame of Survivalā by Ruelle. However, the actress was injured during the performance after she scraped her knee on the altar. Looking back, Xochitl said it was āscary in the moment,ā sharing that she was initially concerned it was an injury that would force her to leave the competition. Fortunately, after some ice and a bandage, she was ready to go. In fact, she and Val went on to win the Dance Monster-thon.
However, a few days after TooFab spoke with Xochitl and Val, the former got injured again, spraining her ankle during rehearsal for their upcoming jazz performance of Gwen Stefaniās āHollaback Girlā for Music Video Night.
The 17-year-old assured fans sheās going to be alright. Xochitl shared a video of the moment ā which looked so painful! ā on TikTok, while also stressing that sheās āgood.ā
āThis shiiii is BANANAS! ššš¤Ŗ im good tho! A lil sprain but WE WORKIN!ā she captioned the TikTok video, below.
While speaking with TooFab, Xochitl and Val teased their Tuesday performance, with the former gushing over Stefani and her love of āHollaback girl.ā Meanwhile, Xochitl also spoke about how dance training compares to preparing to play a superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe; She played America Chavez in 2022ās Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
See more from Xochitl and Val in TooFabās interview in the video, above, and read on for the Q&A, below!
What can you tell us about your upcoming jazz routine to Gwen Stefaniās āHollaback Girlā for Music Video Night? What inspiration (themes, aesthetic, costumes, etc) are you taking from the video?
Val: Iām inspired by the chant of it, and it sounds like an empowerment chant. And itās a video that she loves.
Xochitl: I love Gwen Stefani. I donāt know how much I can express. Actually, for my Week 2 salsa, I kind of made my look inspired by Gwen Stefaniās No Doubt era where she was wearing lots of stripes. Thatās how much I love her, and Iām very excited for this one.
Val: Thatās how I ended up doing a salsa in a flannel because she loves Gwen Stefani so much.
Xochitl, you were probably around two years old when this song/video came out. Can you remember when you first heard the song? Did you already know most of the lyrics before this?
Xochitl: I know the entire song, and I usually when weāre like practicing or at least marking it, Iāll sing it along just ācause I actually find knowing the song so much easier when youāre trying to learn choreography because you know the tempo and you know the lyrics, and you know what to hit and where. I donāt remember when I necessarily started listening to Gwen Stefani, but I think itās mainly ācause my mom has a lot of great music influences.
I just kind of listened to it all the time. And I think thatās the benefit of having a cool mom is that you get to listen to really cool music and memorize it and [do it] on Dancing With the Stars.
Have you met Gwen Stefani?
Xochitl: I have not. Sheās awesome. Iām manifesting that for my future,
We also want to congratulate both of you on your stellar contemporary performance last week ā and you won the āDance Monster-thon!ā But Xochitl, you got injured. How are you feeling now? Are you fully recovered?
Xochitl: In the moment, I had scraped my knee on the altar, but my knee kind of went kind of numb, and all I knew is that it was on my kneecap. So I wasnāt sure what had happened. It is just a scrape right there. But weāre all good. It was just kind of scary in the moment because when you canāt feel something, and you canāt look down and check, itās okay, you have to kind of stay in the moment.
Thoughts kind of roll in, and you are like, āWow, this could be an injury, and I could possibly not be on the show anymore. This could be something that is serious.ā And so once I got a second to look down and see what it was, I was like, āOkay, weāre good.ā And so I put some ice on it, and the medic put literally a bandaid on it, and I was like, āWe good? We ballin.ā Monster-thon!ā
Which pairing in the show would you say is your biggest competition?
Val: Xochitl and Val.
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Xochitl, which is harder, training to be a superhero or training for DWTS?
Xochitl: Ooh, I think Dancing with the Stars just because itās stuff that Iāve never really done before. Doing stuff for being a superhero ā¦ Iāve done martial arts, thatās kind of my background, so I was kind of prepared for that. Where here, I donāt really know how to dance. All the stuff that I know is TikTok and musical theatre [from] when I was five to 12 doing youth productions that are super uncoordinated, very bad choreography that youāre most of the time just running around. So this is a whole other level where I just had to really kind of follow the teacher.
I guess the one thing that helped me out a lot was doing Zumba ācause then it made me kind of pick up stuff quickly ācause you get that three seconds to figure out what the teacherās doing to do it and then repeat that over and over again.
Xochtil, after the show, looking forward, do you see yourself wanting to take more dance classes, maybe do more Zumba, that sort of thing? Do you think you will continue to have dance in her life?
Val: She wonāt be able to afford lessons with me, thatās for sure.
No discount?
Val: Discount? What do you mean? Sheās getting a discount right now for three months!
Watch Xochitl and Val hit up the dance floor on Dancing with the Stars on Tuesday night at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+.
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