Amber Glenn and Pasha Pashkov will take on a samba on the Oct. 13 episode of Dancing With the Stars, dancing to J Balvin's Mi Gente. For Glenn, the assignment marks another step in a run that has already carried the 26-year-old figure skater from the ice into season 35 of the ballroom competition.
The timing matters because Glenn and Pashkov are still moving forward after last week, when their rumba to Mariah Carey's Hero earned them a place in the next round. After Ciara Miller's elimination, 11 celebrity contestants remained, and Glenn's name is still in the mix as the show heads into another week of scoring and elimination pressure.
Glenn did not pretend the style comes naturally. “I've never done anything close to a samba in skating before, and now I get to try that,” she said, describing the routine as something far outside the movement vocabulary she built as a skater. She added that she wants to keep going and show everyone new sides of herself, a goal that fits a performer who spent years building a record on ice before shifting to the dance floor.
That record is substantial. Glenn grew up in Plano, began skating at age 5 at Frisco's Stonebriar Centre mall and went on to help Team USA win gold in the figure skating team event at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina. She also finished fifth in the women's individual competition there, became the first U.S. woman to land three triple axels at a single Olympics and won three consecutive U.S. national championships from 2024 through 2026. In 2024, she also won the Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Grenoble, France.
Now the challenge is different. A samba asks for bounce, rhythm and looseness in ways that figure skating does not, and Glenn is stepping into it while trying to protect her place in the competition. The next answer will come on Oct. 13, when she and Pashkov perform in front of the judges again. If they keep advancing after a routine that is supposed to stretch her far beyond the ice, the transition from champion skater to ballroom contender will look less like a stunt and more like a second career taking shape.
Amber Glenn joins Season 35 of Dancing With the Stars with Pasha Pashkov as she prepares for the next test on the show.
