Harry Shum Jr. used Instagram on Friday to tell Dancing With the Stars fans to slow down, spread love and remember the show is meant to feel joyful. His message came after a tense week on the dance floor, and he paired the reminder with supportive notes for fellow contestants, including Guillermo Rodriguez.
Shum wrote that this is a dance show and that it is supposed to be joyous, adding that people are already suffering in the world. He singled out Rodriguez with praise, saying his energy had pulled in people watching at home and people on the show, and that the joy was bursting through every step he took. He ended that note with, “I love you, man.”
The post lands right after a week that mixed celebration with strain. Rodriguez was eliminated on Tuesday during the show's first-ever Super Bowl Night, and Daniella Karagach said his exit felt like “a piece of us leaving.” At the same time, Jenna Johnson got into a tense discussion with Carrie Ann Inaba, giving the season a sharper edge than the glitter and applause usually suggest.
That is the friction Shum was trying to cool. He did not just salute Rodriguez; he also wrote to Connor Woods, Tatyana Ali, Jackson Olson, Maura Higgins, Amber Glenn, Tyler Cameron, Julia Stiles, Ezra Frech and Jenna Dewan, describing Woods as the body roll king and praising his levelheaded perspective. He called Ali an advocate for mothers holding on to their joy, pointed to Olson's split life as a dancer and a Savannah Bananas player, and said Higgins and Glenn brought infectious humor.
He also told Cameron he had improved over the past few weeks, praised Frech for maturity, charisma and confidence, and said Stiles' performance made him think of her Save the Last Dance routine 20 years later. His note to Dewan was the most personal: he said he had met her decades ago, that she was kind and gracious when he was a young creative trying to figure out the industry, and that watching her take criticism with grace felt like the Jenna he knows and loves. For a show built on competition, the message was clear. Shum wanted the cast and the audience to treat the moment like what it is first: a performance, not a fight.
