Gleb Savchenko is setting the record straight once and for all on where he stands with Dancing With the Stars pro Alan Bersten following his public critiques.
“I mean, look, I love Alan. I think he’s a great guy, and there’s nothing personal at all,” Savchenko, 43, told Us exclusively at Press Pass LA’s 15-Year Anniversary Event in West Hollywood on Tuesday, November 10. “In my opinion, every single professional dancer on the show is a star on its own. When you look up in the sky, there’s some stars that shine brighter, and some of them are not. So that’s what I’ve been coming from, because it’s just different.”
Savchenko insisted “there’s a lot of things” he thinks Bersten, 32, excels at as a dancer. “There’s nothing personal. I love him. He’s my friend,” he continued. “People are just very sensitive nowadays and … there’s a lot of opinions from people who have no idea about ballroom dance.”
Savchenko initially raised eyebrows last month after he questioned why Bersten was chosen to stand in for Val Chmerkovskiy on season 35’s Dedication Night. Chmerkovskiy, 40, was briefly suspended from the competition after making a controversial comment toward judge Carrie Ann Inaba, who called out an illegal lift in his wife Jenna Johnson’s Super Bowl Night routine with Harry Shum Jr. With Chmerkovskiy sitting out for one week, Bersten joined Jenna Dewan for her Viennese waltz on Dedication Night.
“Alan, I think he’s Alan. I mean, he’s just not up to the level of dancing, like, period,” Savchenko — who did not participate in season 35 — said in a TikTok livestream in October. “[The] quality, the technique. He’s a good dancer, I guess, for TV, but if we talk about art? Like, creating art? … Who else is there?”
In a subsequent livestream, Savchenko clarified that he “did not attack” his fellow ballroom pro.
“Alan’s a good dancer for his niche. He’s great for his thing. But he can’t be compared to Val. … I’m not talking trash, I’m just saying how it is,” he said.
While speaking with Us on Tuesday, Savchenko further emphasized that there was no bad blood, but he wasn’t backing down on his stance.
“I stand by my opinion, and I don’t really care what other people say. And I love the guy,” he continued. “There’s nothing against him. I was kind of hurt for Val at some point because he’s a friend of mine. He was put in a situation which I think — in my opinion — he should have not been put [in], and the producers may have set an example in some ways.”
Savchenko explained his issue was with the show deciding to “punish” Chmerkovskiy for his comment. “It’s a TV show,” he added. “It’s not that serious. … So when you do something like this, I’m sitting in Ibiza in Spain, sipping my wine and eating a prosciutto, and I’m like, ‘Damn, this guy [is] being treated like that?’”
Chmerkovskiy issued a public apology amid the controversy, and he returned to the ballroom with Dewan, 45, for Horror Movie Night. The pair were ultimately eliminated during Tuesday’s Grammy Night — just one week before the semifinals.
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
