The Next Pro’s Erik Linder on Elimination, Selena Hamilton Relationship, More (Exclusive)

The Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro cast was put to the test by guest mentor/judge Daniella Karagach during the August 10 episode. The group had to split into pairs and create a contemporary routine featuring a “wow” moment that had the potential of going viral, just like Karagach’s air walk lift with Dylan Efron in Season 34 did. WARNING: Spoilers for Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro Episode 5 ahead.

This week, the guys had the chance to pick their female partners. Allen Genkin chose Adele Zaikman, while AJ Pritchard and Erik Linder both wanted to work with Selena Hamilton, who has lots of contemporary experience. Selena chose to partner with Erik again following their impressive Argentine tango the week before, leaving AJ to pair up with Nina Mayster.

While Erik/Nina and Allen/Adele both wowed the judges with major moments in their routines, Erik and Selena went in a different direction. They chose to let simplicity and stillness be the “wow” factor in their dance.

Selena had doubts about whether this would be big enough for the judges, but Erik was optimistic that it would work. While Mark Ballas noted that “wow” moments are “open to interpretation,” Shirley Ballas scolded the duo for not following the brief. She noted that the dancing was beautiful, but said she expected more from Selena due to her contemporary experience.

When Shirley asked Selena and Erik whose idea it was to choose stillness as the “wow” moment, he replied, “I take joint responsibility. I don’t think either of us was leading the choreography.” Selena hesitated before eventually agreeing, adding, “I don’t know. I feel like we made an executive decision.”

Selena and Erik were placed in the bottom two, and the judges chose to eliminate Erik. Below, he opens up about whether he regrets not going bigger in the dance and more.

Disney/Vince Valitutti

You chose to work with Selena again for the second week in a row. Why did you want to dance with her again and how did you guys work so well together?

So the reason why I picked Selena again was, first off, we had a great number together in the Argentine tango. And just when you work with somebody and how quickly you can create a product, that was a big factor for me. And if it comes to you organically and it doesn’t take a lot of effort and force to create a routine, that’s something that’s important, especially with the timeline that we have. And I know she has experience in commercial dancing — contemporary — and I had no experience in that. So if I was going to trust somebody to help create a routine with, it would be her.

Did you guys know each other before the show at all, or did you form that chemistry from being on the show?

We actually did not know each other before the show at all. So we just, over the time of being at the house and then you dance next to each other, you hear about people’s backgrounds, you watch each other do their performances. So just kind of in the free time and our friends throughout the house, we just kind of became close.

The way that at least the edit shows it was that it was your idea to keep things more simple in the contemporary and have that be the “wow” moment, which was different from what everyone else was doing. Then when the judges asked you about it, you guys said it was a joint decision. So break down what was really happening…

So our idea, or what we decided to go with, was we didn’t want to force anything. So even though the brief was a “wow” moment, it didn’t necessarily specify it had to be a trick. It didn’t have to be the biggest jump, the biggest “wow” moment. And if you take each dance, and dance is art, so it’s subjective to what a “wow” moment is. It could be many different things. So to us it was … let’s not force something to happen. Let’s allow the routine to maybe show us something or maybe the audience will connect with the moment. And we didn’t want to make it overly manufactured to do a double back flip and, “This is the ‘wow’ moment.” It was more like …  enjoy the choreography, dance it to its best ability, make something that feels right, and hopefully it’s translated, and it’s received.

And if it’s not, that was a risk we were taking. But I’m happy with the routine. And both of us, at the end, we both agreed that that was one of our favorite numbers just to perform.

She seemed to have some hesitations in rehearsal and maybe wanted to try to incorporate a trick or something. Did you go into it both knowing that this is how you wanted to do it, or were you pulling her back into making it more simple?

I think both of us had the same idea as far as moving forward. How much back and forth and how much conversation goes into these rehearsals and things … there’s so much brainstorming, and you’re moving so quickly as far as the pace. So to say that we didn’t give a billion different ideas and try a million different things … we did. Our consensus was, “Let’s focus on the body of the routine and then make sure that’s really good and then we’ll find some ‘wow’ moments throughout it.” We didn’t want it to be faked, pretty much.

Did you actually go third the way they showed it?

I think we went first or second.

When you saw what the other two groups did, because they did have more flashy aspects to their routine, were you then worried that you would be in jeopardy because of that?

I was never worried I was going to be in jeopardy for the whole show. Not that I didn’t think that it was a possibility, but I just didn’t allow that to be even [a thought] in my mind. It was more [living] one moment at a time: I’m going to go and perform this choreography to my best ability, enjoy it, live it. And I was just happy to be a part of everything. So whether that means I went home Week 1 or if I won the show, that really had no difference to me. I was happy for everyone. I loved watching everyone else’s shows, and I just wanted to enjoy the moment. And I wasn’t overly analytical or super strategic. It was more like, “I’m here, I’m going to dance my best. I’m with people that I care about. And if it works, great. If it doesn’t, it will work out in another way for me.”

Disney/Vince Valitutti

Looking back now with how everything worked out, do you stand by the choreography and keeping things simple in that way?

Absolutely. I really enjoyed the routine. Selena told me that she enjoyed the routine. And sometimes it’s not always about doing what you can to win. It’s having your own wins along the way. Even when doing the whole show, my mindset was to show that I’m more than a one-trick pony. I can do other styles. I can venture off from only competitive dancing. So allowing that to happen and taking that to different avenues has really … I enjoyed it. So I don’t look at it as a loss. And would I change it? I don’t think I would change it because that brought me to where I am now, and you can’t change the past. You can only learn from it. It could have gone differently, could have been received differently, but ultimately that’s one of my favorite pieces of dance just because it’s so much outside of what I’m used to doing.

It was a stunning dance and nice to see something different.

That was, kind of, I think, our approach to it. It’s not a gamble, but anytime you’re trying something new, you have to be willing to take the risk on it. And there was a risk if it would either be received really well and, “Wow, you took the chance and did something different.” But you have to be OK with that. And it’s not a matter of if it was bad or not bad. It was just a decision you have to make, and you have to stand by it and do it with all the right intentions. And if it’s received well, fantastic. If not, it’s OK. Be happy for the other people who made it through.

Is Dancing With the Stars still the end goal for you? Or what else are you looking forward to coming up next?

I have a lot of exciting things coming up. I can’t talk about it right now, but just keep watching. But Dancing with the Stars, for sure. I think that just from my experience with the show and even going into it, I did it in a way of testing myself — if this is something I want to get involved with, this type of dancing and this type of industry, if it feels like it’s the right fit for me. And I can’t say anything but good things about the show. Everyone involved was amazing, and the whole cast and just getting to know each and every one of them from our show and also from the current Dancing With the Stars cast and show. So definitely I want to still be involved and hopefully [there’s] more from that, but that’s all to be decided.

Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro, Mondays, 8/7c, ABC