The Dance With The Stars Show Season 33 has been under the spotlight of NBA fans since Dwight Howard stepped in. Consequently, his dancing partner Daniella Karagach is the center of attraction this season as well. Tuning into the latest week of DWTS with the theme ‘Halloween Nightmares’, the pro dancer was seen busy on camera blocking the sets, a day before the show. After a grueling day of work, she found a breather as she took to Instagram to share her daughter Nikita with her Dad. 

On her Instagram story, Daniella shared a video showing Nikita holding her father Pasha Pashkov’s hand and taking an evening stroll on the poolside as the sunset painted a deep orange behind the mountains. The caption, “Signing off💜,” shows the haven Karagach had with her family while winding up her day. The former Mirrorball trophy winner had Nikita a year ago. However relaxing her story seems, how she balances the show and family, including a toddler, is intriguing!

As Karagach revealed in an interview with ABC News recently, she had Nikita after a miscarriage. This makes her a treasure for our American dancer and choreographer. Since the show began on September 17, 2024, with the Dwight Howard team making Salsa steps to This is How We Do It by Montell Jordan, she struggled to balance home and work. She says to ‘Good Morning America’, “This season, I have such a great personality to work with, but I’m drained because I want to make sure I’m doing everything I can to make him look good. And then when you go home, you can’t just like, you know, unwind and relax,” 

Even though at times such a routine makes Karagach exhausted, it turns out to be a self-realization path as she confessed, “Being a mum is my superpower.” Now, that the toddler has started to walk, the DWTS champion is also making vibrant steps into the seventh week of the popular dance show. 

Heralding Halloween with spooky dance

With Halloween, at three days’ distance, premium channels ABC and Disney+ are gearing up to air the DWTS with 7 teams and ghostly choreography. Since the Disney night last week has eliminated Phaedra Parks and Val Chmerkovskiy and the top pair on last week’s leaderboard Chandler Kinney and Brandon Armstrong received immunity, what awaits the audience is the performance of 6 teams. However, this time it will be a face-off where two pairs share the floor for the same style, leading to 3 dances with the winner of each receiving bonus points adding up to their judge’s points. 

As the Howard-Karagach pair are concerned, their competitors are Olympian rugby player Ilona Maher and pro Alan Bersten who are planning for a Tango to “Psycho Killer” by Miley Cyrus. While Tango was our duo’s choice last week, this time they are going for a contemporary to “Ring Around The Rosie” by District 78. Here our 3x Defensive Player of the Year will become the nightmare: The Boogeyman. However, this being their respective dance and songs, they will be sharing the stage with a Cha Cha to Ghostbusters by Ray Parker Jr. 

The performance of the duo until now has garnered public opinion with them being placed in the second position many times. Some ardent fans are even coming up hailing the contagious smile and energy of Dwight Howard, especially during their Disney night performance. Meanwhile, Maher with her loyal fan base and versatile performance, is not to be overlooked.  The spookiness that Howard and his pair can bring to the stage needs to be seen. 

As the pro dancer Daniella Karagach praises her co-player and student, Howard is quite good at making his efforts as he did on the hard floor. As the day unveils we will get to see if this enthusiasm bears fruit this time. Until then, Karagach can of course relax with her family as the sun sets for another day.