Exclusive: 'Dancing with the Stars' pro Keo Motsepe on judges' comments: I was like, "Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on!"

Dancing with the Stars pro Keo Motsepe appeared to have a little meltdown after his "Switch Up" performance last week with Kim Fields, and now he's explaining what made him so upset.


Dancing with the Stars' broadcast on Monday night showed some flashback footage of "Switch Up Week," when Keo stormed out of the studio and shooed cameras away from his face after performing a highly-criticized Viennese waltz with The Real Housewives of Atlanta star, who was originally paired with Sasha Farber.

Keo, whose permanent partner is Jodie Sweetin, received some harsh feedback from judge Len Goodman and guest judge Maksim Chmerkovskiy about the content of his choreography as well as Kim's lack of frame. Keo and Kim received only 28 out of 40 judges' points for the routine.

During an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Tuesday, Keo discussed his little outburst and why the judges' comments affected him so much. Below is the pro dancer's statement:

I'm very passionate about what I do all the time, like I give 100% in everything I do. I ask myself so many questions and sit on the curb outside and bounce ideas and energy [off myself]. I write down the counts of music and think, 'In the session, I should do this.' And I always follow my instincts, because they're always right. Not even sometimes -- all the time.


Sometimes I push something away and go, 'Nah, that's not right.' And then if someone goes, 'Yo, you should've done that,' I'm like, 'Oh my God. Did I just say no to my instincts? No!' So, storming out of the room and going outside and not wanting any cameras to be in my face was because I'm passionate and it wasn't my night. It's never my night on the show. It's dancing with a celebrity, it's Dancing with the Stars. It's not Dancing with the Pros.

I came into this with Kim with the full intention of bringing something different out of her. And hearing that [judges Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli] saw that... it was more about Kim achieving a goal that she wanted to show the judges. And it was kind of disappointing in a sense when Maks and Len said what they said.

I kind of went, 'Um, hi. It's not my night. Maybe another time. It's Kim's night. Talk to her.' It felt like they just shut her down. They shut her down. That's what was disappointing to me. I was like, 'Talk to Kim. Give her comments. If there's criticism, give it to her.' And then I'll go, 'Okay, cool. Then I'll talk to Sasha. Sasha will be watching and can go, 'Okay, I should look into that one next time I [rehearse] with Kim.'

Instead, of [talking to Kim], I was like, 'Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on!' You know what I mean? It's just because I'm passionate. If I didn't care, I was just going to look at the cameras and say what I wanted to say. But I do care; I do care about what I do. And... I just make sure I'm already doing the right thing and trying to make a difference.

And I think I did that with Kim and, without intention, it was just like shoved in my face like that. And I was just like, 'Wait, hold on. This is becoming too, kind of, personal a little bit. So I'm just going to step away.' It was disappointing they were not talking to Kim. It was more, like, talking to me.


There's a way to talk to people. There's a professional way and then there's a way when you come across harsh to someone and the [feedback] isn't even good. And I was like, 'Yo, I don't know about the energy...' I just felt it when I walked up to [Tom Bergeron], I was like, 'Here we go!'

So Maks spoke first and I was like, 'Okay, I'll take that.' And then Carrie spoke and Bruno spoke and I was like, 'Okay, this is going well.' And then Len [spoke] and I think Len triggered Maks. And I was like, 'Here we go!' But, you know, it is what it is. And I think I had the right to also say what I think is good [about the performance.]

I was like, 'Okay, guys, let's breathe.' There's a professional way to talk to other people. It was the kind of thing where I was like, 'Kim is right next to me. Talk to her...'

I've watched the show so many times and I got to a point where the way [Maksim] came towards me, I'm like, 'My brother, if you were standing where I am right now, and they gave you that criticism, you'd be against the judges so many times. Why did you do that to someone else? If you don't like something, why would you do it to someone else?'

I was like, 'This kind of thing, if you don't like what some people do to you, then don't do it to other people.' It doesn't make sense to me. I was like, 'Hmm. Alright. Cool.' I just looked at him, like, 'Okay cool.' I just gave him a thumbs up like, 'Great. Awesome.'






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski