Brian Austin Green Says He's Doing DWTS 'Because of My Girlfriend' Sharna Burgess as They Kiss After First Dance

For the first time in Dancing with the Stars history, a pairing is entering a season as a couple.

On Monday, during the season 30 premiere, Brian Austin Green and his girlfriend, pro Sharna Burgess performed the foxtrot for their first dance of the competition. The Beverly Hills, 90210 alum, 48, and the season 27 mirrorball champion, 36, earned a score of 24 out of 40.

"I'm doing Dancing with the Stars because of my girlfriend Sharna," Green told the cameras, while Burgess said, "I am unbelievably excited to share with him something I love so deeply."

Green and Burgess have been dating for nearly a year.

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"If I mess this up, I wouldn't be surprised if Sharna left me," he joked.

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After the show, the pair opened up about their partnership — both on and off the ballroom floor.

"We haven't had a bad moment for us because our communication is so great, so anything that arises we discuss it," Burgess told reporters. "But it is new, so it's just staying open and seeing what Brian is showing me and what we need as a couple in life and what we need as a partnership on the dance floor and trying to be present through that."

"She's amazing," Green added of his girlfriend. "She's been doing this her whole life. She's a dancer and I know nothing about it. I made a choice early on, when we would go and rehearse, that I need to put whatever ego that would possibly come up aside and just listen and learn. She's really great."

"I think the toughest thing for us has just been learning the situation," he continued. "For her, not wanting to step on my toes. She'll feel like, 'Maybe I should walk on egg shells and I shouldn't say this or that.' We talk through everything. I think it's been working amazing so far. I felt really blessed with this situation because it could've not worked out so well. The fact that it has is definitely love."

After night 1, Burgess shared her excitement about the season on Instagram.

"Honestly… I'll find the right words at some point. But holy s--- I am in heaven getting to do what I love with the man that I love. Please vote, cos I wanna do this for as long as we possibly can," she wrote.

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In June, Burgess told PEOPLE that dating Green during the COVID pandemic quarantine made them closer than they could have imagined.

"We met at a coffee shop, then had a few dates and then we were locked in a house together," she said. "I was grateful for that because it allowed us to really take our time and it was really awesome."

Meeting Burgess "was something I'd never experienced before in my life," Green told PEOPLE. The actor officially split from ex-wife Megan Fox last year. (Green shares sons Noah, 8, Bodhi, 7, and Journey, 4, with Fox, as well as Kassius, 19, with ex Vanessa Marcil.)

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"On our first date, we just completely lost track of time and the same thing happened the next time. It became something noticeably different from anything I'd ever experienced before," the father of four said. "I wasn't sure what that meant until the first time we kissed and then it was the attraction and a whole bunch more. It was really cool. And we really have the same moral compass."

Green added, "In the past year and a half, going through the divorce and the pandemic and everything I've been through, it really changed my moral outlook on the world."

Dancing with the Stars airs Mondays on ABC.