Charity Lawson lands perfect score on “DWTS” with cheerleading freestyle after scary rehearsal injury

The former Bachelorette brought her pro cheerleading skills to the ballroom.

Charity Lawson put herself on top of the Dancing With the Stars pyramid.

The former Bachelorette star brought her skills as a cheerleader to the ballroom on the season 32 finale of the ABC series. Lawson has long talked about her experience competing professionally as a cheerleader and how that impacted her approach to dance.

But Lawson had a scary near miss with the number. The rehearsal package showed an incident from earlier in the week when one of the pro back-up dancers dropped Lawson in the midst of practicing a lift. Her cheek collided with their thigh and Lawson was in evident pain, requiring a trip to the emergency room. Lawson injured her jaw, causing her partner Artem Chigvintsev to fear for her ability to continue.

He needn't have worried, however. Lawson rallied and brought her skills to the ballroom in a freestyle packed with high kicks, lifts, and more. "I don't think we’ve ever seen anything like that ever in the history of this show," judge Derek Hough told her.

Judge Bruno Tonioli called the freestyle worthy of the Super Bowl and Carrie Ann Inaba noted that the routine was how the freestyles should be done.

The routine earned Lawson and Chigvintsev a perfect 10 from the judges, putting her in good position with a total of 118 points across the semifinals and finals. Coming into the finale, the duo was in second place behind Xochitl Gomez and Val Chmerkovskiy.

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