Xochitl Gomez Dishes on Her Journey from TikTok to 'Dancing with the Stars'

Xóchitl Gomez

When Marvel star Xóchitl Gómez took to the ballroom floor with her pro partner Val Chmerkovskiy on night one of Season 32 of Dancing with the Stars, she wasn’t at the top of the leaderboard, rather she finished in a tie for fifth place with Adrian Peterson and his pro partner Britt Stewart.

Now Adrian is out of the competition and Xóchitl has climbed to the top of the pack as of last week, scoring 42 points—37 points for her contemporary dance to “Game of Survival” by Ruelle and 5 points for winning the dance-off contest. It’s quite the accomplishment considering she’s never really had any formal dance training.

“My early dance experience was doing children’s musicals from age 5-12,” she tells Parade in this exclusive interview. “I did the ensemble group numbers for the musicals I was in. Honestly, I wasn’t a standout. They usually put me in the back! Then I joined TikTok when COVID kicked in and that’s when I started teaching myself trending dances by watching them on repeat. Learning TikTok dances put me in a happy place while we were locked down and I’m so grateful for it.”

It was enough to land her a spot on the 2023 season of Dancing with the Stars on which she was happily paired with Val, whose excellence as a choreographer has made the most of the skills she learned on TikTok. But Xóchitl has been able to call even more on her martial arts training than on her prior dance skills, which she says were pretty basic, to train for the ballroom dances.

“I’ve done wushu for about five years now, off and on,” she says. “It’s given me strength, flexibility, balance and speed. The movements in wushu are choreographed and very precise so that’s similar to what Val needs me to do. There’s lots of corrections and body awareness. I’m used to drilling and drilling until it’s perfect. It’s funny because I got into wushu for stunt training, but it turned out to be really great for dancing. Who knew!?”

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DWTS is halfway through its season now and Xóchitl looks to be guaranteed to make it all the way to the finale. Not only is she improving each week with the scores to reflect it, but Val has twice won the MirrorBall Trophy—in 2015 while partnered with Rumer Willis and in 2016 with Olympic gymnast Laurie Hernandez—so he knows what it takes to get them there.

“Working with Val is pure entertainment,” Xóchitl shares. “He’s hilarious. We have a lot of fun and we work very hard so it’s a nice balance. He’s an amazing teacher. It’s true that he gets so far each season because he’s that good! On the first day, he’d already dialed in how I learn best and what my strengths are. He’s had to have a lot of patience because I have dyslexia and sometimes, I get frustrated when I can’t learn as quickly as I think I should. He’s kind and encouraging and that makes me want to do my best and make him proud. I’ll truly miss hanging out with him four hours a day when this is over. He’s become like family for me.”

For this interview, Xóchitl also talked about her biggest challenges, how being the youngest competitor affects her, how she wants to represent for other young Latinas, and what she hopes to take away from DWTS at the end of the day.

The look is such a big part of the dance. How are you doing with all the sequins and glitter, and how much input do you have into your costumes?

I love creating looks and I’m always very involved with my styling. Dressing with a theme in mind is my specialty so it’s been really inspiring to share my ideas with the costume department. They’ve been super collaborative. For me, I need to feel 100 percent about what I’m wearing because it’s so much a part of how I bring out the physicality of the character in the dance and bring it to life. I’ve been able to share photos and drawings of costume ideas and the costume department will translate those ideas into dance wear when possible. It’s been super cool to see those ideas come to life. Costumes are a big part of the magic that happens behind the scenes at DWTS.

What has been your biggest challenge on the show so far?

I’ve had a bruised-up rib from doing lifts and tricks and then I got bronchitis. That was a lot to have happen at once. At one point I couldn’t even sit up and it hurt to take deep breaths. But both things are getting much better now, so that’s probably been the biggest challenge so far and I feel like it’s mostly behind me now.

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Since you’re the youngest competitor this season at 17, is that an advantage or a disadvantage and in what way?

Being the youngest competitor has its pluses and minuses. On the plus side, I started the season in good physical shape and being a teenager, I feel like I probably recover faster in general. On the minus side, I think my age places limits on some of the more passionate dance styles. I’m still a teenager so Val has to choreograph with that in mind and he’s really good at it. He has a real gift for keeping the tone where it needs to be without losing the heart of the dance or compromising the performance. He’s really great at thinking outside the box— just another of his many talents.

Who do you see as your biggest competition to get to the finale?

My biggest competition has to be Val because he’s constantly making up choreography that’s so hard to do. He literally challenges me to do stuff I can’t do. Like he will say, “I bet you can’t do this or that,” and then I’ll go work on it for hours so I can prove him wrong. He’s always pushing me to the next level. When the dance finally comes together, I can see the payoff because his choreography looks amazing!

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We talked after your Paso Doble and you mentioned wanting to get the costume right. Why is it important for you to represent for Latinas, especially young girls?

It’s so great that this season of DWTS has four contestants with Latin heritage. I think that’s a first and I’m here for it! I can’t tell you how cool it was that Val and I got to wear Mexican folkloric costumes during the Paso Doble and then, during the week 5 Viennese waltz, it was a very special moment for me to dance in a real quinceañera dress. I love to see positive representation of Latin culture and traditions. Being able to showcase that through the dances and costumes has been one of the highlights of my experience so far.

Were you a fan of the show prior to joining? Have you watched past seasons? If so, who were your favorites?

I started watching DWTS with my grandma when I was little, maybe around 5 or 6 years old. It’s great because it’s a show for everyone and it’s nice to have something in common with my grandparents. I love to watch the partnerships evolve and the dancing progress. That’s what makes me excited as a viewer of the show and it’s something I think about every day because I want my journey to be something that people enjoy watching.

Some of my favorite partnerships most recently are Gleb Savchenko and Shangela and Trevor Donovan and Emma Slater. They always surprised me and had super fun chemistry. For Val, I really loved watching him with Laurie because it reminds me a lot of our relationship. And that MirrorBall Trophy was icing on the cake!

When you’re done, what do you hope to take away from this experience?

I expect that I will continue to dance, just a lot better than I ever did before! I’m always trying to improve my skills and add new life experiences, so I’ve already received more than I ever expected from DWTS. Ultimately, I hope that kids get more interested in dance because it’s such a great community.

Dancing with the Stars airs Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC and is simulcast on Disney+.

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