Brooks Nader Teases Her Feelings Leading Up to ‘DWTS’ Finale Reunion With Gleb Savchenko

The SI Swimsuit cover girl and the Russian choreographer will be back together on the dance floor for the season finale on Nov. 26.

Brooks Nader and Gleb Savchenko / Eric McCandless/Getty Images

SI Swimsuit cover girl Brooks Nader, who posed for the front of the 2023 issue, is finally offering fans insight on how she’s feeling about reuniting with Dancing With the Stars partner and choreographer Gleb Savchenko. The duo were eliminated from the reality television show on Oct 15., but briefly continued to hang out and fuel their showmance rumors. They even got matching tattoos together.

“I’ve just enjoyed all the people I have met through the Dancing With the Stars process and the doors that it’s lead to for me,” the Baton Rouge native tells SI Swimsuit, noting that the entire experience has been, without a doubt, the highlight of her year.

Though her relationship with the 41-year-old has since ended, and the two aren’t really speaking anymore, the 27-year-old reveals on the red carpet at SI Swimsuit’s 60th anniversary issue party in Los Angeles on Nov. 14 that they will be dancing together on the Season 33 finale in two weeks.

“I’m very anxious in a good, first day of school way. There’s a lot of personal differences you’ve got to put to the side and just be professional. It will be something to see, for sure,” Nader adds. “He confuses me, I confuse him. We’re just trying to get through, but who knows though. Who knows what’s next. We definitely did have a strong connection, so we’ll see how that all plays out when we get back on the dance floor together.”

While running into an ex or former partner after a breakup is a common experience, Nader and Savchenko’s reunion will differ from most in that they will have to “go full body to body” contact, as Nader puts it, practicing several hours a day for their upcoming routine.

Brooks Nader and Gleb Savchenko / Disney/Eric McCandless/Getty Images

“He’s a positive person. I’m a positive person. Nothing can go wrong, right? I mean, we thought that in the beginning and obviously things change but, I think being surrounded by the Dancing With the Stars community and group is like very encouraging and nothing can go wrong when they’re involved because they are just incredible,” Nader adds.

Fellow SI Swimsuit model and September digital issue cover girl Ilona Maher is also a contestant on the show. She and partner Alan Bersten are headed to the Dancing With the Stars semi-finals on Tuesday, Nov. 19.