Swimsuit

Fans Can’t Get Enough of Ilona Maher’s ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Performance on Oscars Night

The Olympic athlete and her professional ballroom dancer partner performed to an iconic track from ‘Dirty Dancing.’

Cara O’Bleness

Alan Bersten and Ilona Maher
Alan Bersten and Ilona Maher / Eric McCandless/Getty Images

The theme on Tuesday night’s live episode of Dancing With the Stars was Oscars night, meaning celebrity contestants and their pro dancer partners performed to songs from films like La La Land, Superman, Die Hard and A Star Is Born.

Olympic rugby player and SI Swimsuit’s September digital issue cover model, Ilona Maher, and her partner, Alan Bersten, performed the salsa to “(I've Had) The Time of My Life” by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes from the 1987 romance-drama film Dirty Dancing. The pair teased their rehearsals on social media all week, so fans were already in a frenzy to see the performance—and Maher and Bersten certainly delivered.

The choreography involved moves in which Maher showcased her strength by flipping her partner, and the bronze medalist, of course, was lifted overhead by Bersten in a nod to the film’s iconic scene.

Afterward, the Dancing With the Stars Instagram account shared snippets of the duo’s performance, and we can’t get enough of the comments section.

“Ilona is the reason I’m watching this show for the first time ever!!!! She deserved all 8s for this amazing routine!” one person wrote.

“THE LIFTS. THE MOVES. EVERYTHING WAS AWESOME,” someone else gushed.

“THEY DEFINITELY HAD THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES,” another user noted.

“The reason I’m watching DWTS! 🙌💪 @ilonamaher!” an additional fan cheered. “Embracing a strong woman with grace. 💜 👏🔥.”

“This was great. A lot of hip action. And the lifts were great. Well done.🥰,” someone else applauded.

Watch Maher and Bersten’s full Dancing With the Stars performance below.

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Cara O’Bleness
CARA O’BLENESS

Cara O’Bleness is a writer and editor on the Lifestyle and Trending News team for SI Swimsuit. Prior to joining SI Swimsuit in 2022, she worked as a writer and editor across a number of content verticals, including food, lifestyle, health and wellness, and small business and entrepreneurship. In her free time, O’Bleness loves reading, spending time with her family and making her way through Michigan’s many microbreweries. She is a graduate of Michigan State University’s School of Journalism.

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