Glee Star Dances Her Way to a Victory

27 Nov, 2013

Amber Riley started Dancing With the Stars with no hope of winning Season 17. She finished it with the mirror-ball trophy, the ABC dance competition’s symbol of victory.

“When I first started, I just didn’t think there was any way that I could win. It wasn’t a thought for me. It was just like, ‘Go and do your best, do your best,’ ” she said on the confetti-strewn ballroom floor after Tuesday’s finale. “With every week, I kind of wanted it a little bit more and toward the end, I was just like, ‘Man, it’s actually possible. I’m in the finals.’ Getting through to the end was a reward in itself, but the trophy was the cherry on top.”

The Glee star, who triumphed over Corbin Bleu and Jack Osbourne on the last night of the competition, said knee problems had threatened to derail her pursuit of the trophy earlier in the competition.

Her partner, pro dancer Derek Hough, said that was a difficult time.

“I remember getting a text from her saying, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to be able to continue.’ And I thought, ‘Wow, it must be pretty bad.’ And then we went and got it figured out, we got it taken care of, and then after that moment, it was like this fire was lit under Amber,” he said. “And these last two weeks, she was just on it. It’s the best way you can finish the show. I said, ‘Whatever happens, you did everything you could have done and I’m so proud.’ ”

Riley used people’s encouragement “as fuel. I felt like, ‘All that you went through to get these knees OK, all the needles you’ve had to have in your knees, all the pain that you feel after you dance very time, you’re obviously going through that because you want it.’ ”

“It’s amazing,” said Hough, who is now a five-time winner. “It’s one of those moments where you never quite realize it until you walk into a quiet room and you’re by yourself. And then it kind of hits you.”

Riley has concrete plans for her trophy. Move over, turkey.

“It’s going to be the centerpiece at Thanksgiving,” she said.

USA today

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