DWTS' Jenna and Val Deny Creating Fake 'Chemistry' With Their Partners

Married Dancing With the Stars pros Jenna Johnson and Val Chmerkovskiy have figured out the perfect balance of building a connection with their partners - without creating fake chemistry for the camera.

"Honestly, half of dance is connection. It's chemistry - whether it's with your partner or whether it's with the audience or the camera," Johnson, 32, exclusively told Us while discussing her and Chmerkovskiy's partnership with Fabuloso. "It's all about storytelling, and if you don't have that, it kind of just falls flat."

Johnson highlighted how "passionate" she and Chmerkovskiy, 40, are about "finding an immediate connection" with their partners, adding, "[It's about] being able to have that palpable trust and bond so you can go out there and display a beautiful performance that people are going to emotionally connect with and feel."

Chmerkovskiy, for his part, broke down his own personal definition of chemistry.

"I don't seek to necessarily create certain chemistry so that a product can look a certain way," he shared with Us. "To me, chemistry is camaraderie first and foremost. Are you friends? Are you willing to go and work hard together, stress together and be uncomfortable together?"

He continued: "And when I feel that - like what Jenna said [about how her partner] Harry Shum Jr.] is full-time working and making the sacrifice. You're bound to have chemistry with that person because you're like, ‘You're showing up for this and for me,' because the show is an extension of what we love. So when our partners are showing up, that's when we're building that camaraderie and chemistry. Everything else gets built on top of that. For me, chemistry is defined by respect - mutual respect - and commitment to a common goal. To me, that's chemistry."

While Johnson builds her bond with Shum on season 35, Chmerkovskiy is forming his partnership with actress Jenna Dewan. Each season of DWTS comes with plenty of conversation on social media, but Johnson and Chmerkovskiy - who have been married since 2019 - have figured out a way to drown out the noise.

"It's hard, but you really do have to have blinders on," Johnson shared, with Chmerkovskiy adding, "You just don't venture deep south into the commons. You stay surface level with the top four or five comments usually."

Chmerkovskiy has learned not to let himself scroll too much.

"We just need to be sober-minded about the whole thing. Not to get too high and not to get too low. Just be realistic about what it is. It's passion created by interest and there's so much positivity," he explained. "But these social networks, they work off of rage and clickbait. There's a whole ecosystem that now is touching us. When we didn't matter, those systems didn't matter and didn't care. Now that we matter - besides authentic and organic interest - there is now fabricated interest on top of that. We just have to adjust and adapt and filter."

The couple, who each have a few mirrorball trophies under their belts, are still learning how to navigate the chatter as DWTS becomes even more popular.

"This is new for us. When I received certain commentary that wasn't nice, I received it from real people [in the past]," he added. "Now I receive it from - I don't know if it's even a real person or this is a campaign to sway certain things. I just try to focus on dance and focus on the joy that I get from creating and try to focus on the people that we do have a positive impact on."

Chmerkovskiy concluded: "We're not just happy for ourselves. We're happy for our entire cast. We're happy for the show because it's doing well and we're happy for our cast because we're a part of that. We're happy for dance and [the] dance community as a whole because of this interest. The important thing is to zoom out. When you're in it and your phone is in front of your face all day, once you zoom out, you see how beautiful this moment is."

While Johnson and Chmerkovskiy aren't paying attention to everything online, they have seen some of the funny reactions since season 35 began earlier this month. Johnson specifically weighed in on eagle-eyed viewers spotting that Shum's fly was down during their performance on Tuesday, September 22.

"It's so funny. We finish the show and they walk us straight over to press and he looks down and he goes, ‘Oh, my gosh, my fly was down the whole time.' We were dying laughing. So I love that the internet zoomed in enough to see that," Johnson quipped. "I love that our show has people who are so passionate about it. We are drawing so much attention and at the forefront of that is dance. Who would have thought that dance would be this universal topic that people of all ages are discussing? It's hard to, like, block out all of the noise, but at the end of the day, I'm just really proud. We're making impact and we're creating conversation and we're creating controversy all based off of art. At the end of the day, it's subjective and it's personal."

Chmerkovskiy, meanwhile, had his own viral moment when Guillermo Rodriguez mistakenly said he was in his 20s.

"Guillermo and I have a little bit of a showmance going on," Chmerkovskiy shared. "It's yet to be seen by the world. The fact that he gave me a little shout-out like that, it feels right. I can't wait to reciprocate that."

Though they're already booked and busy on DWTS, Chmerkovskiy and Johnson still found time to partner with Fabuloso for their new "Make Your World More Fabuloso" campaign. Inspired by season 35 of DWTS, the campaign highlights how Fabuloso's fresh scents can transform everyday cleaning into a more joyful experience.

"We're very excited to be partnering with Fabuloso since we just moved. We're in a new home and we are also parents of a 3-year-old toddler, so messes are just naturally part of our everyday life," Johnson explained, referring to son Rome. "But I'm also severely OCD and a clean freak, so having something that can just calm my nerves and my stress and being able to come home to a scent that just immediately breathes clean home and freshness is everything that I'm looking for. It just felt like such an organic and natural fit for our family."

Chmerkovskiy loved getting to incorporate dance into their content for the partnership.

"That's family time. When we decompress, we decompress with chores and family activities, and cleaning is one of them," he shared. "Jenna loves that activity and so we all participate as a family and we play music and we dance. We make cleaning fun and Fabuloso is a part of that."

Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.

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This story was originally published September 29, 2026 at 5:16 AM.