Written by Kristina Calhoun
Hey all you cool cats and kittens! Carole Baskin can add “Dancing with the Stars” to her resumé next to animal activist.
The star was announced to appear on the 29th season of DWTS a few weeks before the first episode, with Pasha Pashkov as her dance partner. The news overtook the internet. Most thought it to be a joke, until the DWTS team confirmed it. Soon memes were being made, news articles were being shared, and everyone was gearing up to watch Baskin’s first dance.
Her song selection wouldn’t have been complete without a certain theme – yep, tigers. The first song she danced to was none other than “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor. Baskin continued with the big cat theme. For Disney week, Baskin dressed in a colorful tiger print with the flower crown she is known for wearing and danced to the “Lion King” theme song, “The Circle of Life.”
After this dance, Baskin was sadly eliminated and sent home with a score of 12 out of 30. While the dance was filled with color, passion for dance and grand cat-like gestures, it failed to impress the judges. The audience was not that impressed with the performance either. The dance started with her freeing her partner from a cage, a big part of Baskin’s mission at the Big Cat Rescue. The judges better watch out—we saw what happened to her husband. Yikes.
The first judge, Carrie Ann Inaba, started her feedback on a positive note. She told the pair how she could see and loved the connection between them. She then pointed out the technical issues with Baskin’s dance moves. Derek Hough, a longtime member of the DWTS team, followed by saying that Baskin “smacked it” and her technique could use some improvement.
Baskin and her partner were sad to be sent home, but they were great sports about it. Many fans believed that the show originally brought Baskin on as a joke. Either way, everyone had fun, and Baskin jokes that “her husband will be glad she will be home.”
