Sailor Brinkley-Cook Had a Panic Attack Before ‘DWTS’
The audience and cast members of Dancing With the Stars were shocked after a surprising elimination. Sailor Brinkley-Cook opened up about her stage freight during her time on the show.
Great Performances From Sailor Brinkley-Cook Came With A Price At Her Expense
On Monday night’s episode, the model and her dance pro partner Val Chmerkovskiy, tied for the highest score. Their performance was a high-energy jive, but it wasn’t enough to keep the duo from being sent home.
After Christie Brinkley suffered an injury during rehearsal, her daughter, Sailor took her place just two days before the premiere. This turned out to be great for Sailor Brinkley-Cook, she and Chmerkovskiy become one of the season’s front runners. The audience got six weeks of great performances from her, she even earned a standing ovation. But she shared behind the scenes is a lot of pressure that comes with being on DWTS. This is a struggle she’s dealt with for years.
“I’ve had stage freight my entire life and it was something that definitely held me back,” Yahoo Lifestyle quoted Brinkley-Cook. “I would sign up for school plays, I would try to be in chorus class, and I would always back out last minute even though rehearsals were going great. I was just so scared of getting up there and baring myself to the world.”
Sailor Brinkley-Cook believes the fear stems from growing up around her mother constantly being in the public eye. A front-row seat to harsh criticisms that follow putting yourself out there for the world to see.
“When your mom is a famous model, and you’re a young girl trying to figure yourself out, you’re so afraid of all the critiques,” she said. “I was so afraid of putting myself out there in a performance, in a dance, in a song, in anything because I just knew that there was so much criticism that was going to come automatically. So I think that developed into this massive stage fright.”
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As The Day Was Coming Close, The Panic Set In
Sailor only had two days and 10 hours of rehearsal time ahead of her before the first live taping. It wasn’t until the second day of rehearsals when the nervousness started to kick in.
“The day before the show, I had a full panic attack. I was hyperventilating and I did not feel like I could do it. I was really freaking out,” Brinkley-Cook said.
Chmerkovskiy helped to calm her nerves and show her the fun and joyous side of dancing in front of an audience.
She said their mentality through the whole experience was to just have fun with it, it really helped calm her down. Val taught Sailor that dance is a celebration. People dance when they feel good and happy, making it something beautiful to share with the world.
Each week felt like a whirlwind of excitement and nervousness, Brinkley-Cook said. Once the sixth week of the show came around, she felt she had conquered her stage fright for good.
“Before the jive, I was feeling really confident, I was feeling really good. I was so excited to be doing this,” she said. “It was such a positive rush of emotions and I felt like that performance kicked my stage fright because I was able to suppress it for the first time.”
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Sailor Hopes Others Learn To Feel Confident In New Experiences
The young model plans to keep dance in her life and has begun looking for a dance studio to continue practicing at. She hopes others who are struggling with confidence will try something new and allow themselves to feel that passion.
“I think it’s important to try it once, and don’t look too far into it just say ‘Hey this could be something that I really love and end up living for,'” Sailor Brinkley-Cook said. “I want to keep dancing for the rest of my life now and I would have never done that if I hadn’t just told myself ‘Okay I’m just going to do it once and then we’ll see.’ Just do it and see how you feel. That’s the best way to get over your fears. Just look at it straight on and own it.”
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