'Dancing with the Stars: The Next Pro': Natalie Jolley eliminated after being injured by Stephani Sosa

Dancing with the Stars: The Next Pro eliminated Natalie Jolley due to injury during the show's third episode that aired Monday night on ABC.


Natalie was injured during rehearsals when Stephani Sosa accidentally hit her in the eye with her hand.

Natalie is an eight-time U.S. national dance champion, a six-time U.K. champion, a four-time international champion, and has won the World Smooth Championships four times.

Stephani collided with Natalie when the show's dancers were instructed to perform as a group and recreate one of Dancing with the Stars' spectacular opening numbers.

The contestants had to dance in perfect unison after only three hours of rehearsals.


When Stephani accidentally struck Natalie in the eye, Natalie's eye immediately started swelling and she said she couldn't breathe through her nose.

Stephani admitted she felt "horrible" to have caused that, and then Natalie was taken to the hospital.

Natalie therefore couldn't compete in this round.

After the rest of the dancers performed the group number for judges Shirley Ballas and Mark Ballas as well as guest judge Britt Stewart, they determined that Tristen Sanders and Nina Mayster were the weakest links.

The judges said Tristen was ahead of the music and rushed, while Nina lacked spatial awareness.


However, this was a non-elimination round, and so the dancers all advanced and were given another chance to perform.

The next day, Dancing with the Stars: The Next Pro host Robert Irwin revealed that Natalie was "under medical supervision" and so she needed more time to heal and recover.

The rest of the dancers were therefore tasked with performing team dances comprised of clever choreography and dynamics.

The aspiring pros were divided into two teams with Tristen and Nina serving as captains.

Nina picked Allen Genkin, AJ Pritchard, and Adele Zaikman for her team, who was given the tango to perform.


And Tristen selected Stephani, Selena Hamilton, and Erik Linder for his team, who was given the paso doble to perform.

During rehearsals, Selena accused Tristen of shutting down, and the group struggled to agree on ideas.

"I know it's a team challenge, but at the end of the day, I have to look our for myself," Selena told the cameras.

Meanwhile, AJ took the lead on choreographing and assigning parts for the other team.

After "Team Paso" performed their team dance for the judges, Britt said the team was missing a connection with each other and Tristen "looked a bit lost" during the performance.


Mark told Selena how her spatial awareness was lacking again and "cues were off."

Next up was "Team Tango," and Allen unfortunately took a spill onstage. However, Mark praised him for a quick and seamless recovery.

"You carried on and it was really well saved," Mark told Allen.

Mark told Nina that she improved drastically and had made the right choice by allowing AJ to delegate.

Shirley told Adele that she's a "phenomenal" dancer but the star of the day was AJ, who was "humble" and no longer seemed "self-absorbed."


The team who ended up impressing the judges the most due to their synchronicity was "Team Tango," who all ended up being safe from elimination.

Out of the "Team Paso" members, Shirley named Selena and Tristen as the bottom two dancers.

Shirley shared of Selena, "[She] is a fantastic solo dancer, but inside the group, didn't actually have the peripheral awareness."

And Mark explained of Tristen being in jeopardy, "[He] started really strong, but actually, throughout the dance, lost confidence and lost a little bit of steam."

Shirley then announced that the team dance was "the last dance" for "neither" of them!

"Following Natalie's injury, she was not medically cleared to compete. And so, she has been eliminated," Shirley revealed.


"This means you will all live to dance another day!"

Natalie then showed up to give hugs and support to everybody on the show.

"I am really sad and disappointed that I won't be able to continue this competition," Natalie said in her final words.

"But the most important thing is just to take care of my body so that I can dance again. I love all of you so, so much, and I'm going to miss you all! Thank you so much."

The episode ended with eight dancers still in the running to become the next pro partner on Dancing with the Stars.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski