Ariel in Fringe, the Beast in Period Dress: How Dancing with the Stars Built Its Broadway Disney Night
For the first time, the costume designers say, Disney Night on Dancing with the Stars drew on the Disney musicals staged on Broadway and in London's West End. Steven Lee and Daniela Gschwendtner told D23 how they rebuilt familiar characters for the dance floor, starting with an Ariel made of fringe instead of fabric, then explained how the night went once the sketches reached the ballroom.
The short answer: For the first time, the costume designers say, Disney Night on Dancing with the Stars drew on the Disney musicals staged on Broadway and in London's West End. Steven Lee and Daniela Gschwendtner told D23 how they rebuilt familiar characters for the dance floor, starting with an Ariel made of fringe instead of fabric, then explained how the night went once the sketches reached the ballroom.
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For this year's Dancing with the Stars Disney Night, the costume department put together an Ariel without the material you would expect a Little Mermaid gown to be made of. Instead of fabric, the designers used fringe. It is the kind of swap that shows what the wardrobe team does best: it takes a character the audience recognizes in a split second and rebuilds her for a ballroom, where every seam has to survive a live number.
The people making those calls are Steven Lee and Daniela Gschwendtner, the show's longtime costume designers, who walked D23 through their plans before the episode that aired Monday, November 2, on ABC and Disney+. The workshop runs at a pace that would flatten most ateliers. As the pair described it to TV Insider in 2025, the turnaround from concept to finished costume is under a week: a day of virtual meetings with the show's creative producers, sketches drawn by hand by Gschwendtner and digitally by Lee, three fittings, and a final 24 hours in which the outfits get, in their word, "rhinestoned."
I'll always call it 'The Amazing Race of Costuming' because we never know what the challenge of the week will be. Daniela Gschwendtner, Dancing with the Stars costume designer, to TV Insider
Every year, we try to give every costume a new spin. Even if we create Jasmine for maybe the third time, we don't want to make it like last time—we have all new ideas; we use different fabrics. For example, this year with Ariel, we're using fringe rather than fabric. We always try to mix it up. That's the goal. Daniela Gschwendtner, to D23 ahead of Disney Night
Disney on Broadway, a first for the ballroom
This year the show narrowed the theme in a way the designers said they had never tried: Disney musicals staged on Broadway or in London's West End. "One thing that does make this year a little different is, of course we're themed to Disney—but we're doing Disney on Broadway," Lee told D23. For the opening number, the pair planned a sequence drawing on The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Newsies and The Greatest Showman, the last of them a title Disney has said it is developing as a stage musical rather than one already running.
And it gives us a good guideline of what the look will be. Belle from Beauty and the Beast will pretty much always look a certain way; she won't suddenly be in all black or something! Daniela Gschwendtner, to D23 ahead of Disney Night
An opening number with four shows inside it means volume and speed: Belle's segment, the Newsies, The Greatest Showman and The Lion King each called for distinct looks, and the female dancers were set to move from waltz gowns into what Gschwendtner called a "showgirl" feel. The department has carried that kind of load before. Lee has recalled keeping racks of red suits and dresses in storage for huge opening numbers, and Gschwendtner remembers revamping some of their oldest dresses for a past Disney opener built around Aladdin's Genie: "Just get more stones!"
The announced lineup spread the rest of the catalog across the remaining couples. Amber Glenn and Pasha Pashkov were set for a quickstep to "A Star Is Born" from Hercules, Harry Shum Jr. and Jenna Johnson for a jazz to "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" from Mary Poppins with Kyra Belle Johnson announced to sing live, and Ezra Frech and Daniella Karagach for a samba to "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid with Michael James Scott performing live. Tatyana Ali and Jan Ravnik were scheduled for a contemporary to "Easy As Life" from Aida, sung live by Heather Headley. The judges' table also gained a guest with stage credentials of her own: Cynthia Erivo, a Grammy, Emmy and Tony winner and three-time Academy Award nominee.
The Beast, Captain Hook, and the men as "peacocks"
If the princess gowns gained extra character this year, the men may have gained more. Jenna Dewan and Val Chmerkovskiy were set to dance their quickstep to "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast, with Chmerkovskiy as the Beast — a role Lee welcomed in advance, noting how elegant the pro looks in period clothing. Maura Higgins and Mark Ballas had a jive to "You Can Fly! You Can Fly! You Can Fly!" from Peter Pan, with Ballas as Captain Hook and Lee hoping he would keep his real hair for the vibe.
I really like the boys' costumes because they get to be "peacocks" now. Val always looks amazing in period clothing—he's going to be the Beast... And then Mark loves playing characters; he's going to be Captain Hook—hopefully he'll use his real hair for that vibe! I think the boys secretly love it because they actually get to be different personalities and characters and wear clothing and costumes that they never usually navigate towards. Steven Lee, Dancing with the Stars costume designer, to D23
Lee's instinct about Ballas rests on a résumé that goes well beyond the ballroom. A three-time Dancing with the Stars champion and 11-time finalist with an Emmy nomination for choreography, Ballas trained at London's Italia Conti Academy of Performing Arts and has built a parallel career in musical theater: he made his Broadway debut in 2016 as Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys, starred as Charlie Price in Kinky Boots in 2019, and has played Billy Flynn in Chicago. He has pushed the designers toward character-driven detail before, too — the Season 25 quickstep with Lindsey Stirling that turned his suit into a suit of airbrushed butterflies, and the Season 22 Austin Powers jazz with Paige VanZant, its lining and shoes carrying the Union Jack. The same logic shapes costumes that have nothing to do with him. In the Season 32 Disney night, Max Chmerkovskiy and Xochitl Gomez danced a paso doble to a song from Coco in a full mariachi outfit, and Lee explained that "we couldn't buy a regular mariachi outfit. We still had to build it because it had to be danceable."
That rule governs everything in the department: fabrics have to be, in the designers' own term, "danceable." Men's suits are constructed rather than bought, because off-the-rack trousers would split and shoulders would ride up mid-routine; women's costumes start from a stretchy base dressed in finer fabrics, with silk favored for skirts because it moves best. A fringe Ariel fits that thinking. In a department where material is chosen for how it behaves on the floor, the fabric is part of the choreography.
And on the night itself?
Two of the numbers the designers previewed ended the night with very different scores. Dewan and Chmerkovskiy's "Be Our Guest" quickstep earned a perfect 40 out of 40, with Carrie Ann Inaba calling Dewan the "perfect princess" and Derek Hough praising the couple's footwork and still topline as "magnificent, elegant, glorious." Higgins and Ballas scored 32 out of 40 for their Peter Pan jive; Bruno Tonioli praised the way she interpreted and sold the dance, then asked for more elasticity through the legs. The night closed with the team freestyles — Team Wildcats' High School Musical number drew an emotional reaction from the judges — and with the elimination of Julia Stiles and Ezra Sosa.
Disney Night aired November 2 on ABC and Disney+, and ABC lists it as Season 35, Episode 9. The show announced next-day availability on Hulu and on Hulu for Disney+ subscribers. For more on how the routines came together, the Dancing with the Stars Official Podcast, hosted by Season 34 contestant Andy Richter, airs a new episode November 4 on Disney+ and Hulu. For a team that treats fabric as part of the choreography, that is the whole point.