Empowerment with Elizabeth · Elizabeth Swindell

Dancing With The Stars Professional- Anna Trebunskaya

December 26, 2025·38 min·3 clips
Anna Trebunskaya reveals her 11-season journey as a Dancing with the Stars pro and studio owner.
Elizabeth opens as both fan and dancer. She brings Anna in with an easy, encouraging tone, then starts where a good dance story should start: at the basics. Anna gives the quick map first. She spent 11 seasons as a professional dancer on Dancing with the Stars, owned a studio in Hermosa Beach, judged as a professional adjudicator, raised kids, and came out of competitive ballroom. Then she backs up to six, after rhythmic gymnastics had already made every tendon hurt. From there, the interview follows how one dancer moves through training, performance, business, adjudication, and family without treating those lives as separate boxes. Elizabeth keeps the questions simple, which helps. She asks Anna to walk through the milestones instead of rattling off credits, so the episode has room for the less flashy parts: preparation, stamina, timing, and what it feels like when your kids are in dance too. That family thread gives the conversation a softer edge. Anna is not only looking back at her own career; she is also watching the work show up in her children. The strongest stretch is the practical one. Elizabeth asks about strategy on the show, including choreography, movement quality, storylines, and audience votes. Anna answers like someone who has been inside the machine. In the earlier seasons, from season two through roughly seasons 15 or 16, she remembers more collaboration among the professional dancer, the celebrity, producers, and the creative team. She talks about rehearsal footage, executives, behind the scenes producers, and the funny learning curve of realizing that producer can mean several different jobs. Songs mattered early. Before a season came together, Anna collected pages of songs and possible dance styles, then narrowed them once she knew her celebrity partner. The choices were personal, not random, even when another couple ended up with a song she had suggested. By the end, the episode turns back toward advice and renewal: Anna wants to dance more again, her kids are older, classes are calling, and Elizabeth closes by thanking her for a dance life where the passion still comes through.

As heard by us

A clear look at the work behind a ballroom career.

The episode follows Anna Tremenskaya through a long, steady dance career, from childhood training to 11 seasons on the show, and into the roles she holds now as a studio owner, business owner in Hermosa Beach, California, a mom, and a professional adjudicator.

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Why you'd press play

A calm backstage look at Anna Tremenskaya's path from child dancer to DWTS pro, studio owner, and coach.

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