It was an emotional and perfect night for actress Alexa PeñaVega on “Dancing With the Stars” on Monday.
The “Spy Kids” actress danced her way into the hearts of the judges with two perfect scores for the night, but it was not enough to bring her back for next week.
The 27-year-old opened the night with an emotional contemporary dance after revealing that she struggled with an eating disorder for many years.
“I remember shooting this movie, and the producers kept telling me, ‘You’re just too fat,’ and as child you don’t know how to handle that,” she told pro partner Mark Ballas during a pre-taped rehearsal. “So from that moment, for the next six years of my life, I had an eating disorder.”
PeñaVega revealed she had bulimia.
“I struggled with bulimia for so long, and, even though I got through it, I feel think like a lot of my insecurities still with my body is from that,” she added.
Ballas used her experience as inspiration for the choreography, and PeñaVega was more than willing to take it on. She said she wants to use her hisotry to help others struggling with their own demons.
“This was a part of my life that I was also so afraid of people finding out, but I knew that at some point I was going to talk about because I knew I wanted to help people,” PeñaVega said. “It’s intense, but I think strangely beautiful.”
And the performance was just that – gaining a standing ovation and ultimate praise from the judges.
Judge Bruno Tonioli said, “You really danced like a woman possessed. It had all the emotional turmoil of a dark psychodrama ... You danced like I’ve never seen you dance before.”
“That was more than dance, that was healing. Not only for you and you danced it primal, raw, everything wide open, and you inspired us all,” Carrie Ann Inaba said after the dance. “For anyone who is struggling, that message was out there. You pushed that message out there.”
For her second dance of the night, PeñaVega teamed up with Bindi Irwin and pro dancer Derek Hough for a “Chicago”-inspired Charleston that also received rave reviews from the judges. Both dances earned a perfect 60 points from the judges.
However, after slipping last week, those scores were not enough to keep her out of the bottom two. She ended up in the bottom two alongside her husband Carlos PeñaVega, but she was the one sent home.
A visibly devastated Carlos could only say that he wished it had been him, but his wife found a positive.
“You know I am so happy that we ended on this note,” a teary Alexa said at the end of the show. “If we were gonna go out, this is how I want to go out.”
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