Jordan Chiles Makes Feelings Clear on Low Scoring by Judges During DWTS Debut

When Olympic gold medalist Jordan Chiles traded her leotard for sequins on Dancing with the Stars Season 34, fans expected a flawless debut. Instead, her Week 1 salsa with Ezra Sosa drew mixed reactions and one of the night’s more modest scores – 10 out of 20. But the pair’s energy hinted at untapped potential. And their response to the scores simply puts the world in a deeper intrigue regarding the second week of DWTS. 

Following their performance in the first week, Sosa and Chiles opened up on it during an interview with Extra TV. So, did the duo think that the scores could have been better? Jordan Chiles didn’t think so. She said, “No, I don’t think so. I feel like a lot of it is very understandable. You know, it’s the first time. I wasn’t expecting, I wasn’t even expecting those scores. I thought they were going to be lower myself.” Sosa pointed out that she thought they’d get a three from the judges. 

She continued, “Yeah, so, I mean, as an athlete, there is a difference to competing, you know, in a ballroom. Like, you don’t know what’s going to happen. But I honestly, I’m going to take what they were saying. I don’t want to say they were critical. They were just judging. That’s just judging.” According to Sosa, it was a good thing that the judges were so critical. After all, that’s the pointer that they need to understand that they have a lot of potential. So, what did the judges see in Chiles and Sosa’s salsa? 

Jordan Chiles’ Spice Girl attire impressed Bruno Tonioli. But he wanted her to carry the hip motion through her body. He said, “You can’t just hit it, you have to express it.” Meanwhile, Derek Hough was mesmerized by the flips and tricks. But he wasn’t too impressed with the salsa. Hough wanted the duo to put more focus on ensuring that the audience can recognize the dances by keeping the integrity of the styles. 

Nevertheless, Jordan Chiles and her partner thought of it as constructive criticism. They plan to work on their shortcomings and apply it to their next performance. But what actually went wrong, other than what the judges said? Was it the height difference? 

Jordan Chiles’ partner gets honest about their height difference

On 4 September 2025, Sosa was forced to clear the doubts regarding the height difference between him and Chiles. Jordan Chiles is 4’11” while Sosa is 6′. But Sosa didn’t take the height difference as a drawback. He stated, “What do you mean? There’s no height difference here. What height difference are you talking about? I’m just standing next to my partner right here. A lot of people have been asking me if the height difference is going to hinder us. Honestly, I think it’s going to allow us to be more creative. And that’s what I’m really excited about.” 

Talking about his former partner, Anna Sorokin, and comparing her to Chiles, Sosa believed that the Olympian is a much better dancer. He claimed, “Those are very different people with very different backgrounds and different work ethics. Definitely, my approach with how I was with Anna is not going to be how I am with her. Right. She clearly is more capable.” But come week 2, we might actually get to see some pretty interesting performances from Chiles. 

What do you think of the week 1 scores for Jordan Chiles and Erza Sosa? How much would you have given the Olympian and her partner for performing a salsa to Beyoncé’s ‘Break My Soul’?