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The Dancing With the Stars troupe for season 35 has been revealed.
News broke on Friday, September 4, that Jaxon Willard, Carter Williams and Onye Stevenson will all return to the ballroom, alongside newcomer Kamri Peterson.
“Season 35 Troupe,” an Instagram post read, announcing the casting news. “Help us show some love to Kamri, Jaxon, Carter and Onye! 🔥.”
Willard, 24, Williams, 24, and Stevenson, 23, joined the DWTS troupe during 2025’s season 34, where they performed in pre-commercial “bumpers” and in the background of the competitive routines. The trio appeared alongside Hailey Bills, who was promoted to pro for season 35 to dance with model Sarah Jane Nader in a rare same-sex pairing.
With Bills, 20, tackling a new role in the ballroom, DWTS hired Peterson, 18, to take her place in the troupe. (Bills and Peterson previously costarred on ABC’s short-lived DWTS Juniors spinoff as junior pros.)
“I was in a hotel room. I was at a dance convention. I was in a hotel room all by myself. I got the call,” Peterson exclusively told Us at DWTS Con last month about joining the tentpole series. “I was absolutely shocked and so excited.”
According to Peterson, she has rarely “been so happy in [her] entire life” than when she was asked to join the troupe.
“This is my first performance with Dancing With the Stars since Dancing With the Stars: Juniors. I’m just so excited,” she gushed at the time. “It’s surreal because this is such a big dream of mine. So it’s been amazing, and I feel like everyone’s had a lot of fun. I’ve had a lot of fun. It’s been amazing.”
In the years since DWTS Juniors wrapped in 2018, Peterson continued her ballroom training and competed at multiple competitions.
“I want to inspire the younger generation. I want them to see that dance doesn’t have to be so serious,” she told Us of joining DWTS. “It can also be something that’s just fun because I feel like, at least for me, dance is something that I do because I enjoy it, not because I have to.”
She continued, “I feel like sometimes people get a little distracted by the fact that, ‘Oh, we have to win, we have to do this, we have to do that,’ but also we dance because we love it, so I think I want to show people that dance can be fun. It doesn’t always have to be competitive and scary.”
Dancing With the Stars season 35 kicks off with a two-night premiere on ABC and Disney+ Tuesday, September 15, and Wednesday, September 16, at 8 p.m. ET.
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