Earle performed on last night’s Dedication Night episode of ‘Dancing with the Stars’ alongside her younger sister Izabel
Eric McCandless/Disney via Getty. Val Chmerkovskiy, Izabel Earle and Alix Earle.NEED TO KNOW
-
Alix Earle is opening up about how her Dedication Night dance on Dancing with the Stars helped her get more in tune with her “vulnerable side”
-
Speaking exclusively with PEOPLE, the influencer, 24, shares how her partner, Val Chmerkovskiy, helped her access these deeper emotions while rehearsing for the Oct. 14 episode
-
Earle performed a contemporary dance to Coldplay’s song, “Sparks,” bringing her little sister Izabel out to join her during the dance
Alix Earle is tapping into new sides of herself on Dancing with the Stars.
After performing an emotional contemporary dance to Coldplay’s “Sparks” in honor of her little sister Izabel on Dancing with the Stars, the influencer opened up to PEOPLE about what it took for her to tap into this week’s performance.
Prior to the performance, Earle, 24, shared in an Instagram video why she wanted to devote the performance to 12-year-old Izabel, recalling how the birth of her sister ultimately brought her family closer.
Eric McCandless/Disney via Getty. Val Chmerkovskiy and Alix Earle.
“I wanted to dedicate the dance to her because when I was her age, she’s 12 now, it was a really hard time for me in my life. My parents had split up, and I was just emotional, angsty, all the things,” she said. “And when Izabel was born … Suddenly that became more important than the other emotions I was feeling and dealing with.”
Speaking with PEOPLE after the episode, Earle shared how her partner, DWTS pro Val Chmerkovskiy, 39, helped her tap into the emotions she spoke about in the video.
“I give Val so much credit because I think if we hadn’t gotten as close as we had as partners, it would’ve been probably a little bit more difficult for me to open up in that way because it’s a little bit more of a vulnerable side for me and something I don’t really share often,” she says.
Chermkovskiy adds that it was “refreshing” to witness the sisters’ bond through their dance.
“Makes me want to have a girl soon,” he jokes. “There’s just a softness, and I don’t know, it’s just a different bond when you see it among sisters and I got to see it firsthand.”
Alix also opened up about the moments that she shared with Izabel immediately leading up to the dance. “It was so special to me,” she says. “I was crying holding her before we started dancing, so I couldn’t really see where I was going the first 15 seconds.”
Eric McCandless/Disney via Getty. Val Chmerkovskiy and Alix Earle.
“In terms of getting to dance with my sister, even being here for me is such a dream come true,” she adds. “So then to get to share it with her is so special. I mean, right before, we just had the hype talk of century and it was really just the most special time ever.”
She also adds that, from Izabel, she learned valuable lessons about putting “family first and love first.”
“I think that’s what we tried to replicate in our dance,” the TikTok star says.
Throughout the night, other contestants showcased their relationship with family members, including Dylan Efron, who performed a dance alongside his younger sister Olivia, 5, to the song “Rewrite the Stars” from The Greatest Showman.
Dylan’s older brother, Zac Efron, originally performed the song while playing the role of Phillip Carlyle in the 2017 movie.
No one was eliminated during the Week 5 episode of the show, meaning that all remaining 10 couples will move on to next week’s sixth week of competition.
