Laurie Hernandez is on the move to a major milestone. On Dancing With the Stars’ Monday, October 24, episode, pro Val Chmerkovskiy turns the ABC competition’s “Eras” week into a mock prom for the Olympic gymnast, as seen exclusively in Us Weekly’s sneak peek.
“It’s Era week and we got the ’60s,” the season 20 Mirrorball winner, 30, explains to Hernandez. “The nonhippie, antigovernment ’60s.” Hernandez, who was born in 2000, replies, “I don’t know what any of that means.”
To clarify, Chmerkovskiy adds: “It’s a prom vibe,” only to have Hernandez reveal that she’s never been to prom! “You’re supposed to go to prom during high school,” she explains in an on-camera interview in the clip. “I don’t go to high school. I homeschool”
Chmerkovskiy sees the performance as an opportunity to help Hernandez experience the rite of passage. “You’ve never been to prom,” he says. “I think it’s the perfect opportunity to take you to prom.”
Hernandez is clearly excited by the idea. “I think it’s cool that my first prom is going to be with Val,” she says, noting one key difference from a typical high school event. “Because instead of just sitting on my phone the whole time, I’ll actually be dancing.”
In her October 21 DWTS blog for Us Weekly, the New Jersey native explained how challenging the show has been thus far. “Coming into Dancing With the Stars, I thought it would be a lot easier. I didn’t think it would be just a breeze, I knew it would be difficult, but I wasn’t expecting it to be this hard,” she wrote. “It’s really hard to stay patient with myself and realize this is a whole different world than gymnastics.”
Watch the sweet moment in the clip above.
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.
