When Dancing with the Stars returns for its 35th season, Daniella Karagach will step onto the ballroom floor with a partner whose story is unlike any she has tackled before. The professional dancer has been paired with Paralympic gold medalist Ezra Frech, creating one of the most intriguing partnerships of the 2026 competition. Their season begins September 15 and 16 with a special two-night premiere on ABC and Disney+, followed by next-day streaming on Hulu.
For Karagach, the new season arrives after years of steady growth on television, a Mirrorball Trophy victory, an Emmy nomination and several deep runs in the competition. She is no longer simply a professional dancer looking for a breakthrough. She enters Season 35 as one of the established names in the DWTS ballroom, with the experience to build choreography around very different personalities and physical abilities. Now, her biggest challenge is turning Frech’s athletic background and determination into a competitive dance partnership.
Daniella Karagach Returns to DWTS Season 35
The announcement of the Season 35 cast confirmed one of the show’s most interesting pairings: Karagach and Ezra Frech. ABC announced the complete celebrity lineup on September 2, 2026, with the new season featuring athletes, actors, musicians, reality personalities and social-media stars. The diversity of the cast gives the professional dancers a particularly important role because each celebrity arrives with a different level of performance experience and physical ability.
The 2026 premiere is scheduled across two nights, September 15 and 16, with the show airing live on ABC and Disney+ and becoming available on Hulu the following day. That schedule gives viewers an immediate chance to see how the partnerships translate from rehearsal rooms to the ballroom. For Karagach, the opening performances will provide the first real indication of how quickly Frech can adapt to ballroom technique and how effectively she can use his strengths in choreography.
Why Ezra Frech Is a Unique Partner
Frech brings an unusual combination of elite athletic experience and a completely different physical vocabulary to the competition. The Paralympic champion is accustomed to intense preparation, public competition and performing under pressure, but ballroom dancing requires a different kind of precision. Timing, musicality, posture, partnering and choreography all have to work together, often after only a short rehearsal period.
That contrast makes the partnership particularly interesting. Karagach has experience transforming athletic ability into dance performance, most notably through her championship season with former NBA player Iman Shumpert. With Frech, however, she has another opportunity to show how adaptable her teaching and choreography can be. Frech has also said that the competition is part of his preparation for future athletic goals, giving the season a purpose that extends beyond simply winning a television trophy.
The Season 35 Competition Is Already Getting Attention
Even before the first official performances, Karagach and Frech have identified one competitor they consider particularly intimidating: Guillermo Rodriguez. The Jimmy Kimmel Live! personality is among the Season 35 celebrities and has apparently impressed the pair with his natural movement. Karagach described Rodriguez as an icon, while Frech joked about trying to keep up with his flexibility.
That reaction says something about the unpredictable nature of Dancing with the Stars. A celebrity’s reputation before the show does not necessarily predict ballroom success. Some contestants improve rapidly because they connect naturally with music and performance, while others struggle with technique despite having strong physical backgrounds. As a result, Karagach’s ability to assess Frech’s strengths and weaknesses early could become one of the most important factors in their season.
How Karagach Built Her Dance Career
Long before becoming a familiar face on Dancing with the Stars, Karagach developed her skills through ballroom and Latin dance. Her early training helped establish the technical foundation that later became central to her professional career. Competitive ballroom demands years of repetition, discipline and attention to detail, and those qualities are visible in the way she approaches choreography and partner development.
Her television career expanded significantly when she and husband Pasha Pashkov appeared on World of Dance. Their performances introduced the couple to a broader American audience before their transition to Dancing with the Stars. The television platform eventually allowed Karagach to combine her competitive dance background with storytelling, choreography and celebrity coaching, creating a career that reaches beyond traditional ballroom competition.
Her Journey on Dancing with the Stars
Karagach joined the professional side of Dancing with the Stars in 2019. Her first major celebrity partnership came in Season 29 with rapper and singer Nelly. The pair reached the finale and finished third, giving Karagach an immediate indication that she could successfully develop a celebrity partner over the course of a season.
The following year brought the partnership that changed her career. In Season 30, she was paired with former NBA player Iman Shumpert. Their progress became one of the season’s defining stories, eventually leading them to the finale and the Mirrorball Trophy. Karagach’s choreography played a major role in their transformation, particularly as the pair moved from early uncertainty toward increasingly confident performances.
The Iman Shumpert Victory Remains a Career Highlight
The Season 30 championship remains the clearest milestone in Karagach’s DWTS career. Shumpert became the first NBA player to win the competition, while Karagach earned her first Mirrorball Trophy. Their victory was especially notable because the partnership was not built around conventional ballroom expectations. Instead, Karagach found ways to use Shumpert’s athleticism, musicality and stage presence as foundations for increasingly ambitious routines.
One of the most memorable performances from that season was their contemporary routine inspired by the film Us. The routine later earned Karagach an Emmy nomination for choreography, adding recognition from the television industry to her competitive achievement. ABC has highlighted the routine as a major part of the pair’s Season 30 story.
Emmy Recognition Strengthened Her Reputation as a Choreographer
Winning a Mirrorball Trophy established Karagach as a successful professional dancer, but the Emmy nomination demonstrated that her creative work was being recognized separately from the competition result. Her choreography with Shumpert showed an ability to incorporate theatrical ideas, contemporary movement and character-driven storytelling into a format traditionally associated with ballroom and Latin styles.
That distinction is important because Dancing with the Stars professionals increasingly operate as choreographers as well as teachers. They are responsible for deciding how a celebrity will appear on screen, which musical moments should become visual highlights and how technical requirements can be balanced with entertainment. Karagach’s Emmy recognition reflects that broader creative role.
Her Post-Championship Seasons Have Been Consistently Competitive
The championship did not become a one-season peak. In Season 31, Karagach partnered with Joseph Baena, and the pair reached the fifth week before being eliminated. She then returned strongly with singer-songwriter Jason Mraz in Season 32. Their partnership reached the finale and finished second, giving Karagach another top-two result.
Season 33 brought a different challenge with former NBA star Dwight Howard. The pair reached sixth place, while the following season saw Karagach partnered with Dylan Efron. Efron and Karagach advanced to the Season 34 finale and finished fourth. These results are significant because they show a pattern of adapting to different partners rather than relying on a single championship run.
What Season 34 Revealed About Her Approach
The partnership with Dylan Efron also demonstrated how DWTS can reward improvement rather than simply natural dance ability. Efron entered the competition with a different type of public profile from Karagach’s previous celebrity partners, meaning that the choreography had to develop alongside his confidence and performance style.
Finishing fourth kept Karagach among the professional dancers regularly reaching the later stages of the competition. It also set up an interesting question for Season 35: can she turn another unconventional partnership into a championship contender? With Frech, the answer will depend partly on how quickly the pair can build chemistry and translate athletic discipline into ballroom technique.
Her Partnership With Pasha Pashkov
Away from the competition floor, Karagach’s professional and personal life is closely linked to Pasha Pashkov. The two are married professional dancers who have spent years working in the same industry. Their shared experience gives them an unusual understanding of the demands involved in maintaining careers based around rehearsals, performances, travel and physical preparation.
Pashkov is also part of the Season 35 professional cast, although he has a different celebrity partner this year. He is paired with Olympic figure skater Amber Glenn, another elite athlete entering the ballroom after a major sporting achievement. That means the couple will be working on separate partnerships during the same season, creating another interesting chapter in their long-running professional careers.
Family Life Has Become Part of Her Story
Karagach and Pashkov welcomed their daughter, Nikita, in 2023. Becoming parents added a new dimension to Karagach’s already demanding career, particularly because professional dance requires extensive rehearsals and frequent travel. Their experience has given audiences a glimpse into the less visible side of a DWTS professional’s life.
The couple have also had to find practical ways to combine family responsibilities with touring and performance schedules. That reality makes Karagach’s career especially interesting because her professional success has continued while her personal responsibilities have changed. Her story is therefore no longer only about competition results; it is also about sustaining a demanding creative career over the long term.
What Makes Her Choreography Different?
Karagach’s choreography often starts with the celebrity rather than the dance style. Instead of treating every contestant as a blank canvas, she looks for characteristics that can become part of the performance. An athlete may provide explosive movement, a musician may offer musical instincts, and an actor may bring character and storytelling ability.
That approach is particularly useful in a television competition where the audience needs to connect emotionally with a routine. Technical accuracy matters, but viewers also remember performances that communicate something recognizable. Her previous work suggests that she is comfortable taking creative risks when those risks help reveal something about her partner.
The Importance of Athletic Partners
Karagach has already demonstrated that athletes can become strong DWTS contestants when their physical abilities are paired with appropriate choreography. Shumpert’s NBA background helped produce a championship, and now Frech provides a completely different example of elite athletic preparation.
The challenge is not simply strength or coordination. Ballroom requires the celebrity to understand movement that may feel unnatural at first. The professional has to break complicated combinations into manageable pieces while maintaining enough rehearsal momentum to prepare for weekly live performances. Karagach’s experience with different types of athletes could therefore become a major advantage during Season 35.
Why Season 35 Could Be One of Her Most Interesting Yet
The Season 35 cast is unusually varied, with actors, athletes, musicians, reality personalities and social-media figures all competing for the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy. The lineup includes Jenna Dewan, Julia Stiles, Harry Shum Jr., Giada De Laurentiis, Tyler Cameron, Amber Glenn and Ezra Frech among others.
For Karagach, that diversity means the competition will not be decided simply by previous fame. Every professional must create a performance identity for a new partner. Frech’s Paralympic background gives their partnership a compelling narrative, but the judges will ultimately evaluate the dancing. That combination of personal story and competitive expectations could make their progress one of the season’s most closely followed arcs.
What to Watch From Daniella Karagach and Ezra Frech
The first thing to watch is Frech’s technical development. His athletic background should help with training discipline, but ballroom technique has its own demands. Viewers will quickly see whether Karagach can build a foundation that allows him to progress from learning individual movements to performing complete routines with confidence.
The second factor is choreography. Karagach has a history of building routines around the individual strengths of her partners, and Frech gives her an especially distinctive starting point. If she can create choreography that showcases his athletic ability without allowing the performance to become dependent on spectacle, the partnership could develop into a serious competitive threat.
What the Future Could Hold for Karagach
Whatever happens in Season 35, Karagach has already built a strong résumé in television dance. She has won a Mirrorball Trophy, received Emmy recognition and reached the later stages of several seasons with very different partners. Those achievements create opportunities beyond the weekly competition, including choreography, touring, teaching and other entertainment projects.
Her future may also continue to evolve alongside Pashkov’s career and their family life. Professional dancers can remain active for many years by expanding into choreography, mentorship and creative production. Karagach’s experience gives her a foundation for that transition whenever she chooses to make it. For now, though, her attention is on the ballroom and a new partnership that could add another major chapter to her career.
Key Takeaways
- Daniella Karagach is returning for Dancing with the Stars Season 35 in 2026.
- Her new celebrity partner is Paralympic gold medalist Ezra Frech.
- Season 35 premieres September 15 and 16 on ABC and Disney+.
- Episodes will stream on Hulu the following day.
- Karagach won Season 30 with former NBA player Iman Shumpert.
- Their work earned her an Emmy nomination for choreography.
- She finished second with Jason Mraz in Season 32.
- She reached fourth place with Dylan Efron in Season 34.
- She and Pasha Pashkov welcomed their daughter, Nikita, in 2023.
- Season 35 gives Karagach another opportunity to compete for a second Mirrorball Trophy.
Conclusion
Daniella Karagach enters the 2026 Dancing with the Stars season with experience that few professionals can match. She already knows what it takes to win, how to recover from difficult weeks and how to turn a celebrity’s individual strengths into memorable choreography. Her partnership with Ezra Frech now gives her a new challenge: developing an elite Paralympic athlete into a ballroom performer while allowing his own story and personality to remain at the center of the partnership.
Season 35 could ultimately bring another Mirrorball Trophy, another deep finale run or an unexpected early result. What is certain is that Karagach remains one of the professionals worth watching closely. Her career has continued to evolve from competitive ballroom dancer to television performer, Emmy-recognized choreographer, wife and mother. As the new season begins, viewers can follow her partnership with Frech and see whether their unusual combination of athletic discipline, choreography and determination becomes one of the defining stories of the 2026 competition.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Daniella Karagach?
Daniella Karagach is a professional ballroom dancer and choreographer best known for Dancing with the Stars.
Who is Daniella Karagach partnered with in Season 35?
She is partnered with Paralympic gold medalist Ezra Frech in Season 35.
Did Daniella Karagach win DWTS?
Yes. She won Season 30 with former NBA player Iman Shumpert.
Who is Daniella Karagach’s husband?
Her husband is fellow professional dancer Pasha Pashkov.
Does Daniella Karagach have a daughter?
Yes. She and Pashkov welcomed their daughter, Nikita, in 2023.
