Gleb Savchenko will not return to Dancing With The Stars for its 35th season, following a 12-season run as a professional dancer on the ABC television show.
ABC announced the lineup for the upcoming season of the celebrity dance competition on Wednesday, and the Russian choreographer was noticeably absent from the roster. Dancing With The Stars pairs prominent figures from entertainment, sports, and popular culture with professional ballroom dancers, who compete in weekly choreographed routines for a panel of judges and audience votes.
Last year, Savchenko competed on the series alongside author and yoga instructor Hilaria Baldwin.
Following the network announcement, Savchenko addressed his departure in a public Instagram post, striking a positive tone about his tenure on the program.
"Guys, I promise… I'm good. Nothing but love and gratitude for all the years in that ballroom," he wrote to his followers. "Excited for this next chapter, and wishing everyone an amazing season. No sad messages. We're moving forward."
However, the dancer also shared a more cryptic and frustrated response in a comment beneath a now-deleted TikTok video, according to Cosmopolitan magazine.
"14 years of loyalty, erased by someone's lie," Savchenko wrote in the comment section. "Lies all over p."
The short video clip reportedly showed the dancer lip-syncing to an audio track, mouthing the words: "I don't know where you got your information from, I don't know who your source is, but I will be the first one to tell you that is incorrect."
Connections to the new cast
While Savchenko will not be participating in the ballroom this year, the newly announced cast features a direct connection to his recent history on the program. Sarah Jane Nader is among the contestants slated to compete on the show. She is the sister of model Brooks Nader, who was paired with Savchenko on season 33 of the series in 2024.
Savchenko and Brooks Nader subsequently dated, before the couple separated permanently last year. It remains unclear whether Sarah Jane Nader's casting played any role in the network decision regarding Savchenko's absence from the new season.
Custody dispute continues
The television exit coincides with an ongoing and complex legal dispute between Savchenko and his former wife, Elena Samodanova, who is also a professional dancer and choreographer. The couple separated acrimoniously in 2020 after 14 years of marriage. The divorce proceedings were contentious from the outset, with Samodanova accusing Savchenko of ongoing infidelity, an allegation he consistently denied.
The former couple share two children: 15-year-old Olivia and eight-year-old Zlata.
In a July 14 court filing obtained by the Daily Mail, Savchenko leveled serious allegations against his former spouse, claiming that Samodanova abducted their daughters and kept them in Hong Kong for two years without his consent. He also alleged his former wife, whom he described in the documents as controlling, took the children to Russia without his permission.
Savchenko is now seeking temporary legal and sole custody of his eldest daughter. He has requested an emergency court order that would allow Olivia to live with him in Los Angeles and attend high school in California, while Zlata remains in Hong Kong with Samodanova.
In his legal filing, Savchenko claimed that returning Olivia to her mother would likely result in another international wrongful retention or abduction in a foreign country. He specifically noted that Russia is not a signatory to the Hague Convention. The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction is a multilateral international treaty designed to protect children from international abduction by a parent, providing a legal framework to quickly return abducted children to their country of habitual residence so that custody matters can be decided in the proper jurisdiction.
Samodanova firmly denied the allegations in a statement, claiming instead that Savchenko wrongfully kept Olivia in the United States after he canceled the teenager's return flight ticket to Hong Kong last month.
She also addressed Savchenko's departure from Dancing With The Stars, issuing a statement to separate his professional television developments from their family's legal conflict.
"While I don't have any comment regarding why DWTS chose not to have Gleb on the show this season, I do want to clear up one thing: I know for a fact that it is completely unrelated to any ongoing custody proceedings," Samodanova told the Daily Mail.
DailyMail.com reported that it had contacted representatives for both Savchenko and ABC for further comment.
