Hayley Erbert hasn’t totally shut the door on “Dancing with the Stars.”
The professional dancer served as a troupe member on the ABC celebrity ballroom competition from 2015 to 2018. She performed special dances on subsequent seasons with her husband, Derek Hough.
In a February 2026 interview, Erbert told People magazine she wouldn’t rule out a return to the ballroom after giving birth daughter, Everley, in December.
“Never say never,” Erbert teased. “Lots of my friends have gone back after having kids.”
Hayley Erbert Once Dreamed of Being a Main DWTS Pro
Erbert started out as a finalist and tour member for “So You Think You Can Dance” more than 10 years ago. She was later contacted by a “Dancing With the Stars” producer to join the show’s troupe. She told The Hutchinson News that producers got her contact information from Hough and his sister, Julianne, after they invited her to dance on their national “Move Live on Tour 2014.”
“I interviewed right after I got off tour and found out a couple of weeks later that I was on Season 21,” she said. “That was really exciting for me, not being a trained ballroom dancer, it was really exciting. I’m excited to see what the future holds.”
Erbert noted that she hoped to have a future as a “Dancing with the Stars” pro. “That’s the idea of troupe is they want dancers who could eventually be pros, and I definitely would love to do that, so hopefully that’s in the future,” she said at the time. “Anything could happen.”
She also noted that being a troupe member was a great learning experience. “That’s the great thing about being in the troupe and not going straight into being a pro,” she shared. “You get to watch all the pros train their celebrities, and you kind of get a feel about how you’re supposed to interact and the way you’re supposed to teach them.”
Hayley Erbert Admitted That Her Husband’s Role on DWTS Is a Conflict
DisneyErbert’s husband is a six-time mirrorball champion on ‘Dancing with the Stars.” In 2020, he joined the cast as a judge alongside Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli, and the late Len Goodman. The move came after he took a break from the ABC dancing show.
“This show has been and will always be incredibly special to me. Coming back feels like coming home. And I couldn’t be more excited to be back in the ballroom,” Hough told Variety at the time.
Nearly six years later, Erbert admitted to People that a return to DWTS could be “a little difficult” and a “conflict of interest” with Hough as a judge. “I do know that I want to dance,” she added. “I want to keep moving.”
Erbert will join Hough on the Symphony of Dance Encore dance tour in June. The couple will bring their baby girl along with them on the 40-city tour, which will wrap before “Dancing with the Stars” returns for its 35th season in the fall.
