“It was very gruelling,”

Home and Away’s Kyle Shilling has joined the cast of Dancing with the Stars Australia (DWTS) 2025, and he told Chattr just how intense the rehearsals really are.

Each year, a bunch of celebrities are put through the paces on DWTS, tackling technical moves that professional dancers spend years perfecting. The DWTS contestants are thrown in the deep end with a few weeks of intense rehearsals to be dance floor ready for the show.

“It was very gruelling,” Kyle told Chattr. “We had a five-week rehearsal period. I had maybe two days off throughout those five weeks. And each day we were rehearsing for about six hours a day.”
Kyle on Dancing With The Stars. Image: Seven.
And it’s not just learning the steps that the contestants have to master—they also need to be in peak physical condition to handle the intense demands of dancing, which requires stamina, strength, and coordination.

“You want to make sure that your body’s good and free of injuries,” Kyle explained. “So I had a little bit of time to prep myself mentally and physically before the show, which was great. I was going to the gym, I was trying to implement a lot more stretches into my daily routine, and then even just doing a little bit of research on what styles you’re doing to see how the body works.

“Then, obviously, your professional dance partner then drills you every single day to make sure that what you’re doing is as close to a professional standard as possible, without actually having the history of going through those dance styles and learning them from where you should, it was just straight into the deep end.”

What does a typical day of filming Dancing with the Stars 2025 look like?

The live shows were filmed between February 15 and March 5, meaning the season has already wrapped. Each episode was shot in front of a live audience with no retakes, leaving no room for error on stage.

While the rehearsal process sounded intense, Kyle explained that the days when they performed for the live show were even more gruelling.

“A normal day would have been something like, all the contestants rock up and we get into our costumes that we’re wearing for it, and we will do a separate rehearsal with our partners on the space,” Kyle explained.

“Then we’ll do a complete show run-through with all the contestants doing every single little bit, including the hosts, and then we’d have about an hour turnover to get ready, have a quick feed, and then get straight on with the filming of the actual show.”

Wow, I feel tired just reading about the celeb’s intense schedule.