Robert Irwin Delivers a Breathtaking Viennese Waltz to Prince’s “WOW,” Turning Dancing with the Stars’ Prince Night Into a Career-Defining Moment
Prince Night on Dancing with the Stars season 34 was already built to feel like a high-voltage celebration, but Robert Irwin’s Viennese Waltz landed as the episode’s emotional inhale. The semi-finals aired on November 18, 2025, and every couple had to perform two routines to Prince songs, so the pressure was doubled. Robert walked into the ballroom with that “this is bigger than me” look, like he knew he was carrying not only a dance but a whole week’s theme on his shoulders.
What made the night special from the start was the contrast between energy and elegance. Earlier in the show, Prince Night leaned into funk, attitude, and party-level pacing, but the Viennese Waltz demands a different kind of bravery: stillness, control, and the confidence to move slowly while the whole room watches. Robert and his pro partner Witney Carson clearly wanted their second routine to feel like a cinematic pause in the middle of the chaos, and you could sense that intention before the first step.
They danced to “WOW” by Prince & 3RDEYEGIRL, which is not the most obvious waltz pick if you’re thinking in traditional ballroom terms. That’s why it worked. The song has a moody, seductive pulse under the melody, and their choreography used that pulse like a heartbeat, turning the ballroom into a soft purple haze of motion. Instead of forcing the track into a standard waltz box, Witney designed a routine that let Prince’s swagger live inside a classic frame.
Robert’s growth this season has been about learning how to breathe inside movement, and this dance showed the payoff. Early on, his performances were athletic and fearless, but sometimes a bit fast, like he was trying to outrun nerves. In the Viennese Waltz, he looked settled. His frame stayed tall without stiffness, his shoulders were relaxed, and his timing let Witney float around him instead of fighting to catch up. It felt like he finally trusted the music to carry him.
The opening section was all about atmosphere. They started in a close hold that immediately established intimacy, then rotated into long, sweeping turns that used the full floor. The camera angles helped, too, staying wide enough to show the travel while cutting close during the most delicate moments. It was a smart broadcast choice because the dance wasn’t about tricks; it was about the feeling of two people gliding through a dream without breaking the spell.
Witney Carson’s choreography leaned into storytelling rather than showy difficulty. She built in subtle rises and falls, with pauses that let the lyric hit before the next wave of motion. You could see Robert listening to her through the dance, picking up her cues with a kind of quiet focus. That partner connection is what makes a Viennese Waltz believable; when it’s off, the whole thing looks like walking in circles. Here, it felt like shared breath.
There was a lovely push-pull dynamic in the middle of the routine where the dance shifted from purely romantic to slightly mysterious. “WOW” has that Prince edge, and they reflected it with a few sharper changes of direction and a more grounded sway before returning to the airy spins. That tonal mix is hard to balance in ballroom because too much sharpness breaks the waltz flow, but they threaded it cleanly, keeping the dance elegant while letting the song stay dangerous.
Technically, the biggest win was Robert’s control in the rotations. Viennese Waltz is relentless because you’re basically turning nonstop, and mistakes usually show up as wobbling, stepping off line, or losing your partner’s center. Robert stayed centered through the travel, guiding the line of dance steadily. The routine looked smooth rather than survival-mode, which is a huge leap for a celebrity dancer this late in the season.
Emotionally, you could feel why this dance mattered to him. Robert has talked all season about carrying his family legacy with pride while trying to be his own person, and the waltz felt like a quiet statement of that balance: respectful, joyful, and a little daring. In a high-stakes semi-final, he could have gone for pure risk. Instead, he went for beauty, which is its own kind of risk because beauty leaves nowhere to hide.
The judges responded like people who had been waiting to see this calmer side of him. Their comments centered on maturity, softness, and the way he finally looked at home in a ballroom style that isn’t built for stunts. The scores reflected that too: he and Witney earned a 29 out of 30 for the Viennese Waltz, just one point shy of perfection, after already grabbing a perfect 30 earlier in the night with their Jive to “Baby I’m a Star.” That combination put them at the top of the leaderboard.
That score swing tells you something important about Robert’s arc. Many contestants can peak in a single style, but to nail a fast, high-energy Jive and then deliver a controlled, romantic Viennese Waltz in the same episode shows range. It’s the kind of two-way proof the semi-finals are built to demand. The show wasn’t just testing his stamina; it was testing his emotional palette, and he passed both sides of the exam.
Social media lit up right after the performance. Fans who loved his explosive premiere or his more dramatic week-to-week numbers were suddenly talking about how this waltz made them feel protective of him in a different way. A lot of comments focused on how gentle he looked, how safe the dance felt, and how the Prince Night theme still came through without turning the waltz into a gimmick. That’s a hard needle to thread on a themed week.
There’s also context behind why this moment hit beyond the ballroom. Robert is following in the footsteps of his sister Bindi Irwin, who won DWTS in 2015, so every week has carried a subtle “can he do it too?” narrative. The Viennese Waltz was one of those dances that quiets that pressure. It wasn’t about competition for a few minutes; it was about a young performer finding his own voice in a style that asks for vulnerability more than bravado.
Prince Night itself raised the bar for everyone because Prince’s catalog is so iconic that any mis-match between song and dance feels obvious. Instead of fighting the music, Robert and Witney seemed to respect it, letting it shape the choreography rather than the other way around. That’s why “WOW” didn’t feel like a strange choice for a Viennese Waltz by the end. It felt inevitable, like Prince had always had a ballroom shadow hiding in that track.
By the time the routine ended, the ballroom had that specific kind of silence that only shows up when a performance lands deep. Not stunned silence, but listening silence, the hush people make when they’re still inside what they just watched. Then the applause burst out, and you could see Robert’s face register a mix of relief and pride. It wasn’t a victory dance; it was a “we did something real” moment.
That realness is what makes this Viennese Waltz likely to be remembered as one of Robert’s defining dances of the season. The Jive showed his fire. The waltz showed his heart. And in a competition where both are required to reach the finale, he delivered the perfect pair at the perfect time. Going into the final round, this performance didn’t just keep him safe — it made him look like someone who belongs there.
Sources (kept out of paragraphs): official DWTS Prince Night Viennese Waltz video and show playlist; Forbes Prince Night songs/dances preview; Billboard recap; Decider episode breakdown; Yahoo and Courier-Mail semi-final results and scoring context.
