Cheryl Burke has hinted that she may be retiring from professional dancing.
The "Dancing With The Stars" pro suggested that her time as a dancer may be coming to an end while speaking about the mental and physical toll it had taken during an appearance on Monday's episode of "The Tamron Hall Show."
"You know as a dancer, especially as a woman, our career, it doesn't last very long. The fact that I'm 37 and still sambaing out there and shimmying is pretty unheard of," Burke said, according to People. "I'm not in the competitive level anymore, but still I also have to understand that I have arthritis in my body, you know, like, the pounding and pounding and pounding. [I'm] technically leading our sports players or whoever we're dancing with, right?"
Burke explained that dancing had impacted her mental wellbeing and this, combined with the fact that she wanted to start a family with husband Mathew Lawrence, left her considering a possible retirement.
"I also have body dysmorphia that I deal with as well that comes with the business that also came even before I moved here to Los Angeles. So there's all that that I have to deal with," she continued. "Then I have to think about — okay it's not just me now it's me and my husband, and what do we want for our future?"
Burke added that, in her heart, she felt like 24 seasons with "DWTS" was a "huge accomplishment" that she was grateful for, but she was not like "these other girls who just had babies and can just bounce back."
"I know my body, but I also, more importantly, know my own mental health and if I have this body image issue that I'm dealing with, again, if this [points to her head] is not okay I can't perform."
Burke also suggested that she may be retiring soon in a November episode of Barstool Sports' "Chicks in the Office" podcast.
"My hips don't lie, and I'm starting to get tendonitis. For a woman, as far as ballroom dancing competitively goes, normally in their 30s they retire. I'm 36, so it's like, 'Okay, time to hang up those shoes,'" Burke said, adding that she did not want to be "that oldie that's like 'Oh, here comes Cheryl doing the same choreography, just going slow, but in her head, she thinks she's going that fast.'"
"I also don't want to, I guess, be a dancer and have my partner having to be, like, 'Can't lift,'" she continued. "There's a time and a place for it all."
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Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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