'DWTS' Pro Peta Murgatroyd Explains How Lamar Odom Is Finding His Confidence

After a two-year hiatus, Peta Murgatroyd is back on Dancing with the Stars — and is partnered with former NBA star (and the tallest guy in the ballroom) Lamar Odom. Here, Peta details their journey thus far – the challenges, the laughs they share, and what it’s going to take to win!

Lamar went into this week being the most confident he has been since starting DWTS. He was super excited about our song and loved the fact that we were given Risky Business as our movie night theme. He was energized, pumped and ready to start a heavy week of rehearsals. I can see how much he wants to prove to people that he can finish a dance with no mistakes. He really does try his best and fights till the end.

Unfortunately, last night we crumbled in the last two eight counts. He lost his footwork and it wasn’t from a lack of trying to nail it. We had worked on this for days and to be honest it isn’t a hard step, but somehow I just couldn’t stick it in his memory bank. It was the only part I was nervous about (for him) and knew it could be a problem. In dress rehearsal I told him to just look down at my feet and copy what I was doing. There was no other way. I tried every trick in my book to get him to remember it, but by dress rehearsal the only thing I could do was say “look down.”

Ninety-nine percent of our dance was awesome! When Lamar jumped up on the couch, the audience went crazy. They were so loud that I got that rush of electric excitement I usually get with the partners I know I can win with. Lamar gives me that excitement and adrenaline rush. When he nails a sequence of moves, I’m so overjoyed that I want to scream it to everyone! I’m such a proud mumma and when I can feel the audience around him, it makes me want to cry happy tears.

When Carrie Ann gave us her comments, I was welling up with tears and fighting them back from running down my face. I love when people can see Lamar is truly trying, and although it pains me to see him get such low scores, I love that they can recognize this.

Lamar and I have a goal for this next week with our Viennese Waltz: We will complete it without any mistakes! I need to make it simple enough for him, yet still effective for our audience. I want him to bring out all the emotion, as it’s a beautiful song, and show me a more vulnerable side of himself. Fingers crossed!

I’m grateful to be on this journey with him and I know that we’re here to stay!

Dancing with the Stars airs Mondays (8 p.m. ET) on ABC.