Daniella Karagach wasn’t letting her injuries keep her away from the ballroom last season of Dancing With the Stars.
“I was injured probably every two weeks on the show,” Karagach, 31, exclusively told Us Weekly on Wednesday, July 17, while she and husband Pasha Pashkov celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary. “My joints were so weak and I was still healing [from giving birth] and it was really difficult.”
Months before season 32 started, Karagach and Pashkov — who also co-own their jewelry line Dainty — welcomed their first child, daughter Nikita. Ahead of the show’s premiere, Karagach fully planned on returning to the competition series after giving birth. Despite going to the gym throughout her pregnancy, she did face some issues as she was “barely walking” by the end of her pregnancy.
Karagach ultimately put in the work and was able to return. She was partnered with Jason Mraz and together the pair made it all the way to the finals. The duo ultimately came into second place to winner Xochitl Gomez and Val Chmerkovskiy. However, Karagach faced a lot of challenges going into the finale, specifically with her and Mraz’s freestyle dance.
“Basically my freestyle in the show was a crazy Lindy hop, which means I have a lot of tricks that were, I’m landing on my own, there’s no one there to catch me,” she explained. “So every day that week I was practicing that dance, landing, landing, landing. And because my joints were so fragile, every time I was landing, I was getting stress fractures in my heels.”
Karagach shared that a doctor came to give her “shots” moments before the live finale started filming because of how much pain she was in.
“That got me through half the show then [the doctor] came again and he had to give me more to get me through the show because it was just excruciating pain,” she reflected. “And the day after, Pasha was like, ‘I think it’s time to get an MRI. We need to go see what’s happening.’ And we went and they told me I have to be off my feet for six weeks because I have fractured heels.”
Pashkov, 38, recalled after coming home from the doctor, Karagach “had two boots on” which made her wobble around their home. Despite sustaining a serious injury, Karagach was adamant to keep dancing for the DWTS tour.
“I came into rehearsals for tours and I was like, ‘I’ll be back in two weeks. I’m going to be back in two weeks.’ Our choreographer, Mandy Moore, she’s like,’ I love you so much, but you are not coming back until you’re healed because if God forbid you don’t heal well, there goes your career.’ And she was like my mom at the time,” she said. “[Mandy] was so good to me.”
Karagach explained that thanks to Moore encouraging her to take the time off she was able to make a “smooth” return later.
Now that Karagach has made a recovery from her injury, she and Pashkov decided they wanted to celebrate their 10-year anniversary by seeking some thrills.
“We’re literally going to go to Six Flags and ride some roller-coasters,” Karagach shared, noting that they used to be big amusement park enthusiasts until their daughter arrived. “We had our baby, and now all of a sudden, I have this fear of God forbid something happens to me on this roller-coaster.”
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
