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Bindi Irwin Nails Iconic ‘Dirty Dancing’ Lift On ‘Dancing With The Stars’ — And We Love It! [Video]

By Maat van Uitert
Published on: 02:27 PST, Oct 22, 2015

Bindi Irwin and her Dancing with the Stars partner, Derek Hough, just keep getting better and better! This week, Irwin and Derek nailed their performance by recreating the final scene from Dirty Dancing — including the iconic lift, reports Entertainment Tonight.

Challenged to perform a rumba to “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life,” Bindi Irwin and her partner were spotted rehearsing the famous lift in a “gross” pond in Los Angeles, reports Fox News.

https://instagram.com/p/9B42NCTWQ1/?taken-by=bindisueirwin

There was only one problem — partner Derek admitted he’d “never done the lift before,” reports Entertainment Tonight, because his “dance style growing up was just like speed and agility and technique,” leaving little room for working on lifts.

Lifting Bindi was “a little scary, I’m not going to lie,” but Irwin and her partner nailed the iconic scene, making Irwin’s mother cry and guest judge Olivia Newton-John gush that the performance “touched my heart.” Judge Julianne Hough raved that Bindi and Derek “transported” their audience back to 1987, reports ET.

https://instagram.com/p/8wXTG3TWZL/?taken-by=bindisueirwin

But Irwin didn’t get a perfect 40 out of 40 on her latest Dancing with the Stars performance without plenty of work — and help from a special source. According to Entertainment Tonight, Bindi called on Jennifer Grey herself for assistance and inspiration.

Grey, who played Baby in Dirty Dancing, told Irwin and Derek that to nail the lift, all they need is trust.

Bindi gushed about Jennifer, who won in Season 11 of Dancing with the Stars with Derek Hough, confessing Grey is “such a kind soul.” According to Fox News, Jennifer told Bindi Irwin “to keep breathing and to be strong and feel it.”

Although Bindi Irwin and Hough recreated the iconic Dirty Dancing performance on Dancing with the Stars, “[f]or us, it wasn’t so much a recreation of the movie as it was…taking inspiration from the movie and trying something.”

Irwin also explained she and Hough just did “the best that we could.” And they certainly nailed it this week on Dancing with the Stars, earning a perfect 40 out of 40 from the judges.

Bindi said she was “thrilled” her incredible Dancing with the Stars performance was “amazing” and confessed that just prior to dancing, she “was so, so terrified, just because it was so different from anything that we’ve done yet in this competition.” Irwin gushed about her dance partner, exclaiming that “I was scared but Derek was so strong and we managed to get that lift,” reports Fox News.

Irwin, who’s been having the time of her life on Dancing with the Stars, has paid tribute to her late father, conservationist Steve Irwin, several times on the show, bringing the Dancing with the Stars audience to tears with one performance, reports Entertainment Tonight.

Bindi confessed that if her father had been with her at Dancing with the Stars this week, he no doubt would have been “really excited that we actually managed to get the lift.” Bindi Irwin elaborated that she’s “sure that he would have been practicing [the lift] with me!”

Just mere seconds before her winning performance, however, Bindi revealed to Fox News that she had an “oops” moment — a small wardrobe malfunction that was fixed just moments before she and Derek took the stage. Bindi Irwin and Hough avoided what could have been a major wardrobe malfunction during the lift when Hough discovered a small tear in Bindi’s dress.

“Just five seconds before we went onstage, I had the costume department sew the dress ’cause it was sliding up,” Bindi admitted, according to Fox News.

With that small crisis avoided, Bindi Irwin and Derek Hough gave their Dancing with the Stars audience a performance they soon won’t forget!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfmzoWp1OHg

[Photo by Tibrina Hobson/Getty Image]

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