During the Season 22 premiere of "Dancing With The Stars" on Monday night, deaf model Nyle DiMarco shocked the crowd with his first performance, and a lot of his talent has to do with his incredible partner Peta Murgatroyd.
The "America's Next Top Model" winner and the pro dancer wowed the judges and got very high scores for the first night, especially considering he could not hear the music. He scored a 23 out of 30, which tied him for first place for the night along with Wanya Morris and Ginger Zee. While he sometimes can hear the vibrations from music, he wasn't able to during their performance, and it was all up to his partner to lead him.
"Nyle has absolutely made me a better teacher," Murgatroyd said after the premiere. "I have to be very cancel to explain myself so well and make sure that the words I am using to describe things are very clear."
While Murgatroyd is doing what she can to teach him and learn sign language, it also doesn't hurt that he's a quick learner.
"I mean, he is a smart guy," she added. "It's not like I have to dumb anything down. But if I want him to put his foot on the floor, I have to show him how to do it. I can't just tell him, 'Be strong with the leg.' I have to describe what I want."
Prior to Monday night's show, Murgatroyd posted a photo of the two to Instagram writing, "I am so incredibly proud of @nyledimarco. It's been 3 weeks of intense training and today's the day for him to shine. I can't wait to dance with you tonight!"
Following their dance, the judges couldn't believe how well he had done. "You could be America's Next Top Dancer, unbelievable," said judge Bruno Tonioli.
Even judge Len Goodman, who is typically hard on the dancers, admitted that he had no idea what to expect from their performance, but that what he saw shocked him in a good way.
"It was terrific," he explained. "I wasn't sure about it to begin with, but once you got into it...it just got better than better."
DiMarco was a little nervous about how the judges would react, but he was overwhelmed with how well-received his dance was. "The judges are the most intimidating part," he said following the routine. "This is their expertise, to get that feedback from them is a relief. But that doesn't mean I can take it easy for week two...I'm ready to take the world by storm and have them look at me and say, 'deaf people can dance.'"
He even expressed his excitement on Instagram with a photo of him and his beautiful partner receiving their scores. "WOW. Just WOW," he wrote. "TONIGHT ON #DWTS WAS JUST AMAZING! I will CONTINUE TO MAKE NOISE!! #RedefiningDANCE."
Watch their amazing dance below!
