Brandon Armstrong Teases What He and Ciara Miller’s Dedication Night Dance Would Have Been Following “DWTS” Elimination (Exclusive)

Tabitha ParentTue, October 13, 2026 at 7:02 PM UTC

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Brandon Armstrong and Ciara Miller on Sept. 29’s episode of ‘Dancing with the Stars.’Credit: Disney/Eric McCandless -

Ciara Miller planned to honor her years as a New York nurse, including during the COVID-19 pandemic

The routine would have referenced Florence Nightingale with lights and fellow nurses joining the performance

Armstrong said he felt guilty that Miller could not continue despite her hard work and improvement

Brandon Armstrong shares what fans could have looked forward to before he and his partner, Ciara Miller, were eliminated from Dancing with the Stars in the show’s fourth episode of season 36.Speaking with PEOPLE after the couple’s elimination, Armstrong sheds light on the emotional dance he and Miller, 30, were workshopping for week 6’s Dedication Night. Dedication Night is a fan-favorite episode each year, and pro dancers and their celebrity partners work together to choreograph a routine in honor of a meaningful event or person in the celebrity’s life.Armstrong, 32, says that Miller’s Dedication Night dance would have been “unbelievable.” He explains that Miller, who grew to fame on the hit reality TV show Summer House, previously worked as a nurse in New York, including during the years that COVID-19 wracked the city.

Brandon Armstrong and Ciara Miller.Credit: ABC/Jose Alvarado, Jr.

“She was really in the mix,” Armstrong explains. “I’m not going to speak for her or put words in her mouth, but it was crazy. It was insane. Intense.”The pair decided to capture her time working as a nurse for the week 6 number.Armstrong explains that the routine they concocted centered on a nursing motif rooted in the history of Florence Nightingale, the Victorian-era figure known as the founder of modern nursing. In popular culture, Nightingale is often referred to as “The Lady with the Lamp” because she attended to soldiers’ bedsides during the Crimean War with a lamp.

“We were going to do this dance with this little light thing that people were holding and invite other nurses to come in,” explains Armstrong. “I was really excited for that because I think sometimes life gets so glamorous and so fast. But at the end of the day, the things that are important to you are your health and your family, and that’s what should be important to you.”Adds Armstrong, “These people are making sure that those things stay around, your health and your family. So we wanted to dedicate it to the seams of society, the people that hold this all together.”He praised Miller’s commitment and ability to tell the story, citing just how “poignant” the early days of COVID-19 were for nurses and first responders.

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Alfonso Ribeiro, Ciara Miller, Brandon Armstrong and Julianne Hough.Credit: Disney/Eric McCandless

“It was so prominent and they remember it so distinctly that it’s like when they’re explaining it to you, it’s almost like you’re there. They can hear it and see it. It’s crazy,” he adds, sharing that he thought the dance was going to be “really special.”Armstrong also reflects on the moment he learned of his elimination from the competition, sharing that the first thought that had passed through his head was guilt, that Miller would be unable to continue on the show.“[Some people] only get one opportunity to be a part of the journey and being a part of the process of the show,” says Armstrong. “She didn’t deserve it. She didn’t deserve it.”He echoes a sentiment that he shared on week 4’s episode. “She was working so hard, she was getting better.” However, Armstrong acknowledged that so are all the other contestants.“Everybody else is working hard. Everybody else is very deserving. I felt bad. I wish she would’ve had longer to enjoy the process.”

Ciara Miller and Brandon Armstrong on Sept. 16’s “Dancing with the Stars” episode.Credit: Disney/Eric McCandless

Armstrong also touched on the internet “discourse” that surrounded his elimination. On last week’s episode, Armstrong and Miller were joined by Jackson Olson and partner Emma Slater and Guillermo Rodriguez with partner Witney Carson as the last three couples left on stage before they were ultimately let go.“I’m like, ‘If I could bring everybody on TikTok and have them just watch the process, they would realize that everybody’s working hard,’” Armstrong adds. In her intro to the fourth week’s episode, Miller admitted that she had been disappointed when she received only 6s last week from the judges’ scores, but that she was looking forward to changing that.Together, Armstrong and Miller created a jazz routine about falling in love, set to Mariah Carey’s “Emotions.” While the judges had positive feedback for the pair, the two still ended up going home.

“Everybody’s putting all their time and their effort and their sweat and their tears into it. So I just wish that she would’ve been able to get more out of the process for how much she was putting into the process,” Armstrong adds.

on People

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”