Dancing Queens' Sabrina Strasser Reveals Where Things Stand with Husband Ronnie
They may have been at odds over Sabrina Strasser's decision on Dancing Queens to skip her daughter's gymnastics meet, but Sabrina says her husband, Ronnie, is "very supportive."
Dancing Queens fans know that when it comes to Sabrina Strasser’s love for ballroom dancing, the Canada native and her husband, Ronnie, aren’t always on the same foot.
Tension was high between the long-time couple as Sabrina tried to prove her ballroom dance prowess at competitions across the United States in Dancing Queens — sometimes to the detriment of her own family.
But at the end of the day, Sabrina says Ronnie is “very supportive” of her glamorous hobby.
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“He’s very supportive of my dancing,” she told The Daily Dish. “A lot of times he does come and watch me and you’ll see that in the finale, which is wonderful.”
Ronnie may deliver when his wife needs it the most, but her path to becoming a ballroom dance champion hasn’t come without its bumps in the road.
The long-time couple first were at odds when Sabrina chose to skip Passover with her family to lace up her dancing shoes and hit the ballroom floor at a competition in New Orleans. They clashed again when Sabrina chose to miss her daughter’s gymnastics meet, teaching the housekeeper how to do her daughter’s hair instead, so that she could go seek her own glory at a competition in Atlanta.
“It’s a very tough decision to miss Chloe’s gymnastics meet but sometimes you have to do what’s good for you in order to be a better mother to them,” she explained on the show.
The decision had even Sabrina’s own family questioning her commitment as a mom, but Sabrina told The Daily Dish the incident was more of an exception than the rule.
“Truly, I am the caretaker of the family,” she said. “I do everything with my girls. I am constantly schlepping, driving them. And you know, you won’t see it in the episode, but I’m not leaving her stranded. I am leaving her with her dad.”
Gymnastics-gate, as it could be called for all the controversy it stirred, was simply blown out of proportion, she said.
“I don’t think it’s as bad as people see it,” Sabrina explained. “It was a one-hour gymnastics meet. It’s not like I’ve missed everything in her life. I went to the last one. It was just one. So, you know, things are taken out of context.”
She added that she left her 10-year-old daughter, Chloe, with a parent who was “quite capable.”
“It’s just that they always want Mommy. And that’s what women are going through. They always want Mommy and how does Mommy find her own time?” she asked. ‘That’s what I’m trying to show is that it’s OK to follow something that you love to do and your kids might even look up to later and say, ‘Wow, look at my mom, she’s a competitive dancer, she takes me everywhere, she does everything for me.’”
Like most moms, the mom-of-two said it was difficult to find a balance in the struggle between caregiving and self-care.
“It’s really hard and I am raising two young girls, who are both in competitive sports. And I do have a husband who I have to keep happy as well, and it is really difficult to find that balance,” she said.
At the beginning of her marriage, Sabrina admitted the struggle was “very tough.”
“My husband and I went through a lot of rough times around my dancing, because it just wasn’t understood as a woman of my culture and it just was really hard for him to accept,” she said.
She added that one thing many people don’t know is that she began ballroom dancing before she got married after being fascinated by the celebrity reality competition Dancing with the Stars.
“I was going for something regardless of a husband and kids and it just kind of came into my marriage,” she said.
Today, Sabrina and Ronnie have reached a better understanding with one another.
“As the years went by, we tried to work on a good balance,” she said.
Now it’s not unusual to find Ronnie sitting on the sidelines at a dancing competition — but Sabrina is quick to add she’s also happy to just escape on her own for a bit to get some “space to focus.”
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“When I’m playing mom and wife, it’s a completely different role as when I’m playing Sabrina the dancer,” she said. “So, I like to get away from the mom and wife role and just be focused on my goal, which is obviously winning. We all know that.”
One point of contention between the couple was Ronnie’s frustration that she didn’t come to support him at his tennis matches.
“The way I support you in dance, is not the way you support me,” he told her during a heated exchange in Dancing Queens.
“If you want me there, Ronnie, speak up and say I want you there,” she replied.
While Sabrina is willing to step up her spectator game for her husband, she also still feels it's a little different than her dance floor showdowns.
“I think at the end of the day, he does want me to see his tennis here and there,” she told The Daily Dish. “But look, I’m going to be very honest, these are tennis practice matches. These are not world championships. I mean, I’m always there for him and if he said to me, ‘I really want you to be there today,’ I would be there. But, you know, when he goes at 3 or 4 o’clock in the middle of the day for practice, it doesn’t occur to me to drive there and watch him. He wouldn’t drive to my dance practices or my dance coachings. He would come, maybe, to a big competition and I think that’s where the difference is.”
Her decisions have been met with some harsh criticism from fans, but Sabrina has come to terms with being portrayed as someone “people love to hate.”
“I always thought, ‘Oh, people are gonna love me’ but that really wasn’t the entire case,” she said. “I think I’m more portrayed as the villain of the show, somebody who’s very self-absorbed. Even I watch myself and I’m like oh my gosh, I don’t like myself. But truly, I think it just builds the character and I’m getting some great messages of support.”
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When it comes to her turn on the reality show, her family has been nothing but supportive.
“We watch it every Tuesday as a family,” she said.
The spirited watch parties even include her professional dance partner, Stanislav Kochergin, who she calls “Stas.”
“We even sometimes have Stas and his wife over. We watch and we have fun, we have drinks. It’s a lot of fun to, you know, watch me cry in the gown and have meltdowns,” she joked.
Sabrina and Stas have been dancing together for 12 years, and much like a marriage, their road to victory has faced its own ups and downs over the years.
“I think Stas and I just really butt heads because we are very similar in the sense that we both want control. We both really want to take charge. And we’ve been together so long, so it’s almost like you don’t want to hold back anymore,” she said of their notorious bickering.
Unlike some of the other Dancing Queens women and their professional partners, Sabrina said she and Stas don’t feel the need to sugarcoat how they feel or play into pleasantries often deployed in new relationships.
“You’ll notice that the dynamics are completely different,” she said. “Stas and I just don’t care to be nice anymore. We tell it like it is.”
And with plenty of competition wins under their belt, it’s obvious that is working for them.
