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Find Out What's Happened to Dancing Queens’ Colette Marotto Since the Season 1 Finale
Revenge is a dish best served on the dance floor for Colette Marotto, who proved she had the skills to make it on her own after getting "partner dumped" by her ballroom dance pro.
For Dancing Queens' Colette Marotto, victory on the dance floor was more about regaining her confidence after dramatically getting “partner dumped” by her professional dance partner of two years than earning first place honors.
And the Scottsdale single mom and business owner did just that in the first season finale.
“Everybody’s victory looks different and for me, just making this particular final makes me realize that I don’t need Kristijan, I don’t even need Alex to succeed,” she said after placing sixth in the Millennium competition with her “sexy” new partner Oleksiy “Alex” Pigotskyy. “I need to believe in myself and that’s it. No one can take that away from me.”
The empowered perspective came after Colette worked through her anger and sadness about the difficult parting with her former dance partner Kristijan Burazer.
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Colette admitted she “cried for two weeks” after Kristijan broke up their partnership via text — comparing their dramatic ending to something as painful as a divorce — to compete instead with her dance floor rival Pooja Mehta.
Pooja and Kristijan already had a little history together, dancing for years in the American Rhythm category where they were fierce competitors. But when Pooja made the decision to switch to the Latin category like her mother and sister (and the same category Colette already competed in), Kristijan felt he was forced to choose between the two women.
“It’s been really difficult splitting my competitive time between you and Pooja. I’ve been thinking it over and I feel like I need to stop with one of you now that you compete in the same category,” Kristijan texted. “I feel like Pooja would just quit completely if she is not dancing with me, and that would be such a shame since she has worked so hard. I hate having to do this and I hope you understand I’m always here if you need anything.”
The decision sent Colette spiraling, but she was soon ready to waltz out onto the dance floor again with her new partner Alex, whom she dubbed the “best-looking thing to come out of the Ukraine.”
Her spin on Dancing Queens was about redemption and Colette did just that, repeatedly placing ahead of Pooja and Kristijan when they all hit the dance floor together. “Dance was my escape and for a while even dance got stressful. Thank you, Kristijian. But, my dance journey this year went spectacular,” she concluded.
Although they only took sixth place in the highly competitive Millennium dance battle, they did make the finals (something Pooja and Kristijan did not do).
Six months after the competition, Alex and Colette were still at it as they continued to “work on their chemistry.”
“I’m excited for what the future holds with the partnership between Alex and I,” Colette said.
Colette has also been spending time focusing on life outside dance. Her son Kelvin has a “very rare” chromosomal disorder called Tatton-Brown-Rahman Syndrome, an overgrowth syndrome that is often coupled with autism spectrum disorder.
As Kelvin reaches his late teens, Colette is hoping to find and assisted living facility that will help him achieve the independence he craves while getting the support he needs.
It seems life is going well for Colette — but she still might not be over her rivalry with Pooja.
Colette took to Instagram in May posting side by side videos of each woman dancing the same dance with Kristijan.
“I prefer the original,” she wrote. “What do you think?”
