Why Was Nina Mayster Eliminated From DWTS: The Next Pro?

Nina Mayster’s elimination from Dancing with the Stars: The Next Pro came down to the exact skill Episode 6 was designed to expose: whether an accomplished dancer could successfully teach an amateur under DWTS-style time pressure. Nina spent much of her two-day rehearsal with superfan Jay Wyson concentrating on technique, but that left her short on time to teach the complete foxtrot. The problem became harder to defend when the finished performance still contained technical issues in posture, hold, footwork and frame. Nina and Selena Hamilton were ultimately placed in jeopardy, and the judges chose to send Nina home before the semifinals.

Nina’s biggest problem started before the performance

Nina’s elimination makes more sense when the rehearsal footage is considered alongside the dance itself. Episode 6 was not primarily testing who could perform the best ballroom routine with another professional. Each remaining contestant had only two days to turn a DWTS superfan into a credible dance partner, making time management and communication part of the judging criteria. Witney Carson made it clear that teaching an amateur was one of the most important skills required of a real Dancing with the Stars pro.

Nina approached the assignment seriously, perhaps too seriously. She devoted significant rehearsal time to giving Jay technical information and correcting the details of his dancing. That would normally sound like good coaching, but it created a practical problem: there was less time available to teach choreography and make the routine comfortable enough to perform under pressure. Witney specifically identified time management as an issue after watching Nina work.

That criticism was particularly damaging in this challenge because managing a beginner is part of the DWTS job. A professional cannot teach every technical detail at once. They have to decide what a celebrity can realistically absorb, determine which corrections matter most, and still get a finished routine onto the floor by showtime.

Why didn’t Nina’s focus on technique save her?

The uncomfortable part of Nina’s Episode 6 result is that the finished foxtrot still had several of the technical problems she had spent so much time trying to prevent. Shirley Ballas identified issues with posture, the couple’s hold, footwork and the position of the feet. Mark Ballas also found problems with the frame and with the movement of the dance across the floor.

That created a difficult equation for Nina. If a contestant sacrifices choreography time in order to perfect technique, the judges need to see the benefit of that decision in the finished dance. Here, they did not. Jay had clearly learned a great deal in a very short period, and Nina was praised for making him comfortable, but the technical investment did not produce a sufficiently polished foxtrot.

There were entertaining choices in the routine, including hip-hop elements that Witney enjoyed. Yet Episode 6 was specifically asking the prospective pros to demonstrate that they could coach a novice through the demands of a ballroom style. On that narrower assignment, Nina’s strategy left the judges with concerns on both sides: not enough efficient use of rehearsal time and not enough technical payoff on the floor.

Related: Why Is AJ Pritchard Competing on DWTS: The Next Pro After Already Being a Strictly Pro?

Was Nina one of the worst dancers left?

No. Nina’s elimination should not be read as the show declaring that she was simply a weaker dancer than everyone who reached the semifinals. By this point in The Next Pro, the contestants had already survived several different tests involving technique, chemistry, choreography, group work and performance. Episode 6 deliberately shifted the emphasis toward teaching. ABC and Mark Ballas have described these changing challenges as a way of testing the different responsibilities that come with being a DWTS professional.

That distinction matters because the best competitive dancer and the best celebrity teacher are not automatically the same person. DWTS professionals routinely work with people who have never learned ballroom technique, and some celebrities arrive with very limited movement experience of any kind. A pro who tries to fix everything at once can overwhelm a partner just as easily as a pro who fails to correct anything.

Nina’s episode demonstrated that tension almost perfectly. Her instinct was to give Jay information and improve the details, but the judges appeared to want evidence that she could prioritize what mattered most within an extremely short rehearsal period.

Why were Nina and Selena the two dancers in jeopardy?

Both Nina and Selena received criticism that went directly to the stated purpose of the challenge. Selena’s quickstep with Jeremy Urann was lively and memorable, but the judges felt it lacked enough genuine quickstep content and did not travel around the floor as the style should. Nina’s foxtrot contained more recognizable ballroom fundamentals, but her coaching process and the final execution both drew criticism.

Shirley Ballas made the judges’ concern unusually clear when Nina and Selena stood together in jeopardy. She said the decision was difficult because she felt both women lacked knowledge. The show did not then provide viewers with a detailed point-by-point explanation of why Nina ranked below Selena. That means any more precise explanation of the final choice has to be treated as analysis rather than confirmed judging rationale.

The strongest reading is that Nina’s problems were more damaging within this particular challenge. Selena missed important elements of quickstep, but the judges still praised the routine’s musicality, speed, sharpness and memorability. Nina, meanwhile, had made technique a major focus of her teaching process and still produced a dance that was criticized for multiple fundamental technical errors.

Did time management ultimately cost Nina the semifinal?

It appears to have been one of the decisive weaknesses, although the judges never said, “Nina is eliminated because of time management.” That distinction is worth preserving. Witney highlighted the issue directly, and the rehearsal storyline showed why it mattered, but Shirley also focused heavily on the finished foxtrot’s technical faults.

The two criticisms reinforce each other. Nina used valuable rehearsal time delivering a lot of information, yet the resulting performance still did not satisfy the judges technically. Had the foxtrot emerged with excellent posture, frame and footwork, spending extra time on those details might have looked like a successful coaching strategy. Instead, it became evidence that she had not yet found the balance required from a DWTS professional.

That is a harsher test than asking whether Nina herself can dance a good foxtrot. The Next Pro was asking whether she could take someone else, identify what he needed, and produce the best possible version of him in only two days.

Nina’s exit was also one of the season’s more personal eliminations

Nina’s reaction showed that the result meant more to her than simply missing a place in the next episode. After being eliminated, she spoke about having spent years not fully valuing herself as a dancer and said the competition had changed how she saw her own worth. Her exit therefore landed differently from a routine elimination based on one poor performance.

She also left at the point when the job was becoming increasingly real. AJ Pritchard, Adele Zaikman, Allen Genkin and Selena Hamilton now move into the semifinals, where they will work with established DWTS professionals. Nina was one decision away from reaching that stage.

Ultimately, Nina Mayster was not eliminated because the judges suddenly decided she could not dance. Episode 6 exposed a more specific weakness. She struggled to balance technical instruction, choreography and limited rehearsal time, and the finished foxtrot still showed fundamental issues despite the attention she had given those details. The judges never published a full Nina-versus-Selena scorecard, but within a challenge built around proving that you can teach a beginner, Nina’s coaching process gave them enough doubt to end her run.