Danielle Fishel isn’t holding back her thoughts on her elimination from Dancing With the Stars.

On Friday, November 7, Fishel, age 44, took to Instagram to express her disappointment over the show’s decision to cut out significant parts of her and her dance partner Pasha Pashkov’s routine backstory. This was a key element of their performance narrative.

According to Fishel, before they hit the stage, Pashkov inquired about the message she wanted to convey through their dance set to Aerosmith’s iconic “Dream On,” which had been approved for their routine.

Fishel shared, “I told Pasha, ‘The dance should reflect the unrealistic expectations placed on women, both by society and ourselves. If we choose to work outside the home while raising a family, there’s pressure suggesting we should be spending more time with our children,” the former Boy Meets World star explained.

Despite her frustrations, Danielle Fishel values the feedback from the Dancing With the Stars judges, seeing it as a learning opportunity. “We appreciate the judges’ feedback and their detailed notes,” Fishel, 44, conveyed exclusively to Us Weekly following the live show on Tuesday, October 7. “Carrie Ann and the others are excellent at offering specific advice.”

She continued, “If we stay home, we’re told we don’t work and are uninteresting. If we’re too thin, we’re told to eat a burger and if we gain weight, we’re told to get off the couch. When we get Botox or fillers, we’re accused of not aging gracefully and when we age naturally, we’re called old and ugly.”

The podcast host explained that being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2024 put things into perspective for her and she wanted to incorporate that experience into their dance.

“We are sometimes always too much and never enough at the same time and the only cure for it is to live life your way, living out your dreams because as my cancer diagnosis pointed out to me last year, life is short and we never know when we’re living our last day or dancing our last dance,” she added.

Although Pashkov loved the idea and worked up a dance routine to reflect Fishel’s poignant sentiments, the audience never got to hear the explanation.

“When we were on the ballroom floor, I was like, listening to my package and I was like… none of that was even mentioned, like none of my story was even in the package,” she said. “Those are just things that are completely out of our control.”

Doubling down in the comments section, Fishel went on to emphasize how upset she was that it was left on the cutting room floor.

Danielle Fishel learned the show must go on while battling an injury on Dancing With the Stars season 34. The Boy Meets World alum, 44, revealed in rehearsal footage shown during the Tuesday, September 23, episode that she suffered a “hamstring tear” earlier in the competition. She later went for a deep tissue massage, which […]

“That’s the part that bothers me the most,” she wrote. “Pasha’s entire choreography was built around the idea that he would represent the noise, the judgements, the criticism, and expectations and as the dance evolved I would learn to stop fighting it and instead learn to live with it and rise above it. Because you can’t stop or change it but you can adjust how you respond or react.”

Fishel and Pashkov were sent home on Tuesday, November 4 after scoring 34 out of 40 from judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Derek Hough and guest judge Flavor Flav.

Following her exit, Fishel shared a clip from her “Danielle With Stars” podcast via Instagram.

“Tonight was my last night, it was my last dance. I was eliminated and I have such a wide range of emotions,” Fishel said in the post. “My day-to-day life is going to so drastically change now. It couldn’t have gone any better. I am so lucky. I was so lucky that Pasha was my partner.”