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She took the Hamptons by storm from the moment she joined the cast of Bravo’s Summer House. She held down the fort in Fiji while hosting Love Island: Aftersun. She modeled in campaigns for some of the biggest brands in the world. And now, Ciara Miller is tackling a new challenge: competing for the Mirrorball Trophy on season 35 of Dancing with the Stars, which premiers tonight at 8 p.m. ET on ABC/Disney+.
“I’m definitely getting a run for my money,” says Miller, who told me that she’s wanted to do the show for years. “It’s such an experience for growth. I danced growing up, but I did ballet and hip hop and jazz and stuff. This is such a different sector of dance that I wanted to experience.”
Miller’s partner this season is Brandon Armstrong, a multi-season DWTS pro. She says he’s been a great teacher and choreographer, but she’s putting her mark on performances, too. “Brandon is in charge of one thing: the dancing,” says Miller. “I’m in charge of everything else. We have creative calls where we can be as involved or not involved as we want, and I’m involved, even down to his outfits.”
Before Miller’s first live performance, I talked to her about what she’s using to recover after hours-long rehearsals and products she swears by on the dance floor. And, of course, because she’s the first Summer House cast member to be in the ballroom, I had to ask: If she could cast any of her other housemates on Dancing with the Stars, who would it be? “Kyle [Cooke] would be number one on my Mount Rushmore,” says Miller. “I tried to teach him a pose, and I would really enjoy seeing Kyle attempting to learn any type of dance at all.”
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One of the most useful purchases Miller has made during Dancing with the Stars rehearsals so far is Bala Bangles. “I just got these arm weights because a lot of my moves this first week are in frame, and my arms look like chicken wings instead of an elegant bird,” she says. “So I was like, okay, what can keep me mindful of keeping my arms up? These weights are how I’ve been training my arms.” She got a pink pair and tries to keep them on for the entirety of each practice session.
Miller isn’t shy about sharing what the hardest part about being on Dancing with the Stars is: “I am not flexible anymore, so I really have to stretch,” she says. “My back, my neck… I’m so sore everywhere.” She’s taking recovery very seriously, starting with hot baths. “I’m soaking in a bathtub almost every day for at least 20 minutes. It’s essential,” says Miller. “I’m living for Dr. Teal’s epsom salt. I’ve got the sleepytime one, I’ve got the one for muscle recovery; I’ve got all the things.”
To continue winding down after her bath, Miller puts on her favorite red light therapy mask from Currentbody. “It’s flexible, so it can fit into small spaces, and I didn’t have to worry about crushing it when I was traveling, which was nice,” she says, referring to her recent move from New York City to Los Angeles. “I use it to relax and treat my skin, and I’m incorporating getting massages, too, because I need to get better about recouping. But at home, it’s the simple things. I obviously love my bed, and I love a Salt & Stone candle — it’s one of my favorite things to have in my room.”
Miller isn’t just dancing for hours a day — she’s doing so while wearing heels. “You’ve got to break your shoes in and get used to them,” she says. “I’ve honestly been doing good so far and wearing socks with them. I’m the type of person where wearing a new shoe sometimes almost stresses me out, unless it’s for the look. But in this case, I knew I had to get acquainted with them early.”
One of her go-to ways to care for achy feet is by using a foot spa. “I’m bringing back the pedicure bath things that I was like, I haven’t seen this thing in 20 years,” she says. “But I got one on Amazon, and I would say it’s one of my best purchases of 2026.”
As for Miller’s favorite thing to nosh on pre-, post- and during rehearsal? “Fruit — I don’t like eating a heavy meal beforehand,” she says. “I love Solely fruit jerky. I swear by it and it helps spike my blood sugar if I’m feeling a little bit eh. It’s healthy and really great on the go.” There’s always Celcius in her refrigerator too, a brand she recently worked with to launch its Spritz Vibe beverage.
Miller immediately stocked her DWTS trailer with Nexxus hair care when she got access to it. She’s been working with the brand throughout the year, and says its products continuously fit into different aspects of her life.
“With Dancing with the Stars, we’re going to be in several different types of hairstyles, so you really need something that’s going to withstand the test of time from the wee hours of the morning to at night when we’re live on TV,” says Miller. “We all know I’m a glam girl — I love my glam, and obviously I’m going to be focused on it. But when it comes down to it, I need reliable products that I know are going to hold me through so my attention is on my dancing entirely.”
Her favorite Nexxus product is the Air Shape Workable Hold Texture Spray. “I like volume. I like big hair. I want to pull it out and make it even bigger,” says Miller. “I’m a texture girl. And obviously I need a firm hairspray to hold it all in place, too.”
Why trust NBC Selected?
I’m a reporter at NBC Selected who writes our Talking Shop series, interviewing people like Paris Hilton, Maureen Kelly, Lindsay Hubbard and Chase Crawford. To write this article, I talked to Summer House star Ciara Miller about the products she’s relying on while rehearsing for and competing in season 35 of Dancing with the Stars.
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