Cody Rigsby recalls “DWTS ”partner Cheryl Burke's harsh instruction during live performance: 'Don't f---ing move'

"I think my pupils turned black."

Dancing With the Stars season 30 took place at the height of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, causing the participants an enormous amount of unforeseen stress. But that wasn't Cody Rigsby's biggest worry - it was his partner.

The fitness coach joined his former dancemate Cheryl Burke on a recent episode of her Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans podcast, where he discussed a tense moment they shared in the semifinals. "As soon as we went up for the Argentine tango, I was holding that pose and shaking like a tree, just like, shaking shaking shaking... And then of course, I went like an eight count early."

"I think my pupils turned black," Burke joked.

"You turned into a demon, but in the best way possible," Rigsby continued. "I turned in to you. And then our faces met each other and you really stare in my eyes, you go, ‘Don't f---ing move.’ I was like, ‘Okay, okay, I got it!’ And then you got you got us back to where we needed to be by holding a pose."

Despite the flub, Burke and Rigsby survived the semifinals, eventually placing third beneath JoJo Siwa and Jenna Johnson, and winners Iman Shumpert and Daniella Karagach.

On top of the pressure of the mirrorball trophy being within reach and contestants and judges dropping out left and right after contracting the coronavirus, Rigsby explained that he felt doomed on semifinals night before he even took his first step. "That was the semi finals and we had done the salsa before and I missed a pass over your head," Rigsby said, in reference to their first dance of the night, the salsa. "I missed the pass over your head, and so I felt like I f---ed up that dance and I couldn't let that go. I couldn't let that go, you know, because there's like what, 45 minutes between each dance? Like you do one dance and then you have no time let it go."

That's why Rigsby shook like a tree and missed the Argentine tango's first eight count, activating the demon in Burke.

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Burke was perhaps the biggest pressure of all weighing down on Rigsby. Earlier in their conversation, Burke apologized "for my personality at that time and my attitude, because it had nothing to do with you."

She told Rigsby that she was "in a different time at that moment... I don't know if it was also the longevity that I experienced on the show, but it was different. You saw a whole other side of me that no one has ever seen. I didn't know I had that in me as well, because I was going through a separation. There was a lot of things I had found out literally days before I met you."

Burke filed for divorce from then-husband Matthew Lawrence just three months after the season 30 finale. After season 31, she left the show.

Related: Dancing With the Stars recap: Judges dish out tough love on Disney Night

At some point, Rigsby explained that he contracted COVID, leading him to think, "maybe I should just quit. And you were like, 'No, this might be one of my last seasons. So you're not f---ing quitting."

Burke competed in 26 seasons of Dancing With the Stars, winning her first two seasons and placing in the top three six more times. You can watch new episodes of DWTS season 33 Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC and Disney+, and listen to the rest of Burke's conversation with Rigsby below.