Cheryl Burke Reveals If She’s Spoken to Any Dancing with the Stars Pros Ahead of Her Return After 3 Years tram

Cheryl Burke is ready to step into a new role at her old stomping grounds.

In the upcoming Halloween episode of Dancing with the Stars, set to air on Tuesday, Oct. 28, Burke, 41, is going to be taking a seat at the judging table. Formerly a pro on the competition series for 26 seasons, Burke tells PEOPLE this will be her first time back in the ballroom “since I did my last dance” in 2022.

“I think that it just felt right,” she explains, highlighting that the show is celebrating 20 years. “No matter what was said or whatever, at the end of the day, it really goes back to the fact that this show has brought so much to my life. It has taught me to have my own voice. I mean, if you would just look at my first audition tape, you would be shocked. I sound so different. It has shaped me into the woman I am today.”

Calling her return “special” and “emotional,” Burke reveals that she has “not recently” been in contact with the other pros, so this will be her first time seeing them in a while.

“Emma [Slater] and I texted maybe before the season started,” she recalls. “But no, I mean, it's gonna be a huge reunion for sure. It's three years, yet it feels like yesterday. But three years. It's been a while. I can't believe it's been three years.”

“I'm just really excited,” Burke says. “Calling it nerves will only bring anxiety, so I'm gonna try and switch that to excitement.”

Burke says she is looking forward to putting her expertise to good use as a guest judge alongside Derek Hough, Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli, especially because she has been in the dancers’ shoes before.

“I really hope to be able to give constructive criticism, but also be encouraging,” she shares. “I know what it takes. I have been there. I know also at this point in the competition people are exhausted. The fatigue has set in, and it looks like there's no light at the end of the tunnel.”

Halloween night will include the show’s memorable dance marathon element, which they are calling the “Dance Monster-thon,” where the nine remaining couples will take on the ballroom floor at the same time as the judges tap them out one-by-one.

“If you think too far in advance, it does get very overwhelming,” Burke notes. “But as soon as they start to do two dances, you'll be able to see the difference of people who will be able to make it to the end versus not. There's no gray area here. The pressure is either gonna take them out of the competition, or it's only gonna fuel fire.”

If she could give any piece of advice to the couples, it would be, “Don't aim for perfection, because what is that, anyway?”

“Beauty is in the imperfections, for sure, and to always dance as if it's your last dance, because you never know,” she adds.

Melissa Gorga Reveals 'Nightmare' Experience on Wife Swap: Real Housewives Edition trucc

Find out what sent RHONJ's Melissa Gorga into "sensory overload" on Wife Swap: The Real Housewives Edition.

After jetting off to Georgia for Wife Swap: The Real Housewives Edition, Melissa Gorga instantly clocked some things that would never fly in her Garden State home.

As part of the social experiment, the perfectionist mom from The Real Housewives of New Jersey first stepped outside her comfort zone and adopted swap counterpart Michelle Clark's more free-flowing lifestyle, including lax rules for her three children (Sean Jr., 8, Phoenix, 7, and Maverick, 3), as well as a an emphasis on quality family time over household cleaning and organization.

After helping prepare a vegan meal for the kids — while she begrudgingly joined swap husband Sean Clark in a juice cleanse — Melissa encountered one of the experience's biggest challenges: going to bed with dirty dishes still in the kitchen sink.

Though Sean insisted they could just clean up later, Melissa still asked, "Really? Are you sure? I'm in sensory overload."

As the RHONJ 'Wife further declared to a producer, "Oh my god, this is my nightmare. I am in a different world right now. Like, we're just gonna go to bed and leave that all in the sink right now? None of what goes on in this house goes on in mine."

Melissa Gorga reflects on her Wife Swap: The Real Housewives Edition experience

Melissa noted that she joined Wife Swap: The Real Housewives Edition to learn "to just let some things go," after husband Joe Gorga said that her rigidity in their Franklin Lakes, N.J. home was "too much" to handle, at times. Post-filming, she opened up about the experience and what she learned in the process in an exclusive interview with The Daily Dish.

Referring to the Clark kids as "the sweetest, most polite, amazing children," the real-life mom to Antonia, 20, Gino, 18, and Joey Gorga, 15, said she "couldn't have gotten luckier" to be paired with the East Point, Georgia-based family. That's at least partly because seeing Sean's hands-on approach to fatherhood taught Melissa a valuable parenting lesson.

"Everything was a learning experience," she elaborated. "I'm like, wow, I spent a lot of time with my kids, but I don't make everything a learning experience when it really could be. ... So, I think just with motherhood, it gave me a lot of insight."

Though she still keeps her house "spotless," nowadays, Melissa "for sure" channels her swap husband when faced with parenting challenges. She added, "When something happens with my children, I think, like, 'What would Sean do? What would Sean have a conversation about right now?'"

Having introduced more structure and organization into the Clark family's highly intertwined lives on the show, Melissa, in turn, also hoped that she taught Sean and Michelle a thing or two about the importance of taking some alone time amid their daily "grind" as well.

"Divide and conquer does work," she remarked. "And you can think a little bit when you have some time on your own and you're not together 24/7."

Where Melissa Gorga stands with her Wife Swap family now

Even after filming wrapped, Melissa said she stayed in touch with the Clark family — and is still in close contact with them today.

"I talk to them all the time," she revealed. "They're an amazing family. They're trying to come out to New Jersey to hang out with us. They're originally from New York, so when they come to visit their family, we're going to see them."

After Melissa stepped in to finish off the couple's 10-day cleanse — and Michelle whipped up some healthy beverages for the Gorgas back in Jersey — on Wife Swap's Oct. 28 episode, the Clarks even shipped her an appropriate gift.

As Melissa further shared, "They sent me the most amazing juicer recently."

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