Anna Delvey's Ankle Monitor Shines on Dancing with the Stars

Finally, the ankle monitor's moment to shine has come.

In the first seconds of Anna Delvey’s debut on “Dancing With the Stars” Tuesday night, cameras zoomed in on the tracking device strapped to her ankle. The tracker was a discreet black box that had clearly been through the show’s wardrobe department and was studded with a rainbow of crystals that perfectly matched Ms. Delvey’s hemline-hemmed gown.

Ms. Delvey, of course, is a former fake heiress named Anna Sorokin. She spent nearly four years in prison after being convicted of stealing more than $200,000 from several companies, and was then arrested by U.S. authorities for overstaying her visa and placed under house arrest (hence the ankle monitor).

She is also the latest in a long line of dance show contestants who were apparently chosen because of the controversy they were likely to cause.

The focus on Ms. Delvey's ankle monitor helped make her lackluster performance stand out on social media among more ambitious performances from contestants like actress Chandler Kinney and former basketball star Dwight Howard (even if her dancing put her in the bottom third of the group).

But if Ms. Delvey was happy to be allowed to travel to Los Angeles for the show, you wouldn't know it from her cha-cha playing.

Her perceived lack of enthusiasm may be her biggest problem as she tries to avoid the early exits that have befallen other controversial contenders over the years, including Tucker Carlson, Paula Deen and Tonya Harding. Just ask Ezra Sosa.

Mr. Sosa, a professional dancer on the show who is getting his first opportunity as a full-time partner to a contestant, discussed the unique challenge he faces with Ms. Delvey in an interview with Joe Vulpes of the Lightweights Podcast.

“Getting you to smile is the hardest thing for me,” Mr. Sousa said, referring to a conversation with Ms. Delvey during rehearsal. “So you have to smile for four hours straight of rehearsal so you can smile continuously for one minute of our dance.”

Asking a woman to smile is usually a loaded request, but this suggestion is more common in the performance world.

“Dancing is so joyful and so silly,” said Alec Cohen. Choreographer “And a dance teacher who has worked with singer Chrissy Chlapica and drag artist Lux Noir London. “If you can get to the humor and the laughter behind it, maybe a real moment of expression will come naturally. It’s about repetition and practice.”

The key to performing well, Mr. Cohen said, is to get out of your head.

“When I was a professional dancer auditioning for things, if my mind was overcoming all the negative criticism,” he said, “I would cover my mouth and say out loud, ‘I can do this, I know it, I know it.’ Hearing the affirmation out loud is really helpful.”

Another technique Mr. Cohen recommends is pretending to be someone else — which historically has not been a problem for Ms. Delvey.

“I like to advise non-professional dancers to imagine a person and a place that is very far from themselves,” he said. “For example, I like to say, ‘I’m Mary Louise Parker in Weeds.’ Because I can be kind of frenetic and she’s, like, very sexy and sensual and realistic. It’s really good for me to get into that mindset.”

“We all suffer from the same imposter syndrome, so I imagine it would be helpful for Anna Delvey to pretend to be Rihanna,” he added.