Emma Slater Boyfriend: From Dance Partners to Romance

Emma Slater’s boyfriend is Alan Bersten, her fellow professional dancer on Dancing with the Stars. After years of friendship and months of fan speculation, the pair publicly revealed their romance with an onstage kiss during the final performance of the 2025 DWTS: Live! tour.

It was a fitting setting for two people whose lives have been shaped by dance. There was no lengthy announcement or carefully worded interview. A brief pause in their routine told the audience that their connection extended beyond the performance.

Since then, Emma and Alan have shared more of their relationship through interviews, family visits and photographs. Their story has developed alongside demanding professional schedules, with both continuing to work within the same close-knit television and touring community.

Who Is Emma Slater’s Boyfriend, Alan Bersten?

Alan Bersten is a professional dancer and choreographer best known for his work on Dancing with the Stars.

He became a professional partner on the competition series in 2017, after previously performing with its dance troupe. His role involves much more than appearing in the live broadcasts. Professionals teach celebrity contestants, choreograph routines and prepare them for the pressure of performing in front of judges.

That shared experience gives Alan and Emma plenty of common ground. They understand the rehearsal hours, physical demands and emotional investment involved in helping someone learn a new skill on television.

For viewers who first discovered him through his celebrity partnerships, his relationship with Emma has brought attention to another part of his life. Their romance grew from a friendship within an environment they both knew well.

Their Friendship Began Through Dancing With the Stars

Emma and Alan met through Dancing with the Stars and worked together for years before publicly becoming a couple.

Emma joined the programme’s troupe in 2012 and later became a professional partner. Alan’s progression through the show followed a similar path, giving them years of overlapping rehearsals, performances and tours.

That history matters because their relationship did not begin with a first introduction in front of an audience. By the time fans began wondering whether they were dating, they had already spent considerable time as colleagues and friends.

The couple have not publicly established an exact date when the friendship became romantic. Their long professional association should therefore be kept separate from assumptions about when they started dating.

Fans Began Noticing Their Connection in 2024

Speculation about Emma Slater and Alan Bersten increased in October 2024, when a photograph of them holding hands circulated online.

For fans who followed the dancers closely, the image suggested something beyond their familiar working relationship. Discussion spread across social media, with viewers looking for further signs that they were together.

Neither immediately offered a detailed explanation.

That period of privacy left room for speculation, but photographs cannot establish every part of a relationship timeline. They show a moment, rather than the conversations and decisions behind it.

What became clear later was that the two dancers were comfortable sharing their relationship publicly when they chose to do so.

Their Onstage Kiss Confirmed the Romance

The defining public moment arrived in April 2025 during the final show of the DWTS: Live! tour.

Emma and Alan were performing together when they paused to share a kiss. They then continued the routine, smiling as the audience reacted.

A fan recorded the moment and shared it on TikTok, allowing people beyond the venue to watch the reveal. The clip quickly became a talking point among viewers who had followed the earlier rumours.

Part of its appeal was the setting. The audience had come to see a dance performance and unexpectedly witnessed a personal milestone.

It also gave the couple a way to acknowledge their relationship through something they both loved doing, without stopping the show for a formal announcement.

Alan Said They Were Enjoying Life Together

After the kiss attracted attention, Alan spoke about their relationship in an interview with E! News.

His message was relaxed. He said they were enjoying their time together and did not want to place unnecessary pressure on the relationship.

He also addressed the practical question that naturally followed: how would dating affect their work on Dancing with the Stars?

Alan emphasised that they were professionals and intended to maintain that approach. Their relationship could exist alongside their individual responsibilities to the show.

It was a measured response to a moment that fans had treated as a major romantic reveal. Public interest had increased, but the couple still had rehearsals, performances and careers to manage.

Their DWTS Friends Already Knew

The relationship may have surprised some viewers, but it was familiar news to people close to Emma and Alan.

Host Alfonso Ribeiro explained that their connection was no surprise within his household. Emma was a frequent visitor, so he already knew what was happening in her personal life.

What he had not expected was the couple’s decision to reveal the romance during the tour finale.

His comments help distinguish two different milestones. A relationship can be established among friends before it becomes publicly acknowledged.

Ribeiro expressed happiness for them, offering a straightforward response from someone who knew the dancers away from the speculation. For their colleagues, the kiss introduced viewers to something that was already part of their lives.

Emma Joined Alan for a Family Celebration

In July 2025, Alan shared photographs from a visit home for his niece’s bat mitzvah.

Emma appeared in the collection, which included pictures from the celebration and time spent outdoors. One image showed the couple kissing during a river outing.

The photographs offered a different view from the stage performances that first drew attention to their romance. Emma was participating in an occasion involving people important to Alan.

A family visit does not establish a proposal, wedding plan or any other future milestone. However, it does show a relationship extending into shared personal experiences beyond work.

For followers, those quieter photographs added context to a romance that had become public through a highly visible performance.

They Help Each Other in Rehearsals

Emma has described a supportive working relationship with Alan, including occasions when they have visited each other’s rehearsals to offer help.

That arrangement makes practical sense. Both know how difficult it can be to teach choreography under time pressure while helping a celebrity partner build confidence.

An outside perspective can be useful when a movement is not working or a routine needs adjusting. Their shared expertise gives them something specific to contribute.

It also means their professional lives do not have to operate as entirely separate worlds. They can understand each other’s challenges while remaining responsible for their own partnerships.

Their comments suggest that support has become a useful part of working on the same programme.

Emma Was Previously Married to Sasha Farber

Before dating Alan, Emma was married to fellow DWTS professional Sasha Farber.

Sasha proposed during a live broadcast in October 2016, and they married in Los Angeles in March 2018.

Their separation became public in August 2022. Emma filed for divorce in February 2023, and the divorce was finalised in 2024.

Those dates are important because older summaries sometimes confuse the filing with the legal end of the marriage.

Emma subsequently spoke about wanting the best for Sasha and maintaining a supportive connection as colleagues. Their shared workplace meant that professional contact continued after their romantic relationship ended.

The exact beginning of Emma and Alan’s romance has not been publicly established, so speculation about overlapping relationships should not be treated as fact.

Alan Also Had a Previous DWTS Romance

Alan previously dated model Alexis Ren, his celebrity partner during the 2018 season of Dancing with the Stars.

Their connection became part of that season’s public story, but the relationship ended after the competition.

Alexis later addressed the separation in an Instagram comment, explaining that they were concentrating on their individual growth and careers.

One detail in older relationship summaries needs care: Alan and Alexis competed together later in 2018, after Emma and Sasha’s March wedding. Their romance should not be placed during Emma’s wedding preparations.

The two relationships belong to different chapters. Alan’s former partnership with Alexis provides background, while his relationship with Emma developed years later.

Are Emma Slater and Alan Bersten Still Together?

Recent October 2026 reporting continues to describe Emma and Alan as a couple.

That coverage included Emma publicly supporting Alan over a temporary professional assignment on Dancing with the Stars. Her response reflected the same emphasis on colleagues helping one another that she had previously described in rehearsal interviews.

Their public story now includes years of friendship, a memorable tour kiss, family occasions and mutual encouragement at work.

For anyone searching for Emma Slater’s boyfriend, Alan Bersten is the confirmed answer. The most revealing details are the ones they have chosen to share themselves: enjoying time together, making room for family experiences and understanding the demanding profession that first brought them into each other’s lives.