The tenth edition of the show Mask. Dancing featured a frog costume, revealing singer and blogger Karina Cross hiding inside. At first, the judges suspected either figure skater Evgenia Medvedeva or singer Svetlana Svetikova might be beneath the amphibian disguise. Cross said she enjoyed the comparison to Medvedeva, but she didn’t know Svetikova. The commentary offering a glimpse into the contestant’s perspective came from a broadcast on STS.
“For some reason I was compared to Zhenya Medvedeva. I don’t mind that, since she is a talented skater and a kind person. The annoying part was when Maria Gorban kept insisting this was Svetikova. I don’t know who Svetikova is, so that kind of comparison felt unfair to me. There were many guesses, yet most were far from reality,” Cross explained in her remarks about the episode.
After filming wrapped, Cross found it hard to keep her emotions in check. She did not want to leave the show and admitted she had poured heart and soul into every performance. Beyond the basic steps, she worked on challenging tricks and practiced late into the night, hoping to make a lasting impression.
“I cried because I invested so much effort into this project. It was deeply disappointing to exit the competition,” Cross shared candidly.
Mask. Dance brings together fourteen celebrated personalities, each wearing a unique costume. A panel of five judges works to identify the hidden stars by decoding a series of clues sprinkled throughout the performances. Once a show ends, the audience votes to decide who faces elimination. Each episode concludes with the judges officially naming one contestant for elimination while another is put at risk by the panel. The remaining contestant’s identity is then unveiled, ending their journey on the show.