Cheryl Burke recently announced that she is leaving Dancing with the Stars. She will be doing a variety show at NBC instead, come 2015.

Cheryl was the longest-tenured professional dancer on the show, along with Tony Dovolani, having participated in every single season except the first. Cheryl has appeared on more episodes of DWTS than anyone except the three original judges and host Tom Bergeron. Cheryl was the first two-time winner of DWTS, winning seasons 2 and 3 with Drew Lachey and Emmitt Smith, respectively. Cheryl helped make the freestyle dances as important as they are with her “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy” freestyle with Drew Lachey – that dance was chosen as the best from the first 100 episodes, and remains one of the most iconic routines in the show’s history.

Cheryl never recaptured the Mirrorball Trophy after season 3, but came awfully close a lot of the time. She made the finals five more times, becoming runner up in seasons 8 and 13 with Gilles Marini and Rob Kardashian, respectively. Her other finals partners were Christian de la Fuente (who was dancing with only one functional arm), William Levy, and Jack Osbourne. She was the first pro to make the finals that many times every time she was in the finals.

Cheryl said, “After a decade of something, it’s time for me to move on and try something different, to be challenged, to feel inspired. Dancing with the Stars will always be a part of my life. Dancing is what I’ve done since I was a little girl. But it was very clear the show only wanted me back as a dancer. They weren’t interested in using me for other things and letting me grow.”

Cheryl did not want to join the judging panel as Julianne Hough did. She said, “It would be very hard for me to judge my friends.” The possibility probably came up since judge Len Goodman will be leaving after the next season.

Cheryl will be sorely missed. While she did occasionally phone it in (William Levy comes to mind), when a contestant inspired her like Jack Osbourne and Gilles Marini did, the results were spectacular. She was always one of the classier pros, not going for the overly sexual in her dances. She was also a very good sport, whether being scared and swearing up a storm on Halloween, or acting out a Spanish telenovella with no understanding of Spanish. Hopefully her new NBC show is a success.

Are you sad to see Cheryl leave DWTS? Will you be watching her new NBC show? And what was your favorite dance of hers?