Alyson Hannigan Says Dancing with the Stars ‘Terrifies’ Her — but She’s Doing It for Her Daughters (Exclusive)

Alyson Hannigan never thought of herself as a dancer.

But when the actress was offered a place on Dancing with the stars for season 32, she grabbed it — not because she thought she’d sweep the competition, but to teach her daughters Satyana “Saty” Marie, 14, and Keevi Jane, 11, a valuable lesson.

“You shouldn’t let the fear of, ‘What if I’m not good enough?’ hold back,” Hannigan, 49, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “I’m doing something that terrifies me. It doesn’t come naturally, but I will work hard to improve every week.”

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Alexis Denisof and Alyson Hannigan with their two daughters Saty Marie and Keeva Jane.

Alyson Hannigan/Instagram

Hannigan — who is best known for her roles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and How I Met Your Mother – she says her family was with her every step of the way. Alexis Denisof, her 57-year-old colleague Buffy star and husband of 20 years, was “beyond supportive… He wakes up early so we can talk and go over whatever’s on my mind.”

Hannigan’s daughters also root for their mother and attended her first appearance on the long-running show, which airs every Tuesday night from Los Angeles.

“Because it airs live on the East Coast, they had to miss their last class at school to get to the set on time, so it was only the first episode,” she explains. “Then my teenage daughter didn’t do all her homework that night, so we had to make a better parenting decision… ‘How many times can you email the teacher that the child didn’t write the homework because they were on a Dancing with the stars record?’ Maybe we can get away with it sometime.”

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Alyson Hannigan salsas with Sasha Farber during the ‘Dancing with the Stars’ season 32 premiere.

Eric McCandless/ABC via Getty Images

The American Pie the actress left little room for improvement after a rousing salsa debut, then debuted her tango routine with dance partner Sasha Farber last week, earning praise from Carrie Ann Inaba. “That was an empowered woman,” said the judge, 55, calling it “a great comeback from Alyson!” she said.

Hannigan admits the last few weeks have been “difficult”. With little dance experience aside from one ballet class when she was 3, the actress found her best way to learn new routines involved watching dance videos, drawing maps of the stage, including where the stairs, judges and cameras were, as well as writing down everything – ” every single step” – which then became a kind of “script” for her.

“As much as I worked on my count during the tango the night of the show, my count was gone,” she says, referring to last week’s performance. “But it didn’t matter, because I knew it so well, because I had memorized my script.”

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Alyson Hannigan tangos with Sasha Farber in ‘Dancing with the Stars’.

ABC/Christopher Willard

While Hannigan is still in the early days of the season, she says the experience of performing on the show has been “liberating” and “liberating.”

“I can really understand why people say at the end of the show that it ‘changed their lives,'” she says. “I already agreed. It’s been such an amazing journey that I’m just enjoying every aspect of it.”

For more on Alyson Hannigan, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE on newsstands Friday or subscribe here.

Dancing with the stars airs Tuesdays at 8pm ET/5pm PT on ABC and Disney+.

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