Edyta Sliwinska and her hubby, Alec Mazo have started a new facebook page called “Dancing Pros” in promotion with their stage show “Dance Temptation”. As previously reported, the two plan to hit the road again with it again next summer. Yesterday, Edyta wrote her first blog. In the blog she writes about how she got picked to do Dancing With The Stars. Below is a take about the process….

Everyone in the dance world knew about the British show ‘Strictly come dancing;’ it was hugely popular, so when I heard that it will be produced in America, I immediately submitted my resume, videos, pictures, magazines scraps, you name it. By the way if you are thinking of becoming a professional dancer, you should have all of the materials together and ready to go. You never know when the opportunity might knock to your door. In my case it happened in May 2005 and I was so ready for it. I considered all other options (I think I went a little too far thinking I could be a lawyer). Somewhere deep inside I knew I loved dancing. I was invited for an audition to Los Angeles. The producers already knew that I’m a good dancer, or at least good enough for what they were looking for, from all the videos, competition results and so on. Now they had to make sure I had the right personality to play the part. And here came a lengthy interview with hours of question. It was like a real interrogation with the only difference being that I wasn’t asked to tell the truth but to give a few different answers, the more outrageous then better. I had to deliver these snippets ‘in my own way’, but after a while I was so confused I forgot what ‘my own way’ was. They needed to typecast me somehow. My head was spinning; I had to be charming, sexy, competitive, arrogant… Uh, it was my first taste of what television was about. Later I understood that on TV, personality is just as important as skills. In fact I know a former world champion who didn’t get on the show because she was too shy and didn’t look interesting enough on camera. She is an amazing dancer, someone I’ve looked up to for years. Back to the audition, the next in the process was a short dance lesson to examine our teaching skills. That was easy considering my experience with kids in my SF dance studio. If you can teach a 5 year old you can teach anyone.

“Personality” has so much to do with a part on Dancing With The Stars, maybe even more than dancing ability itself?

More fascinating Dancing With The Stars things from Edyta here. They’ve posted some pictures from Dance Temptation as well at their facebook page which you can view one above. Beautiful!! I miss seeing Edyta dancing so much!! She will always be one of my favorite female dancers!