Karina Smirnoff Talks On Dancing With The Stars, What She Missed The Most Being Away, And More

Thanks to DWTSGossip for this fun find. Karina Smirnoff talks to TV Insider about Dancing With The Stars, Len Goodman, and more.

How are you going to handle the height difference between you and Victor?
I’m going to put the heels on the shelf! They are almost four inches, and I’m 5’5″, so they would make me nearly 5’9″. I’d be almost eight inches over him! I don’t know if we’ll do lifts. Maybe I’ll do the lifts. We’ll have to be creative.

Are you upset that Len Goodman won’t be around as head judge?
Definitely. Len was the grandfather that everyone loved­—and disagreed with when he was mean!

What did you miss most being away last season?
Pulling my hair out the first few days, trying to figure out how to turn my partner into a dancer if he’s not—which, in my case, they’re usually not.

More at TV Insider.

ETA: Karina has posted her blog at People. She writes on her and Victor’s dances and more. Let’s hope they don’t go home tonight!

Now that we have the first show under our belt, it is time to start peeling back the layers and showing different sides of him. This week is Hometown Glory Week, so these are very special dances. On Monday, the dances will focus on the celebrities’ stories, and on Tuesday the audience will get to learn more about the pro dancers’ lives.

For Victor’s dance, we are doing the jive. The dance and the music will really just be there to support the story because it is such an important week. We are focusing on where Victor is from and what kind of life he’s had and how he has been shaped into the man he is today.

For Tuesday, you’ll get to see pictures of the pro dancers from when we were little. I immigrated to America from the former Soviet Union so we didn’t have video cameras when I was growing up, but you’ll also see some dancers’ home movies.

That night, we’ll be dancing the dance of love, the rumba. We are still working on the romance part. I’ll tell Victor, “Grab me by the waist. Look me in the eyes.” And he does and he starts giggling. I’m like, “You don’t giggle when you’re in love!” I’m grateful he giggles instead of cries when he looks at me, but still!

With two pairs going home this week, I think the part that sucks the most is that one pair will have worked all week on learning their dance for Tuesday for nothing.

For us, I’m prioritizing the Monday dance because if we don’t do well on Monday, we wont even get to perform Tuesday. But by tonight both dances need to be on-point, regardless. We’ll probably have to go back to the studio after the show tonight to refresh our minds with everything we have to do on Tuesday. That’s a lot of pressure, but I’m confident we can do what we need to do.

People.