Interview with Charlotte Jorgensen, Dancing with the Stars

How do you feel about your involvement in the entire experience on “Dancing With the Stars”?
Well, I am extremely excited about being involved in it. I think it is wonderful that we are able to bring dancing to a lot more people that we were not able to reach before, so I am very excited about it.

How have you enjoyed your experience practicing and performing on the show?
On a personal level, it is wonderful to be performing again. I am absolutely blessed with the most fantastic celebrity that you could ever imagine. I am just laughing all the way through this with him. John truly is a wonderful person. He is very generous and considering the fact that in the beginning when he thought it was going to be just a couple hours of rehearsing a week, he is now putting in seven days a week and six or seven hours a week, so I am really pleased with how we are progressing.
 
How well has John O’Hurley picked up dancing with you?
I am quite surprised at what he is able to do. He is also always playing tricks on me the day before the show, he manages to change everything he is doing because of something that I said five days ago that he has suddenly thought about, so I am really impressed with how well he is taking to it considering how difficult learning to dance is.

How has the choreographing process been for you?
For the first two shows we had our music well in advance, whereas now they are giving us music on a week-to-week basis. So, Wednesday night when the show is over, we are given our music for the following Wednesday show. So, we are all making our decisions on how we want to best do this. We could teach our partners some choreography in advance and wait to put it to whatever music we receive, or we wait to hear the music and try to get the choreography to sit around what the music is saying you should do. I have chosen the latter. I have shown John quite a few steps through the different dances so he understands the essence and character of the dances, but I have not chosen to choreograph until I had the music in my hand because this is how I believe dancing to be, that we are only here to express the music.

What is the upcoming dance that you and John will be performing
We will be doing the Tango this week. Of course we have less time to cram all the choreography in and we have an interesting piece of Tango music. I do not have any choice over the music.

How would you describe you and John’s style or chemistry when you dance together?
There is definitely a lot of chemistry. We feel like we have been friends for a very long time. One of the most important things I asked John when I first met him was if he could trust me because I believe that when you are being taught you need to be able to trust your teacher and be able to surrender to each other to produce better work. He is completely surrendered to me and I think that is why you see what you do on the camera. We are both similar people, we have the same attitude about things, throw ourselves into anything new 100%, like to have fun, there is no personal attack, no negativity, no drama, we just do not deal with stuff like that, so therefore it’s just been a really fun experience.

But, he does perspire a lot! He has already lost thirteen pounds and he promised that if he makes it to twenty pounds then he will perform in a red Speedo, so I am really cranking up the heat in the studio to get him to sweat a lot more.
 
What have some of the major challenges been throughout the training or performing process? Have there been any differences from when you were dancing professionally?
I think you cannot go into this and teach like I would normally teach simply because what I am teaching John is for short term memory because that’s all he needs it for, he does not need something that can withstand the five-round competition and be a foundation for dancing over the next ten years. I am teaching him very differently than I would ever teach because it does not need to hold up more than one and a half minute at a time. I am certainly skipping over some basic things but the challenge is trying to incorporate them to get the right look for what we are doing and to stay true to the dance. I also have to talk to him in a different way since he does not have a dance background nor know the lingo, so Quickstep choreography, simple open natural turn, a running finish were called the puddle steps because that was the only way I could get him to imagine that we were stepping up and away from each other. The names do not matter to him because it is not important to him, what matters is that we get it into the right shape and form that resembles Ballroom Dancing.

His wife said to me the other day, “Charlotte, do you know that he could not dance at our wedding?” Now, I do not know whether that is really the truth, but I am so proud of him and his commitment to me during the show.
 
Do you have any comments on the other competing couples? The chemistry backstage among cast has been noted as being friendly, very open and enjoyable. What is your take on it all?
I don’t have any negativity towards my fellow colleagues. It was not nice to watch people leave the show. I would prefer that we all get to stay and enjoy a competition without having to leave, but that is not the concept of what we are doing. I have nothing negative to say, I am having a great time. The production is working very well, they are very professional and friendly. It is wonderful to dance with the band here. I keep my head down, I work hard, I ignore the tabloids because there is just so much work to do. I mean after we finish the show on Wednesday night, I am in the studio the next morning at 8:00am trying to prepare the next dance. There is just no time to get caught up in everything that everybody else seems to be caught up in.

How do the dancers get access to studio space?
That is all arranged for us because we have training coordinators. We tell them when we want to rehearse and they find studios for us that are particularly close to where the celebrities are living. There is a whole organization behind it. There is a wardrobe, there are the people who do the packages, the filming, the training coordinators – it is all very well organized production.

Do you have any advice to share with upcoming dancers?
I have lots! First and foremost, do it for the right reasons, because you love it and not because of a result you want. Stay true to what you are doing and trying to portray to people. Understand why you are dancing. It doesn’t have to be because you love dancing, it could be because you win, but then you take a different approach depending on what your motivation is. Do not get caught up in the negativity that can arise in any business or in the arts. Just stay true to yourself, the dance and involve yourself in the positive aspects, such as, the learning, improving, and growing. I think that is the best advice I can give.

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