Karina Smirnoff on Dancing With The Stars
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Karina Smirnoff will be dancing with Mario on Dancing With The Stars.
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Karina Smirnoff (born March 13, 1978[1])is a world champion professional dancer from Kharkov, Ukraine. She is a five-time U.S. National Champion, World Trophy Champion, and Asian Open Champion. She was a performer on the third season of the ABC series Dancing with the Stars with celebrity partner Mario López, whom she is dating, according to US Weekly. They eventually finished second, losing to the team of Emmitt Smith and Cheryl Burke. Karina Smirnoff graduated from Fordham University with a double major in information system programming and economics with specialization in information system management. Karina began taking ballet lessons at the age of five. Two years later she went through gymnastics and aerobics, but neither of these activities appealed to her. At age seven, her parents introduced her to figure skating and she loved it; she skated for about four years, but she had to stop because she had a very weak throat. . When she started fifth or sixth grade, she had to choose between ballroom dancing, which her mother put her through, and piano, which her grandmother put her through ; Smirnoff chose ballroom dancing. She moved to the United States when she was twelve and eventually became a U.S. citizen . She is five feet, five inches tall . Karina has had several dance partners including Paul Killick and Louis Van Amstel, a fellow Dancing with the Stars professional competitor. In January 2001, Karina began dancing with Slavik Kryklyvyy, representing the USA. She gained several titles with Slavik, including first place at the UK Open 2005 and second place at the prestigious Blackpool Dance Festival. Krylyvyy and Smirnoff have made a series of instructional dance videos. The partnership terminated in September 2005. Karina is currently dancing with Dmitri Timokhin, with whom she recently placed 4th at the 2006 Blackpool Dance Festival. Karina Smirnoff and her then partner Slavik Kryklyvyy choreographed the piece of Tango featured in the movie Shall We Dance? where Jennifer Lopez gives Richard Gere a private dance lesson very late in the evening
