Kym Johnson's DWTS Diary: Now It's for Real!

Dancing with the Stars pro Kym Johnson has teamed up with OK! to update you every week on the triumphs and travails as she attempts to turn her celeb partner Donny Osmond into a ballroom champion!

Hi everyone! Welcome to my OK! blog for week 5—when Donny Osmond and I finally started the show and hit the dance floor. Monday night was amazing. We were thrilled to get the first dances done and Donny completely excelled!

I was a little nervous before the first dance because I knew the judges would be expecting a lot from Donny—after all, he’s been in the entertainment industry since he could walk. But I kept it together and pretended to Donny that I wasn’t nervous. Instead, I told him to stay calm.

First, we performed a very theatrical foxtrot. I was really happy with the dance. The audience really seemed to love it. They were clapping and cheering for us. The judges? I think they would like to see a little bit more correct ballroom posture. Donny thought they were right; he’s determined to take the judges’ comments as constructive criticism and do better next time. But he got a score of 20 which is fantastic for a first dance on the show.

After the foxtrot, the excitement of the audience got to us. With the group relay salsa, I told Donny to just relax and enjoy it—and that definitely worked, because his second dance was even stronger than the first. He got first place, a ten in his group. We both think it was a terrific start to what we hope will be many weeks on the show. But we need your votes!

It was so much fun having Donny’s sister Marie in the audience cheering him on -- but also joking to him that she was a better dancer after finishing third in season 5. Their sibling rivalry is alive and well as usual!

I think our last rehearsals this past week really paid off. Before the show started, in another effort to improve his posture, I taped his back with duct tape. And I’ve also continued poking him with a cane. I look quite scary sometimes in rehearsal—Donny says it’s like he’s taking dance lessons from Tony Soprano! Duct tape? He says, WHAT are you doing?

Donny’s body is very toned from rehearsing and also doing his strenuous Las Vegas show with his sister. He’s lost five to ten pounds between his show and preparing for DWTS. And I can reveal another of his fitness secrets--we do eight minutes of abdominal work every morning for our dancing warm up.

Earlier in the week, as my blog photo shows, I actually took the controls of Donny’s airplane! Donny travels between Utah and Las Vegas in his private plane. He needs to do his show and the airplane allows him to get back to his family quickly. His pilot Tom asked me if I wanted to sit up front and “co-pilot.” I’ve always been fascinated with planes and aviation, but I’m also scared of heights. Still, I had a blast taking control of the plane for a couple of seconds. Donny was proud of my job.

At Donny’s urging, I also checked out the Australian group Human Nature, who were performing their Motown-themed routine on the Vegas strip. I got my picture taken with the band. They come from an area near my hometown in Australia so it was nice to see locals making good! Human Nature is hugely famous Down Under.

Well, tomorrow night Donny and I get to relax a bit and watch the female celebrities perform -- and then we’ll really know where we stack up in the competition. Talk to you next week!