NEWSKym Johnson's DWTS Diary: Rehearsals Week 3, Vegas with Donny & Marie!
Sept. 8 2009, Published 9:54 a.m. ET
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 third OK! blog, which I’m writing on Labor Day from Los Angeles. Donny is spending holiday time with his family, of course, so I decided to hop on a plane and have one day in L.A. with my friends and family to recharge my batteries — and quite honestly, to do laundry! I’m having a great time but have been living like a gypsy so it’s nice to get some clean clothes.
The rehearsals went really well the past week. Donny and I have our second dance finished and now it’s just a matter of perfecting both for the Dancing with the Stars premiere on Sept. 21. I actually was a very strict teacher with Donny this week — we had a white board and I wrote our goals for the day on it and I wouldn’t wipe anything off the board until he was doing everything correctly. I also had a little cane and stood there poking him, making sure his posture was good and so forth. He was a little bit scared of me, but in a funny way! I have to say that my tough love worked — Donny definitely had better dance form when we were done.
I also went to see his Donny and Marie show in Las Vegas for the second week in a row. It’s such an amazing show. I don’t understand how he can rehearse with me for six hours a day and then go on stage! He just doesn’t stop. Last week, I saw Marie backstage and she was giving her brother a hard time — they’ve got that brother/sister sibling rivalry thing going on and, because Marie got third place on her season of DWTS, she was joking that there was pressure on him to do just as well. They sure have fun teasing each other!
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I stayed in the James Bond themed room at the Planet Hollyood Hotel -- last week I was in the Pete Sampras room, so I always have fun seeing which room I'll be in next!
Donny and I have been sharing a lot of laughs together as well. Remember how I told you last week about the pottery vase I had made for him at the Park City marketplace? Well, my gift ended up being a disaster. I was writing an inscription on the bottom of the vase that said, “I’m going to mold you into a champion,” but the top suddenly broke! I guess I didn’t let the vase get dry enough before writing on it. I was so upset. But then I gave it to Donny anyway, and he thought it was hysterical that it had ended up broken. Then he went home and walked up the stairs and the vase just crumbled in his hands, the whole thing! We’ve been laughing about it ever since.
Getting back to our dance progress, I’ve got to say Donny’s wife Debbie has been a big help, coming to see his rehearsals a few times already. She tells him, “Don’t be hard on yourself. Just have fun with it!” She’s so supportive of him and thinks he’s doing such a great job. She brought her father in this week to see the rehearsal, too. I think Donny got a little bit nervous when they came in. That was cute to watch. I’ve met all his relatives now, pretty much, and they’ve included me in the family! Well, on that happy note, I’ll talk to you next week!
