Karina Smirnoff

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Karina Smirnoff
Born Karina Smirnova
1978
Kharkiv, Ukraine
Other name(s) Karyna Kylkova
Karyna Smirnoff
Karyna Smirnova

Karina Smirnoff (Russian: Карина Смирнова) is a world champion professional dancer from Kharkiv, Ukraine. She is a five-time U.S. National Champion, World Trophy Champion, and Asian Open Champion. Smirnoff has taken the title at the UK Open, is a three times champion at the US Open, two time champion at the Asian Open, five time champion at the Dutch Open, five time US National Professional Champion, ranked 2nd in the World, and took second at the British Open Blackpool Dance Festival.[1] She is "the first woman to ever make the British Professional Final with three different partners." [2]

Contents

[edit] Biography

Smirnoff was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine in 1978 to a Greek father and a Russian mother.[citation needed] When Smirnoff was five years old, she began taking ballet lessons, followed by gymnastics, aerobics, figure skating, ballroom dancing and piano. Eventually she chose to pursue ballroom dancing. In 1992, Smirnoff moved to the United States[3] and became a U.S. citizen. Once in the U.S., Smirnoff took time off from studying dancing for school. She attended Christopher Columbus High School in New York and the Bronx High School of Science before going to Fordham University, during which time she picked up her interest in dancing again.[3]

Smirnoff graduated from Fordham University with a double major in economics and information system programming.[1] During her academic studies, Smirnoff's goal was to go to law school and become an attorney; however, she found a dance school in Brooklyn, New York and over time dancing became her profession.[3][4]

Early in Smirnoff's dancing career, Roman Nabatov and she competed as an amateur couple for USA. They ended their dance partnership in January 1997.[5] Smirnoff soon after started dancing with Paul Killick in October 1998 as a professional couple for England; this partnership ended in July 1999. Immediately, Louis van Amstel and Karina Smirnoff, in July 1999, entered a professional dance partnership, representing the U.S.A; the partnership ended in December 2000.[6] From January 2001 to September 2005, Karina Smirnoff was in a dance partnership with Slavik Kryklyvyy and they represented the U.S.A; this partnership thus far is her most successful one. Kryklyvyy and Smirnoff earned many top titles and high ratings together.[7]Smirnoff is currently dancing with Dmitri Timokhin for Russia as of October 2005. They won first place at the 2006 Grand-Prix Dynamo in Moscow, Russia.[8]

[edit] Dancing with the Stars

She was a performer on the third season of the ABC series Dancing with the Stars with celebrity partner Mario López. They finished in second place, losing to the team of Emmitt Smith and Cheryl Burke. Karina returned on the show on March 19, 2007 for Season 4, this time partnered with Billy Ray Cyrus, country singer and Hannah Montana star.[9] The couple was the eighth to be eliminated from the competition on May 8, 2007. Her partner for Season 5 of the show was current five-division world champion boxer, Floyd Mayweather Jr.. On October 16th, 2007, Karina and Floyd were the fourth couple eliminated from competition. She returned for season 6, partnered with singer Mario.

[edit] Performances

With celebrity partner Mario:

Week # Dance/Song Judges' score Result
Inaba Goodman Tonioli
1 Cha-cha-cha/ "Request Line" 8 8 8 N/A
2 Quickstep/ "Valerie" 9 8 9 Safe
3 Tango/ "Roxanne" 7 6 8 Bottom Two
4 Paso Doble/ "Higher Ground" 8 7 9 Safe
5 Samba/ "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" 9 9 9 Safe
6 Rumba/ "Let's Get It On" 9 9 10 Bottom Two
7 Foxtrot/ "I'm Your Man"
MamboSamba/ "Mambo A La Sandoval"		 8
9		 8
9		 8
9		 Safe
8 Viennese Waltz/ "If I Ain't Got You"
Jive/ "Little Bitty Pretty One"		 9
9		 9
8		 9
9		 Eliminated


[edit] Personal Life

She was the project manager/director of Tornado Dance's international professional ballroom dancing event entitled "Day & Night."[10] This event was held on November 18, 2006 at the Hollywood & Highlands Grand Ballroom. She also performed on the 2007 ALMA Awards telecast on June 5th.

Smirnoff was romantically linked with former dance partner Mario Lopez from Dancing with the Stars, but on June 4, 2008 Smirnoff confirmed their split.[11]

Smirnoff guest starred in the Hannah Montana episode "Everybody Was Best-Friend Fighting," playing fortune teller "Madame Escajedo."[12] She also had a small part in the movie Shall We Dance?.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "Karina Smirnoff Bio". McDonald’s Electronic Press Kit (November 20, 2006). Retrieved on 2007-09-09.
  2. ^ Ballas, Corky; Didio Barrera (September 1, 2002). "Open British Professional Latin Championship". dsninternational.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-02.
  3. ^ a b c Kim, Steve (September 8, 2007). "'The Pretty Boy' Dances with the Stars". maxboxing.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-08.
  4. ^ Figueroa, Tracy Jo (January 11, 2005). "Karina's Early Dance Days". Retrieved on 2007-09-08.
  5. ^ "Dance Couple Profile of Paul Killick & Karina Smirnoff". DancesportInfo (2007). Retrieved on 2007-09-09.
  6. ^ "Dancers Details: Karina Smirnoff". DancesportInfo (2007). Retrieved on 2007-09-09.
  7. ^ "Couple results: Slavik Kryklyvyy & Karina Smirnoff". DancesportInfo (2007). Retrieved on 2007-09-09.
  8. ^ "Couple results: Dmitri Timokhin & Karina Smirnoff". DancesportInfo (2007). Retrieved on 2007-09-09.
  9. ^ The Stars Align for a Fourth Season of ABC'S Hit Alternative Series, "Dancing with the Stars". ABC Television Network (2007-02-21). Retrieved on 2007-02-27.
  10. ^ Day & Night. Retrieved on 2007-02-28.
  11. ^ "Mario Lopez and Karina Smirnoff Split", Celebuzz.com, 2008-06-05. 
  12. ^ Karina Smirnoff on IMDB

The two have said to remained friends

[edit] External links


Persondata
NAME Smirnoff, Karina
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Smirnova, Karina; Kylkova, Karyna; Smirnoff, Karyna
SHORT DESCRIPTION Dancer
DATE OF BIRTH
PLACE OF BIRTH Kharkiv, Ukraine
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH