Dancing with the Stars professional dancer Karina Smirnoff apparently thinks highly of her nineteenth-season celebrity partner -- very highly.

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Smirnoff and her celebrity partner, mixed martial arts and UFC fighter Randy Couture, received 31 out of 40 points from the judges for their foxtrot routine last week during Dancing with the Stars' premiere, finishing in fifth place on the leaderboard.

"Our performance went perfectly. We couldn't have asked for a better response. There's a certain side of Randy that I wanted to showcase in the dance and it came through, and the judges and the audiences recognized that. I couldn't have been happier," Smirnoff wrote in her People blog.

"I think the judges were commenting on certain qualities that Randy produced on the dance floor, which I totally agree with. He was smooth, and for a man of his stature, smooth is not the word that comes to mind -- he's 6'1" and 220 lbs. of pure muscle! I think he definitely deserved the scores we received."

Smirnoff, who previously voiced her concerns about Julianne Hough serving as a regular judge considering her brother Derek Hough is in the competition, seemingly no longer has a problem with it.

"Julianne Hough did an amazing job as a first-time judge. It's definitely not easy sitting next to Bruno Tonioli!" said Smirnoff, who had called Julianne's participation unethical.

In addition to Julianne and Tonioli, Len Goodman and Carrie Ann Inaba also serve on the judging panel.

"I think [Julianne] did an amazing job keeping up with him and playing it back with him. And she loved my partner! She thought he was extremely sexy, so really I think she did an incredible job!" she added.

With the season's second episode airing Monday night at 8PM ET/PT on ABC, Smirnoff had a gameplan for her week of rehearsals with Couture.

"Going into this week I told Randy, 'Remember, at the end of the day, we are not just doing a combination of steps.' Just steps and moves without any meaning to them is boring and pointless to watch. The steps are the mechanism that tells the story. The story in the foxtrot was graceful, suave, romantic, and strong. With the cha-cha, now I want to show the naughty side of Randy Couture! Our cha-cha is super-playful, flirtatious and sexy," Smirnoff wrote.

"You know when you go out on the town and you have an amazing time and you let your hair down? (Well, Randy constantly will laugh and go, 'What hair? I don't have any hair to let down!') It's that party. You're at the club, you're dancing. This will have a different strength and different feeling from the foxtrot."

Smirnoff dubbed the night "My Jam Monday."

"So we'll be performing to a song that Randy likes to listen to. We have an amazing story. Randy has so many experiences in his life that make him very unique, so we put a story from Randy's life into the dance. It's really cool and I'm excited. And I get to be a pinup. That is always one of the fantasies you want to come true!" Smirnoff wrote in her People blog.

"I don't think we have a direct competition in terms of the other dancers, because you are only as good as your last performance. We'll just keep on working hard, and once we see where everybody else is we'll know if we're good or bad in comparison!"

Smirnoff won Dancing with the Stars' thirteenth season with J.R. Martinez. She's currently competing in her sixteenth edition.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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