Helio Castroneves and Julianne Hough are together again, as the Dancing with the Stars fifth-season ballroom champs have joined Dancing with the Stars - The Tour.
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"I'm honestly so excited to see him," Hough recently told Entertainment Tonight. "It's been like two months since we've seen each other since the finale."
Hough has been in Nashville recording songs for her upcoming debut album since Dancing with the Stars November 2007 fifth-season finale, while Castroneves -- a two-time, back-to-back Indianapolis 500 champion -- has been busy preparing for the upcoming IndyCar season, which begins in March.
Despite the lengthy lay-off from two-stepping together, the pair apparently had no problem finding their rhythm as they practiced their cha-cha and quickstep routines for the tour.
"We were on the stage for an hour today and he knocked it out. I think he's so talented," Hough told Entertainment Tonight about her partner. "It's kind of like muscle memory now because we danced for so long that we just had to dance for 30 minutes and it came back."
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Castroneves and Hough's first stop on the 37-city North American tour began last Friday in Indianapolis and continued over the next four days in Nashville, TN; Tampa, FL; Jacksonville, FL; and Sunrise, FL.
"I think it's special because it is Indianapolis," Castroneves told Entertainment Tonight. "Indianapolis is obviously a place I definitely care about, and it seems to really care about me -- and her as well, because of Dancing with the Stars."
The fifth-season mirror-ball trophy winners will also participate on the tour's final two stops in Providence, RI on February 9 and Philadelphia, PA on February 10.
"It's been quite interesting, my life after [Dancing with the Stars]," Castroneves told Entertainment Tonight. "I've been doing a lot of commitment appearances for the IndyCar Series, and even private appearances, which is great... I actually enjoy it."
"Quite interesting" is an understatement, as Castroneves has mostly been in the media spotlight due to his relationship with former fiancee Ali Vazquez.
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Castroneves proposed to Vazquez -- a Cuban fashion designer -- in November 2006, however the two decided to delay their wedding engagement when he was cast as a Dancing with the Stars celebrity participant.
"I had our whole wedding planned," said Vazquez in Us Weekly's January 28 issue. "But after the first episode [last September], I didn't hear from him for a month."
While Vazquez told Us her relationship with Castroneves ended over the phone when she broke-up with him due to a "lack of commitment," Castroneves has said otherwise and claimed that although it wasn't announced until the morning after he'd won Dancing with the Stars, the couple's engagement and relationship had come to an end only a week or two before his Dancing victory.
Castroneves and Hough have since both been shooting down rumors that they are romantically involved, and Vazquez is in their corner.
"I don't believe it," Vazquez told Us. "[Hough's] a sweetheart."
About The Author: Christopher Rocchio