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Country singer Jana Kramer is currently competing on Dancing with the Stars, and she’s blogging about season 23 exclusively for PEOPLE. Follow Kramer and her partner Gleb Savchenko, both 32, on Twitter!
Last week was so emotional and special because my daughter, Jolie, was in the audience.
The second I found her in the front row, I said to myself, “I don’t even care about the scores. I’m just dancing for her.” And she was my good luck charm.
It’s funny because when I saw her, tears just started to well up. I looked at Gleb and he gave me a look saying, “Put your eyes down or you’re going to lose it.” That was probably a good thing because if I had started bawling my eyes out, I would have completely forgotten the whole routine. It was so special to get to honor what she’s meant to me, and I hope she can look back at this one day and is proud of me.
But as good as last week was, now it’s time to focus on Latin Night.
Gleb and I have the Argentine tango — an extremely sexy dance. The first week of the competition, a lot was made of how sexy our dance was, and I think a lot of the technique and content got lost because of that. Since then, Gleb and I have moved on to doing more earthy and personal dances, which I feel way more comfortable doing.
It’s not that I don’t feel sexy, it’s just that “sexy,” to me, is flip flops and an oversized T-shirt. Doing these sexy Argentine tango moves with Gleb is completely out of my comfort zone.
We’re dancing to Selena Gomez‘s “Can’t Keep My Hands to Myself,” and that video is so sexy. It helps to think that we are kind of just doing a live version of that music video. If I can pretend I’m someone else, that makes doing the dance so much easier.
I was talking to Amber Rose about it and she said, “You just have to play a character and pretend to be completely in love with your partner.” She’s been a really big help to me.
But, more important than the sexiness, this Argentine tango is full of content and the technique is very sharp and complicated. There are also a lot of lifts, which have aggravated my rib injury. But I’m powering through it and I hope the judges and audience appreciate how much we’re putting into this dance. Gleb keeps saying, “Let me change this move. I’ll make it easier.” And I’ll say, “No! I want harder! Let’s do this!”
I want to go out there and own it tonight. Everyone in the competition has stepped up their game and you can feel the difference in the air. We all want to win and we’re all working hard to make that happen for ourselves.
I’m nervous to get out there tonight, but I’m going to become this other version of myself and give it my all. Let’s hope it goes well!
Dancing with the Stars airs Mondays (8 p.m. ET) on ABC.
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