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| Birth Name(s) : Karina Smirnoff |
Date of Birth: N/A |
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Single
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Full Karina Smirnoff Biography
Karina Smirnoff) 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. She is "the first woman to ever make the British Professional Final with three different partners."
Karina Smirnoff was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine to a Greek father and a Russian mother. When Smirnoff was five years old, she began taking ballet lessons. Two years later she went through gymnastics and aerobics, but neither of these activities appealed to her. At age seven, her parents introduced her to figure skating and she loved it; she skated for about four years, but she had to stop because she had a very weak throat. When Smirnoff started fifth or sixth grade, she had to choose between ballroom dancing, which her mother put her through, and piano, which her grandmother put her through; Smirnoff chose ballroom dancing. In 1992, Smirnoff moved to the United States at the age of fourteen when her parents desired to have the American dream; she eventually 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.
Smirnoff graduated from Fordham University with a double major in economics and information system programming. 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. Initially, she held a one year-at-a-time philosophy, where she would study and compete in dance competitions but eventually she would get into the field of law. Seven years in, it was clear that Smirnoff was a ballroom dancer (not a lawyer) who would ultimately accumulate many dance titles and be rated one of the top ballroom dancers in the world.
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. 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. 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.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.
She was a performer on the third season of the ABC series Dancing with the Stars with celebrity partner Mario López, her current boyfriend. 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. 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 and is partnered with singer Mario.
She was the project manager/director of Tornado Dance's international professional ballroom dancing event entitled "Day & Night." 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.
In the media business, Smirnoff guest starred in the Hannah Montana episode "Everybody Was Best-Friend Fighting," playing fortune teller "Madame Escajedo." During the end credits, she tells Billy Ray Cyrus his fortune is "To dance in front of many people." When he replies, he says that he can't dance. She says he just needs to bend his knees, which is something she told him when she was his partner for Dancing with the Stars. Billy Ray then storms off set and she follows. She also had a small part in the movie Shall We Dance? starring Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, and Jennifer Lopez. |
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