Karina Smirnoff Biography:
Born on March 13, 1978, Karina Smirnoff is an international dancing sensation from Kharkiv, Ukraine. She is a graduate of Fordham University, where she majored in both economics and information system programming. Smirnoff originally wanted to go to law school, but instead, her passion for dancing led her to win the US Open thrice, the Asian Open twice and the Dutch Open and the US National Professional Championships five times. She has trained under famous dance coaches such as Espen Salsberg, Donnie Burns, Tone Nyhagen and Ralf Lepehne, and was given a small role in the dance movie Shall We Dance?, where she shared the screen with fellow dancer
Tony Dovolani .
Karina Smirnoff first participated in the ABC reality series, Dancing with the Stars, during the show’s third season. She was paired with actor
Mario Lopez and ultimately placed second, losing to the tandem of dancer
Cheryl Burke and NFL star
Emmitt Smith . After the season wrapped, Smirnoff and Lopez began dating, and are currently living together. For the fourth season, Smirnoff was paired with singer and actor
Billy Ray Cyrus , where they finished fifth. For the fifth season, she was paired with boxer
Floyd Mayweather, Jr. where they were the fourth couple eliminated. On season 6, Smirnoff is paired with R&B singer
Mario .
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Dancing with the Stars Season 6 Results (Photo courtesy of ABC)