The cast of 2012 - Seven West Media

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SINGER/SONGWRITER, AGE 42 DANIELLE SPENCER PARTNER: DAMIAN WHITEWOOD DANCING FOR: THE AUSTRALIAN CHILDREN’S MUSIC FOUNDATION “I will work as hard as I can work to stay in and I would love to stay in for as long as possible. I don’t know that I’m confident, but I’m hopeful.” Danielle’s musical career was destined from an early age. “It was a very musical household growing up so I guess that was kind of always in my childhood.” The daughter of Don Spencer – a respected musician and renowned TV presenter in Britain and Australia – Danielle first started to sing and learn the piano from her father at the age of four. “I released an album in 2001 (White Monkey) and then I got married off the back of touring and had two children so I had a break from music. Then I got back to it and released an album (Calling All Magicians) in 2010.” With her sons with actor Russell Crowe now aged 5 and 8, Danielle says she felt ready to make music again. “They’re a bit older so it’s easier for me to work now and be away from home.” But she says her musical ability doesn’t extend to the dance floor. “I stand up for a few songs, but I’m a piano playing songwriter so I’m not really breaking out the moves. It’s all the technique - it looks so beautiful and effortless when you see people doing it and doing it well. I guess that’s the big challenge, trying to make it look effortless and graceful while remember all of these things.” Danielle says she first rejected the idea of competing for the coveted mirror ball trophy. “I think initially I kind of shied away from it, probably just out of fear. But I thought it would be fun. Everything I do is very internal - I sit in my room writing songs and you live in your little internal world so I thought it would be nice to do something that’s external and physical and give myself a challenge like that.” She says being criticised by the judges could be tough. “You really are putting yourself out there. You’re putting yourself out to be judged, and that’s not a comfortable thing to do. But the overriding thing was I thought it would be fun to just have a new challenge. I would just like to engage with dancing and get to a point where I’m really enjoying it.” DAMIAN WHITEWOOD In 2010 Damian made a guest appearance on DANCING WITH THE STARS with Pamela Anderson who he partnered in the US version. For the past 11 years, Damian has performed his passion in life to millions of people around the world and has taken what was once a hobby and made it his career. In 2001 he joined the cast of Burn The Floor, which has sold in excess of 4 million tickets in over 30 countries and 160 cities worldwide. He achieved one of his lifelong goals with the company in 2009 making his Broadway Debut as a lead dancer, which opened to rave reviews and sold out performances. Damian made the move to primetime television in the US as one of the professional dancers on ABC’s top rated program, DANCING WITH THE STARS. Partnering Pamela Anderson who he has since been working with all around the world, Damian has guest appeared on the Israeli, Argentinean and Mexican versions of DANCING WITH THE STARS.
TELEVISION PRESENTER, AGE 29 ERIN MCNAUGHT PARTNER: GLEB SAVCHENKO DANCING FOR: THE MCGRATH FOUNDATION “I’m pretty clumsy. I sliced my toe open in the first 30 seconds of dancing.” Since representing Australia in the 2006 Miss Universe pageant, Erin McNaught has rarely stepped from the spotlight. The Canberra-born stunner can add actor and television presenter to her resume, her latest gig as MTV VJ. As a six-year-old, Erin took up ballet in pursuit of every little girl’s dream, a tutu. Now the prospect of wearing skimpy sequined fashions is proving a touch more challenging. “Its going to be all out there for everybody to see so I’ve made a decision to not worry about my body and not have any insecurities because it’s about dancing and not about my body.” A former athlete, Erin sees dancing as another life skill to conquer and says while she is fit and strong, she does carry the legacy of competitive high school javelin. “I’ve got really bad shoulders, lots of scar tissue inside, so I have no flexibility.” Erin, who sees Kerri-Anne as the competition threat, is under no illusion the dancing experience will be a difficult challenge. “The only way is up for me because I’ve never done anything like this before.” But she is being realistic. “I’m not thinking that I’m going to be amazing, but I’ve never tried it so you never know.” She’s hoping the judges, who often tell it like they say it, have some kind words too. “I’m so sensitive, I’m such a crier, it’s really embarrassing. Honestly, my one goal on this show is to not cry too often. I hate conflict.” Dancing for the McGrath Foundation, she says she hopes one day it’s a disease no-one has to battle. “My family has not been affected by breast cancer and that’s a really fortunate and a really rare thing. So ideally down the track there’ll be more and more people like me who don’t know people affected by breast cancer.” And while she may not have carved up a dance floor since a failed ballet attempt at six, she says the fight is on. “I’m competitive, I’m really competitive. I want to win.” GLEB SAVCHENKO This year Gleb makes his DANCING WITH THE STARS debut. Gleb studied drama and theatre arts at the Moscow Theatre Arts University, graduating from the Russian Theatre Arts University with Masters in Choreography. Proficient in ballet and contemporary dance and a specialist in International Latin, Gleb studied under Bob Luyck in New York and Kate Sullivan in Hong Kong. He has appeared in film and television roles, and since 2007, has won six Professional Latin Dance Championships - Australasian Professional Latin Championship, Australian South Pacific Championship, Canberra Open Professional Championship, Closed Hong Kong Championship, Open Asia Tour Championship and the United Kingdom Championship. Fluent in English and Russian, Gleb is married to professional dancer Elena Samodanova who is partnered with Shannon Noll.
Page 2 and 3: THE CAST OF 2012
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Page 6 and 7: CO-HOST MEL B Mel B knows a thing o
Page 8 and 9: AFL SUPERSTAR, AGE 31 BRENDAN FEVOL
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Page 14 and 15: INTERNATIONAL DJ, AGE 25 VOGUE WILL
Page 16 and 17: ‘80S ROCK LEGEND, AGE 50 BRIAN MA
Page 18 and 19: JUDGE HELEN RICHEY Known for her sn
Page 20 and 21: JUDGE JOSHUA HORNER Joshua Horner l

The cast of 2012 - Seven West Media

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