Katrina Smirnoff (born as Karyna Smirnova) was born on March 13, 1978, in Kharkov, Ukraine. She was taught ballet dancing from the age of 5. She also learnt aerobics, ball dance, gymnastics and figure skating. In 1992, she relocated to New York. She holds degrees in Economics and Information System Programming from Fordham University.
She entered a dance school while studying at the university. She teamed with Roman Nabatov. They participated in many small-scale contests until January 1997. Nine months later, she and Paul Killick formed a duo and represented England. That was the beginning of Karina’s professional dancing career. The duo danced togethe
r till 1999.
Karina’s next partnership was with Louis Van Amstel till December 2000. Karina represented the United States with Amstel, as well as her next dancing partner, Slavik Kryklyvyy. Karina and Slavik mon a number of competitions until their partnership ended in September 2005.
In 2006, Karina and Dmitri Timokhin formed a duo and represented Russia and emerged winner of the Grand-Prix Dynamo in Moscow.
In September 2006, Karina and Mario Lopez entered ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. They became runner-up behind Cheryl Burke and Emmitt Smith. In March 2007, she danced with Billy Ray Cyrus and ended in the fifth place.
In 2007, she paired with Floyd Mayweather Jr. for entering Dancing with the Stars. But the duo could not stay long in the show.
In the next season, Karina danced with singer Mario and in 2008, she teamed with Rocco DiSpirito.
Why is she famous?
Karina Smirnoff is famous as a professional dancer with international recognition. She has appeared in consecutive seasons of Dancing with the Stars.
Here is one of her famous quotes:
"It's better to be second while everyone is saying 'You should have been first' than be first when everyone says 'You should be second.'"
- Karina Smirnoff
Karina Smirnoff News
Katrina Smirnoff (born as Karyna Smirnova) was born on March 13, 1978, in 
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