Kym Johnson Biography

Summary

"Kym Johnson" (born 4 August 1976) is an Australian former professional ballroom dancer, model, and television celebrity. She lives in Sydney NSW, Australia but is currently based in America for "Dancing with the Stars".

Dance biography

Johnson began dancing at the age of two. She began ballroom dancing at 13 years old. In 1998, she and her partner, Lithuanian Tomas Atkocevicius, placed second at the Australian Dancesport Championships in the Open Amateur Modern Ballroom. They also were finalists as the U.K. Ballroom Championships at Blackpool. She retired from competitive ballroom dance in 2001, but continued dancing on stage.

Since 2001, she has appeared in a number of events and films, including:

Burn the Floor, a touring ballroom dance production.

Performing at Elton John's 50th Birthday party.

Dancing at the "Blade Runner" launch party

Dancing in the film "Strictly Ballroom"

Television appearances

Kym Johnson became a celebrity after appearing on "Dancing with the Stars", a televised ballroom dance competition.

She appeared on Seasons 1-3 of "Dancing with the Stars" in Australia in 2004 and 2005. In Season 2, she and her partner, television presenter Tom Williams were the winning couple; they both then performed in the Champion of Champion series. Kym also made a cameo during the 4th Australian series "Dancing with the Stars" Grand Final, performing with musician Alex Lloyd.

In early 2006, she appeared on the Australian program "Celebrity Survivor" on behalf of the Merry Makers .

Later the same year (2006), Kym appeared on season 3 of the US "Dancing with the Stars", partnering with talk show icon Jerry Springer. They proved to be very popular and were the 7th couple sent off. During the series Kym wrote a Behind the Scenes' Diary for OK! Magazine Australia.

Kym later continued to tour America with the "Dancing with the Stars" Tour, but was unable to perform in every show due to an arm injury.

Kym returned to the ballroom on 19 March for Season 4, this time partnered with member of N'Sync Joey Fatone. She became the runner-up professional dancer of this season. After the completion of Dancing with the Stars, Kym and Joey Fatone celebrated by going on the inaugural Mediterranean cruise for the Disney Cruise Line. The two performed for the ship's guests on 2 June 2007. Billionaire Mark Cuban was her Season 5 Partner. They were voted off in the fifth week. In season 6 she competed with magician Penn Jillette, but they were the 1st voted off in the Double-Elimination in the 2nd Week. Johnson competed on season 7 partnered with former NFL Player Warren Sapp. They finished in 2nd place behind Brooke Burke and Derek Hough. This was Kym's second time being the professional runner-up.

Kym returned to the ballroom for Season 8, and she was paired with actor David Alan Grier. They were eliminated in the fifth week of competition on 7 April 2009.

For Season 9, Kym was paired with Donny Osmond. Donny and Kym were crowned the champions on 24 November 2009, making Kym the only dance professional to have won the title in two different countries. During this season, Kym wrote a Behind the Scenes, blog of her experiences for www.okmagazine.com

In Season 11 Kym was partnered with Actor & Businessman David Hasselhoff. Unfortunately Hasselhoff and Johnson were the first to be eliminated, making it the second time she was eliminated in the first round including the double elimination in Season 6.

Along with Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Ashly DelGrosso-Costa, Kym appears in the DVD "Dancing With The Stars: Cardio Dance".

Season 12 of DWTS, see's Kym partnered with professional athlete Hines Ward. During rehearsal after Episode 19, Kym suffered a neck injury, and reported that she was 'shaken up' but will be all right.