Fit to dance

After 13 seasons it’s become apparent the real stars of "Dancing with the Stars" are the professional dancers who partner with the C-list contestants, and now you can cut a rug — or rather, an exercise mat — with 2011 champion Karina Smirnoff.

Smirnoff, who won her first DWTS title last season with war hero-turned-actor J.R. Martinez, is in the islands to meet fans and lead workout sessions promoting her dance-oriented exercise program and DVD, "Shape Up with Karina Smirnoff" ($17.99 on amazon.com).

"It’s a class that was in a way created to maintain and help keep dancers even more fit and stronger and more flexible," said Smirnoff, who will lead classes in Waikiki on Jan. 31 and Ko Olina on Feb. 1.

Participants can be of any fitness level, but the program, which promises "a dancer’s body in four weeks," might be especially useful for those toning up to look good for their Valentine’s Day partner.

"It targets love handles, which I haven’t seen many workouts do — I really haven’t seen any other workouts do," Smirnoff said in a phone interview, adding that the 50-minute workout involves a series of exercises that isolate different muscle groups.

"Even if you lose a lot of body weight, you can never get rid of those love handles. This routine helps reducing them and making love handles into more like little love knobs."

Smirnoff is still basking in the glory of her victory on the ABC dance series. Her partnership with Martinez was a pleasant and somewhat surprising coincidence. Prior to the season, she had actually pitched a segment to the show’s producers on "dancing with our heroes," featuring servicemen, firefighters and police.

"We thought it would be a tremendous opportunity to know the real heroes in our lives," she said, "but instead I got my own hero as a partner."

Working with Martinez, whose story of personal triumph over his war wounds captured the judges and viewing audience alike, made for a "very positive, very sweet and very rewarding season for me," she said. "We have very similar sense of humor, so we would joke a lot, we would work hard, we would create different stories within a dance. I enjoyed seeing the impact that he had on so many people and so many lives."

Smirnoff has experienced the gamut of results on the show, from reaching the finals in her first season to being bounced in early rounds. She’s partnered with athletic dancers like Martinez, experienced performers like actor Ralph Macchio and the occasional awkward hoofer like computer developer Steve Wozniak.

"Steve was not a natural dancer, but it’s not just a dance competition," she said. "It’s a popularity and personality competition as well. Sometimes … the best dancer doesn’t win."

Smirnoff’s life story reads like a riches-to-rags-to-riches tale. She was born in what was then the Soviet republic of Ukraine, and her relatively well-to-do parents and grandparents got her lessons in figure skating, ballet, gymnastics and piano to see what might stick.

"It was an interesting experience being the only child and everybody having input into what you should be doing," she said. "And after all that I tried ballroom dancing and loved it and didn’t want to try anything else."

That all was threatened by political upheaval. The breakup of the Soviet Union led to social turmoil, racketeering and violence, and her family abandoned their lives and wealth in the Ukraine to move to the United States when she was a teenager. "We came to the states with absolutely nothing. We didn’t even have $100," she said.

She gave up dancing for years, attending college at Fordham in New York and earning degrees in economics and information systems programming. She was planning to become an attorney but ended up working at a Russian restaurant in Brooklyn where dancing was part of the entertainment.

"I hated every moment of it, but it did let me start up in dancing again," she said. "The rest is history."

That history includes five U.S. ballroom dancing championships and titles in Asia and Europe.

Smirnoff is expecting to participate in the next season of DWTS in the spring, enjoying the creativity of coming up with new routines overnight and trying to teach them to her partner, no matter what his skill level.

"Obviously it’s a little easier and more fun to create when you have someone who is actually capable of executing what you ask them," she said, "but it’s still fun when you have to come up with clever ways to camouflage their weaknesses and highlight their strengths."