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TV Tattler: Celebrity Interviews

Laila Ali Waltzes Into Latest Role as 'Dancing' Queen

Already a Knockout in the Ring, Now a Knockout on This Season's 'Dancing With the Stars'

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April 23 -- She can fly across the dance floor like a butterfly and sting like a bee in the ring.

Until a few months ago, world-title holder Laila Ali -- daughter of the legendary Muhammad Ali -- was known for her prowess in the boxing ring. But now as one of the front-runners on ABC's hit 'Dancing With the Stars,' she's instead getting attention for her box step.

Ali took time from her grueling rehearsal schedule and talked to AOL editor Kelly Woo about her all-important costume decisions, post-'Dancing' plans and Joey Fatone's silly 'Star Wars' dance.

Why did you sign up for 'Dancing with the Stars'?
It just looked so interesting to me. It looked like so much fun -- the glamour and the glitz of dancing. I'm always boxing, so this seemed like a great thing to try.

How much do you practice every week?
I practice for five hours a day, and that ends up being about 20 hours a week. You have to do it!

How long does it take you to learn a dance? Do you learn it right away and then just tweak it?
[My partner] Maksim [Chmerkovskiy] comes in the first day and choreographs the piece, teaching me step by step. That usually takes two days, learning the actual routine, and the last three days we actually work on perfecting and learning the routine correctly.

Maxim and Laila are dancing partners. Does Maksim decide the theme and song, or do you get some input?
The show gives us a song and then if we just hate it, they will give us something different. But, for the most part, we're stuck with what they give us. Max actually comes up with the choreography. Lately, I've been getting more involved because when the judges don't like something, if they didn't like the choreography or whatever, they seem to always point at me and blame me. So I said, "I might as well get involved, I'm going to be taking the blame anyway."

What kind of input do you usually have?
Max is a dancing purist but, you know, he's been on the show for three seasons and he's never won. I think the key to winning is make this more of a show, to have a story line, not just steps. People see that I can dance, so we need to give them something more exciting -- the wow factor -- so we're working on that.

Do you have any choice in your costumes? Some of the costumes can get pretty crazy.
Oh yeah! All of us get to say what we want our costumes to look like. I'm 100 percent involved in that. I pretty much design the costume and then the designer on the show makes it happen.

Do you have a certain style that you like to follow?
No, I pretty much always ask. What does this dance need? This is a Cuban dance, I'll look at some Cuban dresses and then I'll kind of just go off of how they look, tweak it and make it my own.

Heather Mills competes on 'Dancing With the Stars.' The judges have been hard on you recently. Do you feel like you're held to a higher standard than some other contestants, like Heather Mills?
The judges actually haven't been that hard on me. They haven't said anything rude or crazy to me. One week we did the tango, they loved our dance, they thought it was a great performance. But there are rules, and Max's choreography broke the rules. We broke apart too soon in our dance, when we should have held ourselves together. So that wasn't a big deal to me; it was just the rules. All it does is make me want to get more involved and make sure that when we come out there, the judges enjoy our performance.

How much do you interact with the other contestants?
The other contestants and I see each other pretty much the day of the show, on Monday. We have to come to the studio for camera blockings and fittings, but we don't see any of the dancing from the other couples until it's actually time to do the dance.

Are you all buddies?
Oh, yeah. Everyone gets along real well.

What has been your favorite dance personally?
My favorite dance, I would have to say, would be the mambo, which I did and I actually won that week. Once I got the steps and I got really comfortable doing the dance and my confidence just showed up on the dance floor. I think the Latin dances will be my best dances.

Why do you think that is?
Because you can be sensual and sexy and move your hips, you're not stuck in a frame like you are for the quick step and the fox trot. I can really break away from Max and really put my own flavor on it. And that's what makes my dancing unique. I don't have him to cover up my dancing. Let me be seen, let me move my hips, let me be sexy. And I think people like to see that.