Dancing with the Stars: Carrie Ann Inaba
If you enjoy watching “Dancing with the Stars,” you know who Carrie Ann Inaba is. She is the beautiful female judge on the hit dancing show. Carrie Ann was born in Hawaii and is of Japanese, Chinese, and Irish descent. Between 1986 and 1988, she live in Tokyo Japan and was a very popular teen pop star, releasing the hit songs “Party Girl,” “Be Your Girl,” and “Yume no Senaka.” She also hosted a weekly radio show as well as a television series.
Carrie Ann returned to the states and began studying choreography at the University of California, Irvine. Along with Alexandre Magno (who has choreographed moves for Britney Spears and Madonna) Carrie Ann formed the Personna Productions dance company. Like Jennifer Lopez, Carrie Ann honed her dancing skills as a Fly Girl for the Fox television show “In Living Color.” She also performed with Madonna on The Girlie Show tour. Carrie Ann has choreographed moves used on several reality shows including “American Idol,” “In Search of the Partridge Family,” “The Swan,” and “America’s Got Talent.”
Carrie Ann’s talents are not limited to dancing and choreography though. She studied video production at the University of California, Los Angeles and started her own digital video production company, EnterMediArts Inc. She also has big and small screen credits including the role of “Fook Yu” in Austin Powers in Goldmember, as a goddess dancer in Showgirls, an Old Navy commercial, and Dance Fever. There are rumors flying that Carrie Ann may replace in the running to replace Rosie O’Donnell on “The View.” She guest hosted on “The View” twice in 2006.
She feels very lucky to have gotten the judging job on “Dancing with the Stars.” She auditioned with countless other choreographers for the job and it was part talent, part chemistry that landed Carrie Ann the job. She is often labeled as the “tough judge” unlike her “American Idol” counterpart Paula Abdul, who is often criticized for not being tough enough on contestants. Carrie Ann says she is simply seen as tough because it is her job to remove points for errors she spots. Who have been some of her favorite celebrity dancers? She thought Drew Lachey, Joey Lawrence, Mario Lopez, and Emmitt Smith were “fantastic,” said John O’Hurley was “amazing,” and hated that Willa Ford left so soon because she had turned out to be a good dancer.
As for Carrie Ann’s personal life, she has her own charming dancer to sweep her off her feet. She has been dating Artem Chigvintsev, a former contestant on the first season of “So You Think You Can Dance,” since early 2006. While Chigvintsev didn’t win the first season competition, they love his dancing moves so much, he was asked to serve as a choreographer for the second season of “So You Think You Can Dance.”
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