by Gina Scarpa

Now that Dancing With The Stars has finished its 12th season, the professional dancers have a little time off - or so you'd think. Many of them spend their off season touring, performing, and teaching classes. Last night, Dmitry Chaplin and season 12 winner Kym Johnson stopped at Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut for a free performance for fans and we sat down with them for an exclusive interview.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What has the fan reaction been like since you won?
A. Kym: Well I mean Hines is so poular now, seeing as how he won the show. Everyone has been so great. Everyone's been so concerned about my injury, I must say.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: I'm sure you get asked about that a lot!
A. Kym: I do get asked about that a lot and people say how sweet Hines is, how sweet he seemed on the show. People seem really excited for us. It's been good.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Dmitry, have the So You Think You Can Dance fans moved over to Dancing With The Stars to follow you, Chelsie, and Lacey?
A. Dmitry: Well, I don't think that they moved. They still watch So You Think You Can Dance and they watch Dancing With The Stars together. But, yeah! We just did a couple shows and I got a couple people that watched me six seasons ago.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What do you both do during the off season, when you're not on Dancing With The Stars?
A. Kym: At the moment, we've been doing a lot of shows around America. We just came from Florda, San Francisco, I'm going somewhere else tomorrow... we've been very busy. I'm hoping to enjoy some of the summer here in America and have some time off soon.
A. Dmitry: Everybody's teaching. We've been dancing. We're dancers. That's what we do best. I'm going to be choreographing for So You Think You Can Dance this summer. Louis [van Amstel] will be choreographing as well.
A. Kym: Yeah, we teach and we do shows. We're always keeping really busy.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: You guys are becoming celebrities in your own right. Do people recognize you when you're out?
A. Kym: Yeah, especially when the season has just been on. The show is so popular and I think that this was the most watched season ever. It's incredible that we've been on for so many seasons...
A. Dmitry: Well, you have!
A. Kym: The fans just love the show. Some of the die hard fans have watched it since day one.
A. Dmitry: Oh yeah. Some of them record every episode and have like, a library of every season. They know exactly what happend five seasons ago.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What will you guys be doing tonight?
A. Kym: We're going to do three dances. We've danced together quite a bit. 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Is there a style that you prefer to dance?
A. Kym: He likes more of the Latin stuff.
A. Dmitry: Well, I'm more Latin trained.
A. Kym: I like more the Ballroom stuff. Tonight, we're doing a tango, cha-cha, and rumba.

Follow Kym @kym_johnson and Gina @ginascarpa