This week they are adding some new dances -- West Coast Swing, Jitterbug, Hustle and Salsa. I think the format of the show changed this season because we had five hours of programming the first week. But because of that we lost out on a dance, and to make up for that they've added a dance this week that isn't part of our normal standard dance program. I have a bit of an issue with it. If it's not broke, why fix it?

Its not the dances themselves; I love Salsa, I love West Coast Swing -- there are elements of West Coast Swing in my jive. I work with people in other dance styles, and to be completely honest, Paso Doble is a very flamenco-influenced dance. So to perfect my Paso, I went and worked with the guy who played the father in Strictly Ballroom. He's an amazing Flamenco dancer. I worked also with Joaquin Cortes who did one of the results shows. He's incredible. To understand Samba, I spent time in Brazil getting to the root of things. I love to step away and see where dances come from, but then I implement it into my professional, by-the-book dances. It shouldn't be an issue.

But there are other shows that showcase jazz, tap, ballet, hip-hop. Our show is ballroom, that's what makes us different. People don't tune in to see us do hip-hop, they can see that on So You Think You Can Dance, or America's Best Dance Crew. I have nothing against those types of dancers, I look up to those people and admire their talent for what they do. We do ballroom. As boring as the Viennese Waltz is, we do it the way it is supposed to be done.

As far as the kid's competition, it is a great idea and I enjoyed last year's and this year's seems pretty cool. It is misrepresenting what we are all about a bit, but as long as kids are enjoying themselves it's fine. It brings the awareness of what we do to the masses. I can't be upset with little things that I would have done differently.

They are extremely talented kids. Ballroom is an unforgiving activity and venture. It is very hard and not very profitable. My family and I feel kind of bad charging kids for dance. I deal with 95% of immigrants from Eastern Europe and 99% of them have financial issues. Their families can't afford it; it is a very expensive activity, so we try to help out as much as we can. That was the point in organizing my non-profit DanceTeam USA. I look at the parents and the kids and they are so talented, so what can I do? We try not to be about the money.

We have incredible talent in this country, but the problem is that it's not recognized as a mass activity, so therefore there is no recognition for it in schools or colleges. I lose a lot of my kids when they turn 17 and go off to college. I will be the first to say that you must get a higher education. By no means am I promoting dropping out of college to pursue dancing. That's what I ended up doing. Unfortunately. I got my associates degree, but would love to go and finish. It's just not enough. We're working on getting government grants and starting with a local university, one that has a dance team in it, to get them to recognize ballroom dancing as more than a club. The reason that I dropped out was that I went to the British Open, came back and I had failed four of my classes because I missed three days of school. Nothing that I was saying would change the professors' mind. "Do you play basketball?" "No, I dance." "Goodbye, you failed." It's not fair, I was a very good student, so it is hard. But it is the past that I led that has helped my students and my brother and they all follow in my footsteps. My destiny, so to speak, with this is to be the guy who breaks down the walls so that everybody can follow much easier. I'm trying to use the popularity of the show, and whatever popularity I get, to voice my opinion now that it has some weight and respect of the people that watch me. It is an amazing opportunity that we dancers have been given so I'm trying to utilize it in the best possible way I can.

The competition that my company organizes is this Sunday. This year we have the most amount of entries ever and it is limited to youths and young adults. I think next year, we may have to expand and do a couple of days. But we love the space. It is a landmark building in downtown Brooklyn, called Grand Prospect Hall, which used to be an opera house. It's a gorgeous place with a lot of history. Everybody on the press line after I left Dancing With the Stars wanted to know more, but right now we have all the promotion we need. There are people interested by word of mouth, and we ended up basically bringing the entire United States ballroom community to this event. We have a couple VIP guests, who, without us trying to advertise, have found out about us and are interested to fly in and be part of it.

Otherwise there's all the post season stuff with what I want to do, and different ideas that I have and people coming up with proposals. I'm good and busy. I'm a Capricorn; I hate procrastinating.