Laila Ali Talks About Dancing with the Stars Experience

Laila Ali's dance last week with her professional dance partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy was smoking h-o-t, and she and Maks are going strong. She recently took a break from rehearsals to sit down with 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.

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.

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.

Do you think, as an athlete, you have an advantage in the competition?
I wouldn't necessarily say I have a big advantage. The main advantage of being an athlete is that we're used to working hard, we're used to taking criticism and taking instruction. While we're learning I don't have to worry about getting tired, having to sit down, it's more a mental issue. I think Joey [Fatone] has the biggest advantage. He can dance, he's used to coming up with routines, he can go out there and be comfortable. He knows what people want to see, so he has the biggest advantage over anybody.

Joey did that 'Star Wars' dance. What did you think of it?
I think Joey always wants to be a showman. He's kind of silly and he likes to have fun. He likes to bring that into the dances. I don't know what the votes are; some people might think it's silly and not like it. I think showmanship is very important. You only have a minute-and-a-half to do your routine, and it's about coming with something new and fresh and he's definitely been doing that.

Your fiancé, former NFL player Curtis Conway, was on the show last week and he was joking about keeping you and Maksim apart. What is his reaction to you being on the show?
Curtis, my fiancé, is having a fun time watching me dance. He doesn't really like me boxing, he'll be happy when I'm done. So he's glad that people get to see the fun side to me and get to see the side that he sees all the time outside of boxing. He wants me to win the competition. He gives me an honest opinion, and if he thinks that it wasn't up to my full potential he'll let me know. It's great.

Are you guys going to do a tango at your wedding?
We're deciding that now. Whatever we do, we're going to have to take some lessons because people are going to expect us to put on a performance at our wedding.

Will you keep dancing after the show is over?
No, I won't. I'm not a dancer. All I know is what Max teaches me. People are like, "Well at least you'll know how to fox trot." But I only know that one routine and once we move on to the next dance, it's kind of erased out of my mind.

What is your plan after the show? Do you plan to continue boxing?
Right now, I'm looking into different charities I can get involved with. I'm really trying to develop myself in the lifestyle and fitness world. I just shot a boxing cardio workout DVD with Sugar Ray Leonard, which is in stores now. That will be the start of going into that whole lifestyle and fitness arena because that's what I'm interested in, that's what I know. People always ask if I want to act. I'm just not into the celebrity acting thing. I really respect the craft of acting and it's not really my high point. Right now, it's just not my focus.

Do you think that people recognize you more thanks to the show?
Definitely. There are 23 million people watching 'Dancing with the Stars' every week. That's way more people than have ever watched me fight. I have a limited audience in comparison to 'Dancing with the Stars' in female boxing. A lot of people are seeing me for the first time. It would probably to imagine me actually fighting now; they know me as Laila on 'Dancing with the Stars.' It's cool though. It's great and it's going to work out for the better because people are seeing me in a different light.

Photo from ABC.