Stars give Philly a whirl

Philadelphia Inquirer - Philadelphia, PA, USA - Helio Castroneves and Julianne Hough are getting back together.

The winning couple from Season 5 of Dancing With the Stars will perform Sunday night at the Wachovia Center, the last stop on "Dancing With the Stars - The Tour."

But no, they're not getting together in that way, Castroneves says, with a smile in his voice. "She definitely was a very strong teacher and a very good one, too. And the only romance we had was on the dance floor."

The duo will be performing dances that TV audiences will recognize: the cha-cha to "Love Rollercoaster" from the semifinal episode and the quickstep to "Hey Pachuco" from the finals.

"No question, that's the most recognized [dance], with the yellow suit," the IndyCar driver says of the quickstep. "Plus the kiss at the end of the dance."

Dancing With the Stars has had an enormous impact on ballroom, says professional dancer Cheryl Burke, a two-time winner. "Ballroom dancing has been around so many years. It hadn't really been recognized by the public eye, but there's a whole competitive world. People really stereotyped it as being for old people."

But now, her friends who own dance studios report that registration for classes is way up, says Burke, who started ballet at 4 and switched to ballroom at 11, after her parents took classes for fun and decided to sign her up, too.

Burke's partner for the Season Three win, retired football player Emmitt Smith, can take a lot of credit for changing perceptions.

"He comes from football and he's such a man's man," she says. "Random people come up to me on the streets. It's because of Emmitt Smith that they love the show."

The difference between winners and those voted off early, Burke says, comes down more to level of comfort than talent