Jane | Dancing With the Stars

Jane Seymour Sizes up the Competition


Jane Seymour Sizes Up "Dancing With the Stars" Competition By Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith Sep 17, 2007 With the new season of "Dancing With the Stars" one week away, contestant Jane Seymour sizes up the competition: "I think it's a very even race, actually. "Wayne Newton is older, but he's a performer, and half the competition is skill and the other half is performance and fun. Marie Osmond has a huge fan base and is very musical. Jane Seymour Sizes Up Jane Seymour Sizes Up "Dancing With the Stars" Competition (WENN) The young girl from The Cheetah Girls has a lot of fans, and the people who actually vote are very young," she says of Sabrina Bryan. As for Dallas Mavericks' owner Mark Cuban, "Apparently he's a really great dancer." Spice Girl Melanie Brown, boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr., model Albert Reed, race car driver Helio Castroneves and actors Jennie Garth, Josie Maran and Cameron Mathison round out this season's star dancers. Having danced with the London Festival Ballet and the Kirov Ballet as a youngster, Jane would seem to have an advantage, but she says no. "I was sort of a background snowflake, just one of the kids. When I was 16 years old, I spent more time in the hospital being treated for injuries than I did dancing, and I haven't been anywhere near a dance studio since then. But I still have the little girl inside of me saying, 'I want to dance!'" Training for the show she adores "has been absolute joy and complete agony. My body is in better shape now than it's been in a long time. I lost about 10 pounds in training mode for the last few weeks, doing stretching, Pilates, cardio. I wanted to ease my body into this because I have a fused spine and at the bottom herniated discs. I was very concerned I'd be able to move, let alone dance. Learning the techniques really accurately and painstakingly slowly, I haven't been injured at all. In fact, I've minimized the pain I have on a daily basis. It's helping with my back." She adds, "I was joking the other day, 'I should be the Dr. Quinn of ballroom dancing.' If you do it properly, it opens the chest, strengthens the core and uses muscles that enable you to have mobility longer."


©Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith