Posted Friday, Sep. 11, 2009
By CHAREAN WILLIAMS
CHICAGO — Louie Vito has been practicing hard, four to six hours a day. But he’s not getting ready for his day job — snowboarding — but for prime time — Dancing with the Stars.
Vito began working with partner Chelsie Hightower on Aug. 21. The ABC show begins Sept. 21 with 16 contestants vying for the Season 9 title.
“Everything is pretty hard for me,” Vito said Friday, the second day of the U.S. Olympic Summit. “My snowboarding posture is not really great for ballroom dancing. I have to learn to keep my shoulders back, my head up, where in snowboarding my shoulders are forward, and I’m allowed to slouch if I want. Also, in snowboarding, you can do what you want. You can take a trick that everybody does and put your own trick, your own flavor, on it. But there, you have to do it that way. There is a correct way you have to do it. … That’s the hardest thing for me to kind of deal with.”
Vito, 21, is a two-time winner of the USSA Grand Prix Halfpipe Series. He hopes to do as well in the salsa and the fox trot.
“I’m interested to see what they think about me,” Vito said. “I’ve just got to remember that they’re probably going to be pretty harsh, because let’s be honest, I’m not really a ballroom dancing kind of guy. I’m going to try my best. It’ll be entertaining that’s for sure.
“I tell everyone, laugh at me all you want; I just need your vote.”
