Editor's Note: Real Housewives of Atlanta star NeNe Leakes is hitting the dance floor for season 18 of Dancing With the Stars and she's blogging about her experience exclusively for E! Online.
Oooh, hunni I had so much fun in last week's Switch Up! Derek is awesome, he's young, he's creative, he's an amazing choreographer. It was just fun to switch it up and see what another dancer could do, and what their creativity was like.
When Derek showed up he was like, 'Hey! I'm your new partner this week,' and I was just screaming, 'Oh my goooosh!' I didn't know how Derek would be, and I was scared thinking they were asking us to do a waltz or something like that. We had jazz and we had the freedom to do whatever we wanted to do and he had this great idea.
He said, 'Hunni nobody can do this, you're the only person here who can do this. You're always the queen bee, and fabulous, and over the top, so there's nobody else here who can do an African tribal dance. You're the only black girl here.' I thought that was creative and awesome and I was like whaaaat?! I've only been to Africa one time I don't know what they do over there, but let's try it!
And then. Oh my God. Lemme tell you. Derek and our amazing wardrobe department came up with the theme for the costumes, and how the set would look with all the fire and tribal stuff. There was a glitch in our dance where the music started way before we were supposed to start. We were supposed to hear some African beats first, and Derek would start dancing first, and then I would start dancing next.
But the beats did not come in! And all I could see was Derek at the bottom of my feet saying, "Rip your skirt off! Let's go! Just rip it off! Let's go, let's go, let's go!' and I just thought, 'Oooooh my God!" But we just did it, and we had fun doing it.
Still, I am so happy to be back with Tony this week! I LOVE Tony! Tony and I started this journey together, he's like my other husband. We're together everywhere we go and it feels like home being back with Tony. This week we'll be doing the foxtrot for our Disney week and my character will be uuh... Caroola from that movie with the Dalmatians. Oh wait, it's Cruella, yeah Cruella de Vil—I keep calling her Caroola. Anyways, I'm going to be her. She has a big personality, she's take over and she is that lady, hunni! What an attitude! So I'm going to try and get out there and bring Caroola de Vil (Cruella, Caroola, whatever!) to the stage.
And of course, the competition is getting more fierce! Everyone that is left in the competition, we all bring something very different to the dance floor. I think that me and Drew Carey are the two that bring the entertainment, and so if you're going to base it off of entertainment then Drew would be my main competition. But I would love to do a dance with Drew, he's funny, he's fun, and I'm the same way—we would do an amazing dance together and get the crowd up on their feet! We would have such a blast.
Nene Fun-Fact: Speaking of Drew, I've been to the Price is Right already and I'm the biggest winner as far as celebrities go! I won $77,000 and I gave it all to charity. I had so much fun and I want to tell everybody that they need to go to The Price is Right, because you could really win! I don't even know how much a can of beans cost and I won. But hunni, let me tell you that wheel that you spin is so heavy! I watched The Price is Right growing up and it was really a dream to be in there.
To My Fans… Expect a whole lot of entertainment this week! I'm going to really try to bring Caroola de Vil, (whatever her name is!) to the dance floor. I want to pull out that character so well, so look again for fun, entertainment and a lot of character, hunni!
Dancing With the Stars airs Monday at 8 p.m. on ABC.
(As told to Leanne Aguilera)