‘Dancing with the Stars 21’ spoilers: Karina Smirnoff will return!

It officially appears like there will be at least one more familiar face on the upcoming season of “Dancing with the Stars.” In a new statement per Entertainment Weekly, longtime pro Karina Smirnoff has confirmed that after a year away from pairing up with celebrities and teaching them how to dance, she is going to be right back at it this fall:

“I was a little nervous about not dancing on the show at all last season. I was doing it for the last 10 years … I had other things to do in my life, but not going back to the show felt like trying to see if I can walk on my own two feet! I’ve had obvious moments when I missed it.”

Smirnoff has previously won the show with J.R. Martinez, and she also typically excels at working with athletes and some of the more physical celebrities. Her partner for the new season is not entirely clear, but one of the main reasons for that is simply a matter of timing. The show has not confirmed its latest roster of stars yet, but given that the September 14 premiere is less than a month away, we think that we’ll know more within the next week or two. It’ll probably be the same mixture of actors, athletes, reality stars, and other personalities as usual.

“Dancing with the Stars” is coming off of a year that we feel was somewhat of a creative Renaissance for the show. We worried for a while that it was starting to fall apart, but the ratings were such earlier this year that there were even a couple of results shows added back.

You can view some of the latest “Dancing with the Stars” casting rumors right now, just by heading over to the link here! Also, be sure to head over here if you want to sign up for our official CarterMatt Newsletter, where you can get some further news on just about all we cover sent right over to you.