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Dancing With the Stars

Cheryl Burke: Rob Is 'Turning Into a Man'

By Cheryl Burke

10/10/2011 at 01:55 PM EDT

I thought last week's elimination on Dancing with the Stars was so shocking. It should not have happened. I believed Kristin and Mark were going to last for the long haul, so it's really scary because it doesn't matter what score you get – you could be the one eliminated.

I think Rob really came out of his shell this week, and he stands out because people didn't have high expectations for him.

Every week he's showing that he cares about this competition and he's improving. He's super competitive and wants to do well. I think he's turning his reputation around, and people are really starting to like him and root for him.

In the beginning, he didn't know what he was getting into. He didn't know if he was going to be good, and now that he sees that he actually can be a really good dancer, that's motivating him to do well.



Rob is turning into a man. It's definitely changed his way of thinking about himself and his confidence level. He's realizing that he can be great at something if he focuses on doing well.

I think his family is shocked to see how serious he's taken this. His sisters are super supportive, and his mom tries to come every single week.

We're dancing the paso doble for movie-theme week, and he loves the theme song that we're dancing to. I can't say what it is, but he's really into it. He learned his whole routine in one day, and we're already dancing to music.

This competition is more than a show for him. He's not trying to promote anything. I think it's just something he's genuinely doing, and it's changing his whole life.