The all-stars season of Dancing With The Stars is set to premier this Monday, and one of the most anticipated stars to be returning to the show will be Shawn Johnson.

Shawn will be paired up with pro Derek Hough for the upcoming all-stars season.

She recently had an interview with The Clicker in which she discussed her lack of dancing since being announced champion in season 8 and what fans should expect from her.

The Clicker: What have you done to keep up your ballroom skills since your first time on “DWTS”? Shawn: I haven’t done anything! I think everybody else can say the same. It’s not our natural sport or our natural career. When I finished season eight, I was done with dancing. I went back to gymnastics and I honestly didn’t dance once. So it is like starting over, especially with a new partner. We’re kind of starting from zero.

For the most part, I think the feeling is still there. I understand the vocabulary and what (Derek’s) saying and where he’s coming from. Whereas the first time, it was like Mark (Ballas) was speaking Chinese. Now I understand it so I can correct things easier and … getting into the movement and the habit and the feeling is definitely foreign. I have to work to get that back.

The Clicker: How have you been preparing? Shawn: In the past few weeks, we’ve really just been getting our first dance ready. (The producers) assigned us our first dance and our first music three days into training. I think the past few weeks have just been getting used to this process again and (I’ve) kind of been gearing up for it.

My first dance is a fox-trot and that’s about all I can tell you! It’s been going really well. Our fox-trot isn’t by any means traditional, definitely different and doesn’t really adhere to the normal rules. We have unique music and it kind of suits us and our personality, which I think is important for the first dance. I want to show everybody who I am and not come out as a character yet. You have to (do characters) later. That’s part of it. There are dances where you have to take on a role: tango you have to be serious and dark, rumba you have to be romantic and sexy. It’s part of (dancing). It’s the acting side. But thankfully with our fox-trot and our music, I’m just being me. We get to be goofy and fun and playful and energetic. I’m enjoying that. I love it. I hope everybody else likes it as well.

The Clicker: Which role are you most looking forward to playing? Shawn: I feel like the first time, I was so uncomfortable and so out of my comfort zone that I didn’t push myself enough to try to step into the character of any of the dances. … I don’t think it’s going to be easy, but I think it’ll be neat to push myself into those characters this time, trying to be sexy and romantic and trying to be all mysterious and kill someone in the paso. I feel like I’m a little more comfortable this time to try to take them on.

(My first time on the show,) I had just turned 17. You have to look like you’re in love with someone. It was definitely difficult. I was like, “Again, you’re speaking Mandarin.” … I’m more the awkward person and the person that just giggles and smiles at everything, so it’s going to be hard.

But I think I’m a little more ready this time to at least try. I’m just trying to put myself in the mindset that it’s OK to step into the characters. You know you’re not necessarily portraying who you are. You’re acting. I will never be an actress, I’m me. It’s really hard for me to act something different. I want things to be appropriate. I want things to represent who I am. Then again, it is the show. It is the job. You have to find a happy balance to suit the dance and suit the style. … I hope I don’t just bust out laughing or something halfway through it!

The Clicker: Are you afraid the judges might criticize you for not getting into the character of the dances? Shawn: I think that’s THE place I have to work on. I have to push myself. They’ll be able to see the difference between (my) first season to this. I definitely don’t think right off the bat I’ll be able to act like some of the professionals on the show, some of the actors who are dancing on the show. Then again, we all have our strengths and we all have our weaknesses.

The Clicker: What’s it been like training with Derek versus Mark? Shawn: I love Derek! There’s definitely a lot of differences, (but) they’re pretty much like brothers. They grew up together and grew up around each other, so there’s a lot of similarities. They choreograph different, they think different, they have different creative standpoints and angles that they come from. … Derek is a phenomenal choreographer and a dancer and he’s a great teacher, and I think we’re partnered perfectly together.

Follow Shawn Johnson as she attempts for another Dancing With The Starschampionship beginning 8 p.m. on Monday.

Shawn Johnson Starts From Scratch For ‘Dancing With The Stars’ is a post from: The Inquisitr

Two years ago gymnast Shawn Johnson shredded her knee in a freak skiing accident and now less than one year after she began an improbable comeback the former Olympian has announced her retirement ahead of the 2012 London Olympics.

The 20-year-old three-time world championship gold medal holder who also captured one gold and three silver medals at the Olympics four years ago announced her retirement from the sport on Sunday. Johnson leaves the sport as one of the most decorated gymnasts in U.S. history.

Speaking to the Des Moines Register Johnson said of her decision:

“I still have every ounce of desire and passion to stick with it. But my body isn’t allowing it.”

Johnson announced her retirement from gymnastics just four weeks before the Olympic trials were set to start on July 1. Johnson told the publication that her presence at those trials would have been a distraction.

In May the former Olympic champion spoke at the U.S. Olympic media summit in Dallas, Texas where she revealed her desire to either attend Vanderbilt or Standford in 2013.

While Shawn Johnson will not compete during the 2012 London Olympics she will still be in attendance for the event where she will appear on behalf of her Olympic sponsors.

Johnson has bee one of the United States’ most viable Olympians for sponsorship rights, keeping her name in the media through endorsements and a victory on the highly rated ABC dance competition show Dancing With The Stars. 

Are you surprised by Shawn Johnson’s retirement from gymnastics?

Gymnast Shawn Johnson Announces Retirement, Will Not Try Out For 2012 London Olympics is a post from: The Inquisitr

Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson has raised a few eyebrows as her new slender frame has become the newest talk of the tabloids.

Losing 25 lbs as a result of her attempt at an Olympic comeback, Johnson says it wasn’t always easy seeing the media talk about her weight.

“At my heaviest all the tabloids said some pretty hurtful things,” said Johnson.

The 2012 London Olympic hopeful says people were used to her 6% body fat while she was competing, and that they weren’t as understanding of her junk food days.

“That whole process kind of broke me down and taught me something,” Johnson said Monday at the Olympic Media Summit.

“People put too much emphasis on looks.”

Being a professional gymnast, Johnson finds herself in the middle of a sport where body image, weight and overall health are scrutinized in the worst way.

In particular, gymnasts find themselves fighting battles against anorexia and bulimia on a daily basis, so Johnson’s feelings resonate in a special way.

“We’re taught at such a young age that you can always be better and that you’re never perfect and that you’re never good enough,” she said. “You find your worth in someone else and what they say just from having looked at you. It’s hard. I was at the Olympic Games winning medals and I still doubted my image. I doubted what I looked like. That’s sad. Girls should be taught different than that. I think everyone should be taught different than that.”

Do you feel that Shawn Johnson is a good role model to young teen girls with her message about body image?

Olympic Gymnast Shawn Johnson Shakes The Critics; Sheds The Weight is a post from: The Inquisitr

Must be a slow week when we have multiple fake celebrity deaths, and following on from yesterday’s reports that Matt Damon is dead is a new one that claims Shawn Johnson is dead.

The Shawn Johnson is dead rumors though, unlike the Matt Damon rumors have some history: The Onion created a fake news story back in June this year claiming that Johnson was dead, and it seems this time round that it could just be a case of the same story doing the rounds, without the context of The Onion being thrown into the mix.

That Onion report claimed among other things that Shawn Johnson was like a racehorse and that her parents decided to put her down after she suffered a knee injury. Her parents and fans didn’t see the humor at the time, as I’m sure they won’t be seeing any humor in today’s reports.

We can say categorically that Shawn Johnson is not dead. The original Onion piece as follows:

Today’s fake celebrity rumor claims Shawn Johnson is dead is a post from: The Inquisitr

Shawn Johnson Bikini Pics

Shawn Johnson’s Bikini Pics were originally leaked on the internet back in August of 2008, right as she and her friend Nastia Liukin gained fame after winning Olympic Gold Medals in Gymnastics in China.

After Shawn Johnson won on Dancing with the Stars, a few people on the internet began saying she was fat because of how she looked in her costume, but today, if a woman has an ounce of weight on them they’re considered by some to be obese. Me? A jiggle here and there makes things real.

Shawn Johnson Bikini Pics making the rounds again (PHOTOS) is a post from: The Inquisitr