The Pro Dancer Explains What REALLY Happened in Rehearsal This Week!

Pro ballroom dancer Tony Dovolani, who is partnered with reality star NeNe Leakes on this season's Dancing with the Stars, writes a weekly blog for Closer!

Reunited and it feels so good! That’s how I saw this week, and NeNe and I worked so hard to deliver our foxtrot.

I mean, that dance didn't come from nowhere. Still, it was a tough night and what made it tough was our rehearsal package – that was not fun to see.

Honestly, that tiff you saw was literally two minutes out of our lives. We disagreed, as we were both tired after flying into New York on a redeye. NeNe said "I'm done and I'll see you tomorrow."

Did we have a tiff? Yes we did. But they never showed us making up. The next day we both apologized to each other, shared a big hug, said I love you and moved on.

It was hard being made the villain out of two minutes of a rehearsal day. But NeNe and I are all good. Our altercation happened a week ago and we’ve been fine ever since. We’ve gotten along from day one and that two-minute tiff was completely exploited.

Still, last night was very emotional for NeNe. I think it was a combination of everything that happened last week. She cares about me and didn't want people thinking I was the villain. In fact, she told me, “You’re the nice guy on Dancing With The Stars, but they're making you look bad.”

Tony Dovolani's DWTS Blog: The Pro Talks Switching Partners & Harsh Judges

The show also made it seem like I hate Derek. I don't hate Derek; he's an incredible choreographer, a great dancer and more power to him. They even showed me cheering them on last week!

I could not be more proud of the incredible job NeNe did last night. She got out there and did her thing and the judges appreciated all the hard work we put in. So it was really nice to get the recognition.

NeNe may not have known who Cruella De Vil was, but after I explained the character was a strong personality and to imagine they’d created a character based on her, she brought that character to the dance floor. Except NeNe loves dogs!

All of the judges were complimentary about our dance, but I didn't agree that the switch up made NeNe and I better. I think they knew they were a little hard on me last week, so this week was their way of redeeming themselves.

Now we are on to our salsa! It's a party dance, so we want to make sure everybody in the audience feels like they are in the club. It’ll be traditional, but we'll bend the rules the whole time. Hey, they make exceptions for everyone else so they have to make exceptions for us as well!