Following last week's opener that concentrated on the boys, this Sunday its the turn of the female contestants to strut their stuff on Dancing with the Stars. Here, comedian Katherine Lynch sets the scene with RTÉ Entertainment's John Byrne ahead of her dancing debut.
How are rehearsals going?
"They're going great . . . I'm doing a waltz on Sunday night, and elegance and sophistication and grace are what I need, and that does come not come naturally to me.
I came to the competition with absolutely no experience whatsoever and this Latin step language is a different world to me. It's great! I think I lived from my neck upwards for most of my life and now I'm using my whole body.
I'm going to continue learning to dance after this show because it's so good for the spirit... and for exercise! I've lost more weight on this than I did on Celebrity Operation Transformation.
Dancing is really liberating, too. It's good for the mind, body and spirit.
Any idea how the other girls are getting on? Are you kept in a bubble?
We're having a great time. Everyone's bonding... it's all fun. We share the same dance studios, but we're all in different rooms.
You don't see what the other people are doing but we all chat to each other. Everyone's allocated a different dance per week so we wouldn't be in direct competition.
What did you make of the lads last week?
I thought they were fantastic. They really raised the bar for us. I thought Dancing Dessie was gorgeous, wasn't he? And Aidan O'Mahony was fantastic and Dayl was brilliant. Des Bishop was very sexy on the tango.
Now we have to go out and show the country what the girls are made of!
It's been a hit in over 50 countries - what do you think makes DWTS so popular?
I think it's the combination of dance, music, competition, people pushing themselves further than they believe they can go.
It's the colour, the whole campness of it, the show tunes, and the journey that each contestant goes on.
I never believed I could actually do a waltz or the cha-cha, and I'm learning those dances at the moment.
The waltz is a very elegant, flowing dance and it's been a hard one for me because it's very disciplined. It is definitely something that I have never even gone near in my life.
What can we expect from you on Sunday?
For me to think and go out and do a waltz in front of the nation is quite emotional because I'm viewed as the rude, lewd and crude one, and I just want to prove to everyone that maybe I'm not lewd, crude and rude all the time. I'm tapping into parts of me that I've ignored for my comedy's sake. My characters aren't very elegant or graceful.
Maybe I can be elegant and graceful, and I hope I can prove that to the judges, and that people will vote for me too.
Can you tell us a bit about your dancing partner?
His name is Kai, and he's from England and he was on Britain's Got Talent, he is a ballroom champion, he's really kind and considerate, and he's also very, very patient.
He's strict when he has to be, and we're very close. Really, really close. And that's great because we spend so much time together. And Kai always smells of Chanel.
Dancing with the Stars, Sunday at 6.30pm, RTÉ One
