Kym Johnson Blogs: Joey Fatone's To-Do List – Focus, Focus, Focus

"He works for an hour, and then he'll switch off," the Dancing with the Stars pro jokes to PEOPLE

Photo: Craig Sjodin/ABC

Kym Johnson is a two-time Dancing with the Stars champion, taking the coveted mirror-ball trophy in season 9 with Donny Osmond and season 12 with Hines Ward. The Australia native will be blogging for PEOPLE.com about competing with Joey Fatone in the all-star season.

Dancing with the Stars rehearsals have been great. Obviously I danced with Joey in season 4, so it’s really nice to be reunited with him. There’s definitely a lot more pressure because it’s the all-stars, but it’s fun because we’re all in the same rehearsal space. We have different rooms, but we see everyone there. It’s like one big, happy family.

Joey and I definitely know each other so much better now. I think he knows what I m thinking before I even say it. So when I go to correct him, he says, “I know what you re going to say.” It s such a different dynamic because we have this brother-sister relationship. We ve remained friends the whole time. It’s definitely really nice to be back together again.

He is the social butterfly of the group. He s constantly in other peoples’ rooms, mingling. I find myself going from room to room to find him to take him back to his own room for rehearsals. He likes to socialize a bit too much sometimes. That’s been his biggest struggle – staying in his room.

He’s a bit of a prankster. He s the one spying on other people and playing a lot of jokes. That s been his weakness. The thing with Joey is when he works, he works for an hour, and then he’ll switch off and be running around like a child. But everyone loves Joey, so he s definitely the fun one of the group. He s a really genuine, good guy.

But when it comes to dancing, I know Joey can handle tougher routines, so that s how I am going to make them. When we danced together before, it was a long time ago, so the standard of Dancing with the Stars is better anyway. But for all-stars, I m going to have to really increase the choreography a lot. But Joey and I are known as a fun couple, so we’re definitely going to keep that going. We want to come out and do entertaining routines, but please the judges at the same time.

Our first routine is a cha cha. It’s going to be really fun and exciting. I can t wait for it. The competition is going to be really tough. I think everyone’s a little bit anxious now. Everyone wants the first show to be done. Everyone s been a little more secretive. We used to do show-and-tell. We used to do our routine for everyone. But that’s not happening this season. Everyone’s keeping pretty quiet.

I’ve heard Sabrina Bryan and Louis Van Amstel are really good, which I imagine, because she is great! And Shawn Johnson and Derek Hough – I know they re going to be great. The rumor is they re going to be flipping all over the place. Apolo Anton Ohno’s going to be great. And Emmitt Smith, he s just so charming. I love him. Everybody loves him. He’s going to be amazing. Everyone s so different and so great in their own way. But we ll find out tonight, I guess!