Carrie Ann Inaba on Being a Fly Girl with J.Lo & Hanging Out Topless with Madonna

“Dancing With the Stars” judge, Carrie Ann Inaba. Photo: Getty Images

It seems crazy to think that Dancing With the Stars has been around for a decade, and right there, since the beginning, Carrie Ann Inaba has been offering her outspoken, no holds-barred critique of celebrities’ dance routines. But before she became a vital part of our Monday nights, Inaba had toured with Madonna, been a Fly Girl in In Living Color, and enjoyed a brief stint as a pop star in Japan in the 1980s. A day before this season’s Dancing With the Stars winner is announced, we talked to Inaba about Pinterest, fashion faux-pas, and her favorite style moments on the sparkling show.

YAHOO STYLE: You’ve been on Dancing with the Stars since the beginning, what do you think has changed in that time?
CARRIE ANN INABA: What I love about the show is that it’s ever-evolving, always reinventing itself and that’s why its so much fun to be on. I think that’s also why it’s been on for 20 seasons—for 10 years! The biggest and most consistent change is that the dance level has evolved and continues to grow. You know at the beginning it was very simple, very textbook ballroom dancing. Now it’s like a fusion of all these really incredible styles and creative artistic influences and it’s really fantastic to see and to be a part of.

YS: What about you, how has your style changed throughout the years?
CAI: I also feel like I have evolved! I think this season was the biggest transformation, because I changed my stylist. I’ve been working with Jen Rade and her assistant Rhonda Spies and it’s made a huge difference. Before, I wasn’t totally conscious, or maybe I just didn’t care that much about trends and things like that, but now Jen and Rhonda know so much about what’s going on, and they’ve educated me on that, so I think it’s a lot better. I need to feel good because we’re judging people, and you’re very vulnerable when you’re judging people, like, you better be pulled together if you’re gonna sit there and talk about other people! So I still go off my emotions, like if it was a long week before and maybe I was a little tough, then I go with something softer the week after that.

YS: So do you make inspiration boards for your looks at the beginning of each season? Who’s on it?
CAI: So I do a Pinterest board for fashion and another for hair and makeup. You would be surprised with how eclectic it is, you would never think that it all came from one person! I love old-school Hollywood, that glamour just never goes out of style. And it fits with Dancing with the Stars so perfectly. I also look to some people that I really love, like Jennifer Lopez. You know, we danced together back when we were Fly Girls, and she had incredible style then. She just always knew how to put together an outfit, and she really, hardly ever gets it wrong. I look at Halle Berry a lot, because she has darker skin, and I feel like she’s in the same skin range as I am, complexion-wise; she always looks elegant.

YS: So how many options do you have for each show, do you still allow for a last-minute change-of-mind?
CAI: I’m the queen of the backup plan! You always have to have a backup plan. Once I went to the Emmy’s and I went through three dresses, and like three different hairstyles in one day because everything that could’ve gone wrong, did! I had my hair slicked back into a ponytail, and right after my hair person left I went into my closet and I got a fish hook—believe it or not, my boyfriend was a fisherman—I got a fish hook and a lure stuck in my hair! I had to pull the whole hairstyle out and I had no one to fix it. And once we took care of that I went to put on lotion, and oil got all over me and the dress was ruined. I switched to this vintage dress I had, but it was so old that the strap just completely disintegrated! And then, thank God I had another dress, so I changed into it, and then I spilled champagne in the car! [Laughs] But it taught me, always have a backup plan!

YS: Do you ever draw inspiration for your look from the week’s theme?
CAI: Yeah, I’m always inspired by the week! Sometimes I go against it? One of my favorite weeks is Disney week, we didn’t always do it, but now that we’ve incorporated it into our season it’s really fun. I want a dress that makes me feel like a Disney heroine, I don’t want to look like a princess, I just want that feeling. So a dress that makes me feel like Mulan or maybe Princess Jasmine, that’s the right one for the day.

Carrie Ann Inaba, far left, during her Fly Girl days at “In Living Color.” Photo: Everett Collection

YS: So you mentioned before that you were a Fly Girl in In Living Color, do you have any crazy stories from those days? Fly Girls were the coolest!
CAI: Being a part of In Living Color was so exciting! It was such an important moment in TV history, to see all these diverse cultures getting together to laugh, and celebrate life and music was really cool. And it was always fun to go to work!

The Fly Girls, we had this wonderful costume designer, Michelle Moder, and she was always pushing the boundaries! We wore huge earrings, lots of jewelry, and that’s where I first learned about topstick, everything was topstick! We got to try all the different styles, I remember one time I had to wear a black bra on the outside of a white t-shirt, with like, jean shorts and a hat. I guess it was a really cool trend but I never got it? I thought everyone else looked so hot with their midriff dresses and then I was wearing a bra over a t-shirt! But it was a great time, I loved that job a lot.

YS: And if that wasn’t enough cool, you also went on tour with Madonna!
CAI: [Laughs] Then I went on tour in Japan with Madonna, which was amazing. We were a bit x-rated! I shaved my head bald and I would come onstage sliding down a pole wearing a g-string! I’ve been very lucky—that was my favorite job by miles—because just for me, I loved being a part of history, so being in In Living Color was great, I was working with five beautiful women who were strong and powerful. But when I went on tour with Madonna, that was my own personal dream! I always loved Madonna back in the day, she was someone who never took no for an answer. I’ve always looked up to her and she just pushed the boundaries, and to be handpicked by her to do this tour, and to be given the stage—you know, she let me be on stage for like a full minute and a half without her—just opening the tour doing this pole dance, she really made me push my own boundaries. I got to be topless throughout the whole tour, and as an Asian girl I was really breaking down boundaries of what I’m supposed to do, what I’m not supposed to do. I loved it. I loved doing things on the edge. She really made me understand what it is to work hard, and to watch her was incredible. She’s the ultimate queen!

YS: Now let’s go back to the show, what has been your favorite performance this season?
CAI: Well, I may be biased, but Noah and Sharna’s Paso Doble from last week!

YS: Ha, ok, no how about your favorite performance this season—that you didn’t choreograph!
CAI: [Laughs] It’s just that we’ve never done that! It was really fun to be able to put my creative ideas and show them in front of everyone. And there was a little tribute to Madonna in there as well! But besides that, Riker and Allison’s Pirates of the Caribbean Paso Doble was really quite spectacular.

YS: Oh yes, that was definitely one of the best performances this season. What about a favorite costume the dancers wore?
CAI: Ooh, that’s a hard question. I think it’s when we had Disney week and Rumer and Val did a Little Mermaid dance. They really killed it that night!

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