Odd 'Dancing' couple takes quick trip to Utah

OREM — Ashly DelGrosso admits it's an odd partnership.

She's a 23-year-old professional dancer from Highland and a self-described "Utah County Mormon." He's a rap artist and music industry mogul from the Calliope housing projects in New Orleans who's afraid to dance in public.

Despite their differences, DelGrosso and Master P survived the first three rounds of ABC's hit ballroom dancing series "Dancing With the Stars" before being voted off the show Friday.

"This experience has been once in a lifetime for me," DelGrosso said. "It's changed me for the best. I've learned about a whole new world. Two people nobody would ever think would be paired up have formed this partnership, and we're becoming the best of friends."

"Dancing With the Stars," now in its second season, partners celebrities with professional dancers who perform either a ballroom or Latin American dance during a live Thursday night show. Those performances are judged by a panel of dance experts and viewers who cast votes via telephone.

During the Friday results show, the team with the lowest combined score from the judges and viewers is told to hang up its dancing shoes.

DelGrosso and Master P were in Utah on Tuesday to practice for their upcoming performance and film a behind-the-scenes package to air during the performance show at 7 p.m. Thursday on KTVX Channel 4.

The visit to Utah was Master P's idea, DelGrosso said.

"He said he wanted to meet a real Mormon," she said. Her membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints apparently doesn't count, she added wryly.

DelGrosso took Master P on a tour of Salt Lake City on Tuesday morning, and the dance partners held an impromptu practice in front of onlookers at Main Street Plaza, with the Salt Lake Temple as a backdrop.

"Right when we got to Salt Lake City, I told P, 'Welcome to my 'hood. This is where I'm at, this is who I am,' " she said.

After lunch at the DelGrosso family's Highland home, DelGrosso stopped by the Center Stage Performing Arts Studio, where she has worked as a dance instructor for the past six years. The studio is owned by DelGrosso's mother, Kim.

About 60 young dancers greeted the studio celebrity with cheering, screaming and signs that read "We Love Ashly" and "Vote for Ashly and Master P."