Katherine Jenkins & Mark Ballas Working Hard To Get In Dancing With The Stars Finals

Katherine Jenkins was one of the early frontrunners on Season 14 of “Dancing with the Stars,” but after a few missteps on Monday’s show, she’s heading into the semifinals with a new kind of focus.

“It’s amazing [being in the Final 4], but it’s a week of working hard, definitely more than ever before,” the Welsh classical singer told Access Hollywood during a rehearsal session on Thursday.

Katherine and her professional dancing partner, Mark Ballas, were seemingly in jeopardy on Tuesday’s show, when they were left to await their fate until the end of the show opposite Melissa Gilbert and Maksim Chmerkovskiy, who eventually went home.

Reflecting on that elimination show, two-time mirrorball champ Mark said that their positioning that night might have been misleading.

“Here’s the thing with being ‘in jeopardy’ — it doesn’t mean you are in the Bottom 2 or the Bottom 3. It means you aren’t safe yet,” Mark explained. “Say you are in the first group they are saving, [and Tom Bergeron says], ‘Katherine and Mark, you’re still in jeopardy.’ I think some people get that confused with being in the bottom. That just means… they are going to make you sweat it out.”

The singer and standout dancer said waiting until the end of Tuesday’s episode to learn their fate caused her to panic a little.

“For us, it was a weird week… We had the whole thing with the trouser pant thing wrapped around my foot [during the trio dance with Tristan MacManus], and that dance didn’t go according to plan,” Katherine said. “So therefore, when you know that you have had a mishap like that, and then you are one of the last to be saved, it kind of plays on your mind.”

“Thrilled” to be in the semifinals, Katherine said she isn’t yet thinking mirrorball trophy, she’s focused on getting to the finals with the best dancing she can produce.

“I didn’t think that we would be in the semifinal and I think that now that we are in the semifinal and it’s just one step to the final, I know that I would really love to be there,” she told Access. “In terms of winning it, again, that would be insane, but I can’t think like that. We need to focus on this week. We just need to get through this week, and then see what happens.”

“Dancing with the Stars” returns Monday at 8/7c on ABC.

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