Peta Murgatroyd Blogs: 'Maks and I Love Working Together!'

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By Peta Murgatroyd

10/29/2012 at 05:00 PM EDT

Peta Murgatroyd and Gilles Marini

Craig Sjodin/ABC

Peta Murgatroyd is a former Dancing with the Stars champion, winning the coveted mirror-ball trophy in season 14 – only her second season on the series – with Donald Driver. The Australia native will be blogging for PEOPLE.com about competing with Gilles Marini in the current all-star season.

Our group "Gangnam Style" dance was the highlight for all of us last week. It was ridiculous. Maks [Chmerkovskiy] was in charge of most of it. We had two big group rehearsals, and for the rest of it, we worked around our schedules on our own time. We had to come up with the concepts, but Maks gave us the towel theme.

Maks and I love working together. It's so rare that we get to do it because we're always one-on-one with our celebrities. So, when we do get to work together, it's fun, and it's nice to get creative.

Kirstie [Alley] and Maks have such a kooky relationship. Kirstie is crazy, and Maks and I both love her dearly. She brings this funny, humorous, warm side out of Maks that I know, but on the show, not everyone else necessarily does. I'm glad people can see it. She's such a comedian. When we're with her, we're constantly laughing. Everyone has such a good time with her, and she doesn't take anything too seriously.

This week is country week. Gilles [Marini] and I are dancing to Shania Twain's "Man, I Feel Like a Woman," which is an amazing, catchy song to have. We're doing a cha cha. We've had a hectic week because Gilles is back to filming [ABC Family's] Switched at Birth. It's been long hours.

Gilles has so much talent and so much dedication to the show, but I've been surprised with our amazing scores these last two weeks. I wasn't expecting 10s for the Bollywood routine. I think his acting skills have really come into play, and we work really well as a dancing couple. These dances have shown our chemistry.

I'm okay with staying at this level of difficulty for now. We're just over the halfway point of the competition, and if we continue to stay this way, with two 10s and a nine through the finals, then I will be very happy and satisfied. If we get three 10s in the finals, then that's the best time to peak.

I don't think anyone's dance has been deserving of three 10s so far this season. I think it's way too early for that. I don't think the judges are going to bring out three 10s until the semi-finals.