Quite the Week for Aly Raisman

It was the powerful contemporary dance with dancing partner Mark Ballas that started the week for Needham native Aly Raisman. [See video of the dance and the Dancing with the Stars judges' responses at right.] 

By mid-week, the Olympic gold-medaling gymnast told the Boston Herald she "was hurting this week." Raisman explained more in Parade magazine, where she just launched a blog:

Mark and I had a good time, but we were both really sore because we worked so hard during practice. It was a lot of lifts, which is something I’ve never done before. Being a gymnast, I’m used to being out there on the floor by myself, so being lifted by another person definitely works different muscles than I’m used to.

Not too surprising, when you see the dance. This week's DWTS theme was Best Year of Your Life, and Raisman and Ballas are dancing to the song that Raisman said was her anthem for the London Games last summer: Titanium.

 I am titanium

 you shoot me down, but I won't fall

 I am titanium

Raisman and Ballas are now in the lead to win the dancing competition.

Also in her Parade blog post, Raisman got a little more personal, as she's done a couple of times in the DWTS competition, where she has been questioned about how she goes about conveying emotion in the dance when she is so young (18):

Throughout this whole experience, I’m just really trying to be myself and show people the real me — even when it comes to talking about boys and love during my interviews on the show. Making an Olympic team required such hard work and sacrifice, so there really wasn’t time for a boyfriend, but my school friends have always been so supportive. It is a little bit weird to talk about stuff like that on TV, but I try not to think about all the millions of people that are watching back home! I’m just trying to have fun and stay in the moment. But I do think I have more time to date now!

Then when you get so much media attention, you're bound to get some cringeworthy coverage, as in this week's USA Today interview, which was headlined "U.S. gymnast Al Raisman hopes muscles don't scare away boys." Raisman was simply answering a question that appeared loaded from the 1950s: "What's more intimidating to boys, your gold medals or your muscles?"

Raisman appears to have been a good sport about answering.

Much less offensive and more fun is a video put out by DWTS called 'The Dancers Confess - Week 4 - Dancing With The Stars'. On Wednesday, Raisman tweeted: If you'd like to see my singing skills check out this video at 4:07 ;) … #NextAdele

Raisman, who trained at Brestyan's American Gymnastics Club in Burlington and attends synagogue in Newton) and Ballas are leading the pack of DWTS dancers into next week's phase of the competition. The show is back Monday at 8 p.m. on ABC-TV.