Brooke Burke: ‘Dancing Through the Chaos’

"Dancing With the Stars" winner Brooke Burke returns to the show as co-host this season.

Glamorously gowned and bejeweled, Brooke Burke is back on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars, this time taking over Samantha Harris’ microphone as Tom Bergeron’s co-host. We’re loving her easy rapport with the contestants and her wardrobe, which the big fan of Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Herve Leger, Roberto Cavalli and Versace describes as “sexy couture, more of an edgier look than your typical ball gown.”

Burke, who previously hosted shows like Rock Star: Supernova and Wild On, was immediately interested when she heard the job was up for grabs, and believes her insider’s insight as the season 7 winner gives her an advantage. “I completely understand what it’s like to prep and how scary it is for the contestants,” she says, glad she no longer has to deal with the pressure of competition.

Of course, she has plenty of other pressures to preoccupy her: In addition to raising four kids with her fiancé David Charvet, Burke serves as a correspondent on mothering issues for the syndicated health series The Doctors, blogs for ModernMom.com and is writing a book that Penguin will publish in May 2011. It’s called The Naked Mom, “meaning I’m more revealing now than I ever have been. It’s my nontraditional take on parenting, and me as a lover, a friend, a mother — the million things I do, who I am and how I stay sane in the process. It’s about dancing through the chaos.”

Burke has a four-month deadline, “but I do well in overdrive, so it’s all good,” she tells us with a laugh. Burke will also host season 3 of TV Land’s over-35 modeling competition She’s Got the Look, premiering in June. “It’s about second chances and beauty having no age,” notes the 38-year-old former model, who also makes time for women’s cancer charities. She recently donated a pair of her Dancing shoes to the Wish Upon a Hero Foundation’s Hero in Heels, a celebrity shoe auction taking place in Philadelphia May 20.

Do you thrive when your life’s in overdrive?

Photo credit: Adam Larkin/ABC

Tags: Adam Larkin, Arab Banking Corporation (B.S.C.), Brooke Burke, Burke, Competitive dance, correspondent, Dance, Dancing with the Stars, David Charvet, Entertainment/Culture, Hero Foundation, Human Interest, Roberto Cavalli, Rock Star: Supernova, Samantha Harris, Tom Bergeron, Wild