‘Dancing With the Stars’ 2017 Cast: Meet the Season 24 DWTS Contestants

Charo

The vivacious Charo has teamed up with pro dancer Keo Motsepe for the season and they are said to be performing a Salsa dance for the premiere. Charo has a personality unlike any other as a comedienne, singer, guitarist and actress. Her real name is Maria Rosario Pilar Martinez Molina Baeza and she is known for her signature expression “CUCHI-CUCHI." She and her husband Swedish businessman Kjell Rasten, relocated to Hawaii during the 1980s, but she continued to have shows in Las Vegas over the years. She has also been in several films and appeared on hit television shows like Jane the Virgin and RuPaul’s Drag Race. ABC reports that Charo is an animal activist and is also currently working on her latest album. She's the oldest contestant in the cast this season, at age 66, and, in an interview with the New York Post, Charo talked about her first weeks of rehearsals. Charo dished: I used to run about two miles every day, but now with ‘Dancing With the Stars’ the running is over ... The first two or three days [of rehearsals] ... there are 600 muscles in the body and 200 bones, and let me put it this way: each muscle was screaming at me, ‘You bitch!’ I have certain muscles I didn’t even know I had. My neck was telling me, ‘What are you doing to me?’ ... But I am a person who has to move. I’m like a shark — if it doesn’t move, it dies. I’m in good shape. This is tiring, but I can handle it, because it’s my life. I love a challenge and I love people so [the show] is a great formula for me. (ABC/Craig Sjodin)