Valerie Harper Talks Decision to Join DANCING WITH THE STARS

In an interview posted on today's People.com, Valerie Harper talks about her decision to participate in the upcoming 17th season of ABC's DANCING WITH THE STARS. The actress announced back in January that she had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and had possibly less than 3 months to live. Yet it was with great joy and delight that we learned last week she was alive and well and ready to trip the light fantastic on the celebrity dancing competition.

"When they asked, I thought, 'Why would I say no?' When life asks you to dance, you just have to dance," said Harper who shared that her biggest trepidation is messing up her performance. "I'd been asked to do this before, but I always said no because I started dancing on Broadway at 17. It helped pay for my acting lessons. And I didn't want to appear on the show and fumble because of my diagnosis."

Since June, Harper's brain scans have shown increasingly "less evidence of cancer." "I feel much better," she says. "The doctors tell me there's less evidence of cancer, which is very unusual. However, they both say it's not a case of if, but when. And I can live with that."

The Broadway vet, who has been combating aching feet by soaking in Epsom salts following the long and challenging dance rehearsals says she will "to do my best" on the show and jokes that she hopes the glittery, highly-adorned costumes will do wonders for her physique. "The other day," she laughs, "I told the wardrobe supervisor, 'Your job is to take six inches off my butt.' "

Read the interview in full here.

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