How important is the right partner in ballroom dancing?

It's a crucial element, according to Fabian Sanchez, who was Marlee Matlin's partner last season on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars."

Sanchez, who has a Fred Astaire dance studio in a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, compares dancing to marriage.

"If there's no chemistry, it shows all over," he says. "I'd rather see a couple that has great chemistry and you believe their story than to see two amazingly talented technical dancers who have no chemistry."

Although Sanchez isn't part of the "Dancing" cast this season, he thinks the new lineup of talent sounds "awesome."

He's excited to see Corky Ballas join the pro dancers and curious to see how 82-year-old Cloris Leachman does under his tutelage.

"She's a little firecracker, from what I've heard," he says.

He thinks former boy band star Lance Bass, with his pop music background, and Kim Kardashian, who's young and striking, could do well.

And he wonders if Warren Sapp will follow in the footsteps of another football dancing king.

"He could surprise everybody and be another Emmitt Smith," says Sanchez. "Emmitt could get down, man."