‘Dancing With the Stars’: Karamo Brown and Jenna Johnson Detail Rough Week Ahead of Performance

It was a tough week physically on Dancing With the Stars for partners Karamo Brown and Jenna Johnson, both of whom admitted they were sick throughout rehearsals for their quickstep. Johnson, who is in her fifth season as a pro dancer on the reality competition, wrote in a column for PEOPLE of her and Brown’s struggles last week.

“Karamo took 10 flights this week and he’s been doing a bunch of speaking engagements as well as trying to master and conquer the quickstep, which is by far the hardest dance to have on DWTS, especially during week two when we’re both so fresh and new,” Johnson, 25, wrote.

“I was so incredibly proud of him because we’re both under the weather, very sick and he pushed and pushed because he really truly loves the show and wanted to do well for the judges, the fans and for himself,” she said.

Johnson, who is married to fellow DWTS pro Val Chmerkovskiy, revealed that she has had bronchitis for three weeks “so my lungs basically hate me right now.” At the Emmy Awards, which were the night before the DWTS live episode, Johnson said Brown “had a 103-degree fever.”

“He broke his fever while they were camera blocking today; he was throwing up all day. But he pushed through and I’m really happy he did because it shows that he’s a fighter and it showed that he’s really serious about the consequences to never give up even under the circumstances,” she wrote.

Brown and Johnson were awarded a 19/30 for the quickstep, an improvement on last week’s 17/19. “I thought it was a great improvement from last week,” she said. “We got two 7s, which is incredible and I was so happy with the judge’s (sic) comments. You can really tell that they saw improvement.”

As for the “fun reveal with the cape” at the beginning of the dance, Johnson said it was the Queer Eye star’s idea and that she’s learning “that the more I showcase Karamo and just show who he is as a person, the better he’s going to do.”

She even hinted toward next week’s dance, writing that “we have something really exciting and fun planned for next week and I think a lot of his fans are going to love it.”

“It’s going to be drama,” she teased. “It’s going to be colorful, wild, a production. It’s going to be a lot of fun. I’m excited for you all to see.”

Dancing With the Stars airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.