Janel Parrish Defends Racy 'Dancing' Burlesque

Janel Parrish is best known for playing Mona Vanderwaal on the TV drama Pretty Little Liars. She's been paired with pro Val Chmerkovskiy for season 19 of Dancing with the Stars, and she'll be blogging for PEOPLE about her experience on the hit ABC show.Last week was definitely an emotional one. Val is amazing because the second the package started playing, I started to get emotional because we don't see our video packages before the show. I knew what I said and I knew what was filmed, but seeing it and hearing it was another thing."Pretty Little Liars" star Janel Parrish told Access Hollywood last week that her burlesque for Monday's "Dancing with the Star's" was going to be "real naughty" – and she and pro partner Artem Chigvintsev delivered on her promise.

Janel and Artem, who were paired for Switch Up week, were met with some criticism after heating up the ballroom. "There’s no denying that was extremely sexy, but to me, that was not burlesque," Julianne Hough told the pair. "Burlesque has a cheekiness and quirkiness… that was really raunchy and sexy.” There were a lot of dances I really enjoyed last week. Lea Thompson and Artem Chigvintsev's dance was so beautiful. Her tribute to her father was amazing. I definitely cried! I also thought Tommy Chong was awesome. I loved the whole "Jailhouse Rock" thing. The naughty cop set-up was awesome. Janel Parrish said that was very surprised when Betsey Johnson went home. I love Betsey! I think her transformation during the show has been incredible. I got along really well with her, so it was really sad. Honestly, I'm always sad when someone leaves, but I definitely didn't think that she was going to be going so soon.