Mark Ballas is partners with Melissa Joan Hart on the new season of Dancing with the Stars.

The pairing makes the professional think back to his younger days, when he totally crushed on the young actress.

“I said to my mom, my dad, ‘Don’t talk to me, I’m watching Clarissa,” Ballas said of his daily schedule, which was planned around Hart's TV shows. “I was little, I was 12, 13, and I was like, ‘She’s really cute.’”

How does he feel about Hart now? Ballas is certainly digging the duo's season nine prospects.

“It’s having the will to want to learn and she definitely has that,” he told People. “And she’s improved so much since we started. She said it’s been a dream of hers to be a dancer, and that is a dream that’s coming true.”

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.