Flashdance! Julianne Hough shows off her toned dancer's body in revealing two piece for stunning new magazine shoot

PUBLISHED: 19:22, 1 June 2012 | UPDATED: 19:22, 1 June 2012

She left his TV show Dancing with the Stars back in 2008 and has since gone on to become a bona fide movie star in her own right.

But Julianne Hough returned to her dancing roots in a set of stunning new black and white photographs in this month's Interview magazine.

The 23-year-old star shows off her taut stomach muscles and toned legs in dancer's legwarmers, a black crop top and a matching cropped shorts.

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Toned and taut: Julianne Hough shows off her washboard stomach muscles and stunning dancer's body in the new edition of Interview magazine

Julianne's eyebrows are darkened in the photographs, providing a strong contrast with her blonde hair which is pulled into a loose dancer's bun.

And although Dancing With The Stars launched Julianne's career, she says she nearly turned down the dancing show before her début in 2007.

'When they first asked me to be on the show, I said no, because I wanted to act and to be taken seriously,' she tells the magazine. 'And I thought that being on a reality show would hurt my credibility.

'But what I've come to realise is that being on that show completely launched my career and gave me a family and a built-in audience.

Multi-talented: Julianne posed in the guise of a dancer in the black and white photoshoot, but she is also a singer and actress

Stars of the show: Julianne appears in this month's edition of Interview magazine

'My biggest fear is that people think, "Oh, just because she was on Dancing with the Stars, she thinks she can act now." But I've been acting my whole life, which people don't realise. I just haven't had the opportunities that I've had with my dancing.'

Since then, she has gone on to star in Footloose, Burlesque, and now, perhaps her biggest movie to date - the forthcoming Rock of Ages, alongside the likes if Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand and of course, Tom Cruise.

'I think my generation will always look at him as Tom Cruise, the movie star,' she says of working with the actor.

'But the thing about Tom is that he's super-cool, and whatever nerves I had going into a scene with him, afterwards he would say how funny it was or what a great job I did.

'So that really made me feel confident. But at the same time, my first scene with him was when my character, Sherrie, meets him for the first time and he says that she has a perky heart as he's grabbing her chest, so that was definitely pretty real.'

In reality, Julianne is dating American Idol host Ryan Seacrest who visited the Rock of Ages set 'a couple of times.'

'He was like, "Wow, this is a little sexy!" she says, at Ryan's reaction to some of the racy scenes she had to film with Cruise, including a lap dance which was edited from the final cut of the film, which hits cinemas on June 15.