A few days ago, Dance Advantage posted an article titled 7 Things To Remember In Phases Of Uncertainty In Your Dance Life. The seven things are nothing earth-shattering, but they are excellent reminders. I think I’ve written about all of them myself in past posts. Which got me thinking…
What do you do when you know all these things and you do your best to practice them, but you’re still struggling? Sure, you know “this too shall past,” but does that really help you in the here and now?
I originally wrote this article two years ago for my old blog, the Uphill Factor. I wanted to share it again here because I still struggle with what I see in the mirror and I’m sure someone else out there does too.
I’ve been feeling very stalled in my dancing. This isn’t news. I have no competitions on the calendar, and scheduling conflicts all around have been messing with my lesson and practice time. As much as I preach a “don’t give up!” philosophy, walking the walk has been much harder lately.
Update: Due to unfortunate circumstances, Teacher and his pro partner won’t be dancing at the Autumn Dance Classic. 😦
You can still watch the livestream of course and see some great dancing. We’ll get ’em next time!
Hi everyone!
It’s that time again! Teacher and his pro partner are competing in another leg of the Star Dance Tour tomorrow, Friday, October 14. We once again get the privilege of getting to watch some amazing ballroom dancing FOR FREE while helping out a great couple at the same time.
They are competing at the Autumn Dance Classic in San Francisco. As usual, the Star Dance Tour’s website will be live streaming the competition.
Here is the web page: http://sdt.dancebeat.com/index.php/m-streaming.
The final round of the Pro Open Smooth event starts about 10:20 pm PST. The show dances will happen right after the final round. After all of the show dances are done, the polls open for only 5 minutes (around 10:50 pm)!
I know it’s a little late (way past my bedtime!), but the show dances have been really incredible. They are worth staying up for! Watching on your computer or tablet or phone, all you have to do is refresh the page when the MC announces that it’s time to vote. A list of the couples’ names will appear below the streaming video and all you have to do is click their names: Kris Suakjian and Briana Haft.
You can also look for their number: 114. If you have multiple devices, vote on all of them!
Note that there may also be a “wildcard” vote after the semifinal round of Pro Open Smooth. This is to give a couple who didn’t make the final still have the chance to perform their show dance. You can vote for someone here too, but be sure you hang around until after the show dances to vote for Kris and Briana!
Another way you can vote is via text! Text “dancebeat” to 22333. You’ll get a response back acknowledging that you’ve joined the session. Then when it’s time to vote, just text “114” to the same number. You will get a response back, something like “You chose 114 Kris and Briana.” And that’s it!
As people vote, you’ll be able to refresh the live streaming page for updates on who’s winning the audience poll. So far, Kris and Briana have either tied or won the audience vote at every competition on this tour!
Let’s keep this streak going!
I’ll be on Facebook and Twitter posting updates and when it’s time to vote, so please say hi if you’re online!
Please watch tomorrow, Friday, October 14, and VOTE for Kris Suakjian and Briana Haft!
Many thanks, and happy dancing!
One more week to go on the Dance Diaries book tour! The responses have been incredibly positive, which I did not prepare for at all. I’ve never done something like this before and I didn’t know what to expect, so naturally, I prepared for the worst. I was ready to have my books criticized, my ego shot down, and my writing torn apart. None of that has happened though.
In July 2015, I wrote a post titled At What Point Can You Call Yourself a “Dancer”? A little over a year later, I can confidently say I am a dancer!
I was inspired this week to expand on last year’s post and consider what makes a serious dancer.
Happy Monday and Day 1 of the Dance Diaries book tour! I’m keeping the book tour blog post updated with specific links to guest posts, book spotlights, interviews, etc. AND the link to the giveaway, so check them out whenever you have time. I’m also sharing the tour stops on Facebook and Twitter, so follow me there too!
Meanwhile, in the studio…
The Dance Diaries virtual book tour is only one week away happening NOW! I have mixed emotions about that fact, but mainly I’m excited.
From September 26 to October 14, Dance Diaries: Learning Ballroom Dance (Dance Diaries #1) and Dance Diaries: Ballroom Budgeting (Dance Diaries #2) will be featured and/or reviewed on a number of websites, most of which are book blogs. Some of them have also requested guest posts or author interviews from me, so their readers can hear from me directly.
I signed up with iReads Book Tours, and they arranged everything for me. Here is the schedule:
Sept 26 – Jaquo Lifestyle Magazine – book spotlight / guest post
Sept 26 – Books, Dreams, Life – book spotlight
Sept 27 – Library of Clean Reads – review of Dance Diaries #1 / author interview / giveaway
Sept 27 – Writers and Authors – book spotlight / author interview
Sept 27 – Books for Books – book spotlight
Sept 28 – The Autistic Gamer – review of Dance Diaries #1
Sept 28 – The Dance Bible – review of Dance Diaries #1 / author interview
Sept 29 – Bound 4 Escape – review of Dance Diaries #1 / giveaway
Sept 29 – Library of Clean Reads – review of Dance Diaries #2 / giveaway
Sept 30 – Northernmsw – review of Dance Diaries #1 / author interview
Sept 30 – T’s Stuff – book spotlight / author interview / giveaway
Oct 3 – The Autistic Gamer – review of Dance Diaries #2
Oct 3 – #redhead.with.book – book spotlight / giveaway
Oct 4 – Bound 4 Escape – review of Dance Diaries #2 / giveaway
Oct 5 – Bookworm for Kids – review of Dance Diaries #1 / giveaway
Oct 5 – Book reviews nature photos – review of Dance Diaries #1
Oct 6 – Book reviews nature photos – review of Dance Diaries #2
Oct 6 – The All Night Library – review of Dance Diaries #1
Oct 6 – The Dance Bible – review of Dance Diaries #2
Oct 7 – Rockin’ Book Reviews – book spotlight / giveaway
Oct 11 – Northernmsw – review of Dance Diaries #2
Oct 11 – Readers Muse – review of Dance Diaries #1
Oct 12 – Bookworm for Kids – review of Dance Diaries #2 / giveaway
Oct 13 – The All Night Library (separate links for review and guest post) – review of Dance Diaries #2 / guest post
Oct 13 – Book Lover in Florida – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
Oct 14 – Readers Muse – review of Dance Diaries #2
TBD – XoXo Book Blog – book spotlight
TBD – Deal Sharing Aunt – book spotlight / author interview / giveaway
You’ll note some of the scheduled tour stops include a giveaway! You’ll have to visit the sites on the appropriate days to get more details, but there may be a chance to win an Amazon gift card! *hint hint*
You can also access the giveaway link here.
You’ll also note just by the names of the blogs that the majority are not dance-related sites. The point of all this is to reach more readers and hopefully introduce more people to ballroom dancing. It’s also good exposure for me as a writer and author. I’m still not exactly sure where this path is taking me, but I want to find out and the only way to do that is keep moving forward!
The mixed emotions I mentioned in the beginning are courtesy of my demons, of course. I’m excited to reach a broader audience and connect with new readers! But there’s always that lingering doubt/fear that I’ll be rejected or called out as a fraud. Or worse yet, my books will be met with a whole lot of indifference!
I know these feelings are normal, and every writer out there can relate. All I can do is take a deep breath and push forward anyway. I keep reminding myself to glance back and acknowledge how far I’ve come despite being terrified. It’s almost hard to believe.
So I hope you’ll tag along and check out some of the stops on the tour. I’m sure the other bloggers who have been gracious enough to welcome me and my books to their websites will appreciate your visit just as much as I do! I’m going to keep this post on the top of my blog page until the tour ends, so it’ll be easy for you to check the schedule and click over to the other sites.
Cheers!
Finally, a glass of refreshing ballroom in this depressing desert! After what seemed like MONTHS (ok, it was just weeks), I had dance lessons two nights in a row! That’s all I get for another week, but they left me with a smile on my face.
“I can’t. I have dance.”
I’ve said some version of this statement more times than I can remember. I’m not the only one. Apparently, the phrase is common enough that people thought it was worth putting on a t-shirt! Or a sweatshirt, or a tank top. Search “I can’t I have dance” on Amazon and you’ll get 20 pages of results.
A fellow ballroom student commented on my last blog post, asking if I ever found myself arranging or even rearranging my schedule around my teacher’s availability and withdrawing from things and people I would normally spend time with, just so I could get my dance fix.
The short answer is “uh, yeah!”
The Girl with the Tree Tattoo 