A common result of getting bitten by the ballroom bug is diving headfirst into all things ballroom dance. In the beginning of my ballroom journey, I went to multiple group classes each week on top of my private lessons. I’d show up to my lesson an hour or two early just to spend more time in the studio and be in that dancing environment. I never missed a practice party.
Continue readingCategory: The Student Perspective
Now on Medium – Hard Work Does Not Require Personal Suffering
My latest blog post is live on Medium, challenging the popular belief that hard work equals pain and suffering. Frankly, I’d rather laugh through the unavoidable mistakes that happen along my dance journey than cry!
A Wintry Waltz
Reminder: Today is your last chance to register for the Find Your Confidence on the Dance Floor challenge, hosted by The Girl with the Tree Tattoo and Dance Dress Couture! You can sign up here.
While everyone else took their holiday vacations around Christmas and New Year’s, I decided to do my work while the (virtual) office was quiet and take the first week of January off. I must say, it’s been a great week! I got to meet a local dance studio owner while delivering an order of Choreography Journals, I worked on next week’s email challenge, and I got to go to Zumba twice. I also had plenty of time to rest and recharge. I wish every week could feel as balanced!
Continue readingFind Your Confidence on the Dance Floor
I’m pleased to announce that registration for the free 5-day email challenge, Find Your Confidence on the Dance Floor, is officially open!
Duffy, the owner of Dance Dress Couture, and I were chatting before the holidays about coming back to the competition dance floor after being away so long. There’s so much to think about when you’re competing! Frame, head position, foot technique, choreography, connection to our partner, musicality, timing…and don’t forget to smile! It’s easy to get caught up trying to think about all of these aspects all at once – we forget that dance is supposed to be fun.
As we continue to navigate the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s important to be able to trust and believe in ourselves, so we can connect with our joy of dance. When we’re confident, we dance well and we dance happy!
So for this year’s free email challenge, The Girl with the Tree Tattoo and Dance Dress Couture are teaming up to focus on finding that confidence again, so we can thrive as our true selves on the dance floor in 2022 and have fun while doing it. 🙂
The details:
- The email challenge starts January 10 and will run through January 15.
- It’s 100% free to sign up.
- Each day, you’ll receive an email with a daily thought and prompt designed to help you build your confidence as a dancer.
- You’re welcome to reply to the email with your response or any questions/comments. Or if you want to keep your thoughts private but still want accountability, simply reply “done!”
If you want to participate in the challenge, but won’t have time January 10-15, no worries! You can still register and just go through the prompts when you do have time.
Hope you’ll join us!
Reflections on 2021
Happy New Year, dancers!
The last week of 2021 was a confusing and shocking emotional rollercoaster, but today, we officially get to turn the page and start fresh.
My first official post of 2022 can be found on Medium: https://treetattoodance.medium.com/life-is-strange-beautiful-and-heartbreaking-3649baf484bd?sk=e5be69e5c35bbed52f0e60854bbaf682
I wish you many happy dances in 2022!
Breathing Through My Arms
Happy Sunday, dancers!
As always happens, time seems to take off without me. I can’t believe there are only three weeks left in 2021! These last three weeks are going to be busy too. I’ll be covering the United Country Western Dance Council World Championships for FloDance over the next month. I reported on country western dance competitions pre-pandemic, and this coming January is the first pandemic-era UCWDC Worlds event. Just like the ballroom world, country dance was hit hard by Covid. So everyone is thrilled to finally be getting back onto the dance floor!
Be the Awkward Dancer
While ballroom dancing is my primary dance love, being in Maine without a dance partner has afforded me the opportunity to explore or revisit other styles of dance. In addition to a weekly Zumba class, I’ve been enjoying a weekly ballet class that is proving to be a challenge for my brain and body. When I saw the “adult and teen ballet” class on the calendar, I assumed it would be a class of beginner basics focusing on elements of ballet that would help anyone to improve posture and balance. The class went well beyond my expectations, to my surprise and then pleasure.
Continue readingFirst Snowfall and an Impactful Gift Guide
We got our first snowfall yesterday!
Maine didn’t mess around. There was no warm-up round. She went full-out right out of the gate and dropped a couple inches! It was interesting to drive into town for Zumba though. While it was a winter wonderland at home, closer to town, there was merely a light coating of snow on the ground.
Continue readingI Won a Ballroom Dance World Champion Title in a Used Dress
Do you remember those “choose your own adventure” books? I loved those books as a kid! I always wanted to read through every single option to see what would happen. The ending might be the same, but adventures are never about the destination. They’re about the journey.
Come Alive
The Greatest Showman was one of those movies that shouldn’t have worked. A musical about P.T. Barnum, a man who gained notoriety by exploiting people for profit and marketing racism to the masses in the form of entertainment? That’s just not right.
And yet, the movie was a major success! I’m a huge fan myself, and I think a big part of that success had to do with the underlying message that had nothing to do with Mr. Barnum. It was an invitation that appealed to that desire within all of us: to show up as our true selves, to shed the dreary gray uniform of the daily grind, and as they sing, come alive.
The Girl with the Tree Tattoo 