I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I first received a copy of Competing Like a Pro: Spotlight Strategies to Help You Shine On and Off the Ballroom Floor almost a year ago, and I only read it in the last couple months. Jessika, the author of the book, actually took lessons at the same studio as me. We have never met in person, though I remember seeing her around. It may be awhile before we officially meet since I learned that she recently fulfilled her dream of moving to Costa Rica! She still plans to take lessons on return trips to the U.S.; they will just be spread out a bit more.
Tag: ballroom dance
Interview: Cindy Muller, Owner of My Ballroom Boutique
For 2017, I decided to start monthly interviews/guest posts. I want to share other ballroom dancers’ stories. Some have been inspired by ballroom to start other passion projects. Others found ballroom to be their saving grace. We all have one thing in common: a passion for ballroom dancing. If you have a story you want to share, please let me know!
To start the year off, I’d like you all to meet Cindy Muller, ballroom student and owner of My Ballroom Boutique! Cindy and I met virtually through this blog and Facebook, and we share similar financial struggles in making our competitive dreams come true.
Finding Time Vs. Making Time
It’s a rainy Sunday here in Southern California. Perfect weather to stay in, get some house chores done, and do some writing! While laundry was tumbling and turning in the washer and dryer, I finished reading another ballroom book over breakfast. Next, I was going to sit down and write my review. Thoughts for my own next book started flitting around my head though. I also needed to put together the article for the interview I did with another ballroom dancer. Then I started thinking about my own dancing and how I should review my waltz and do more work on learning the tango routine. I knew the competition I was aiming for would get here faster than expected. Speaking of competing, I wondered how long would it take to find a suitable amateur partner. I just started posting on social media this past week that I was officially in search of one. I needed to do more cross-training and recommit to regular stretching too. I should also do another assessment of my finances and figure out where the remaining comp money was coming from. Then there were the other investments I was thinking about making this year. Tax time was also coming up. I needed to get my business structure solidified.
Aaahh!
The Return of the California Living Dead
It’s been two weeks since my last post?? Man, time sure flies when you’re sick and travelling. I’ve been feeling guilty about not dropping in to say hello and give you an update on the Girl with the Tree Tattoo. I hope you’ll forgive me for my absence. Here’s what’s been going on.
Guest Post on Dance Comp Review: Dealing with Ballroom FOMO
Hi everyone!
For those who celebrated, I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and/or are having a wonderful Hanukkah! I spent a lot of quality time with family, eating, talking, watching movies, baking and eating. I definitely need to do some extra Zumba this week!
Don’t Give Up! Part 2
Back in July, I wrote this cheesy motivational post about not giving up. Someone found it the other day, so it showed up in my blog statistics. I felt like doing a follow-up.
A Sunday Morning Waltz
It’s been two and a half weeks since my last dance lesson, which was also the last time I danced ballroom at all. Being busy with other things, like driving across country, Thanksgiving, blog- and book-related work, and the day job (yes, still working the day job!), has helped keep the withdrawal symptoms tolerable. The Zumba game has helped too; I think it’s going to be my ticket to avoiding too much holiday weight gain in the next month. But finally, this morning, I broke out my ballroom practice shoes.
Book Review – What You See Is Not What You Do: A Simple Formula for Ballroom Dancing by Nick and Lena Kosovich
Back in July, one of my readers sent me What You See Is Not What You Do: A Simple Formula for Ballroom Dancing. Although he felt the book moved a little slowly, he highly recommended it for the great information it contained, which had helped him several times while trying to conquer a challenging new dance step. Four/five months later, I have finally found/made time to read the book and write up a review!
Black Friday/Small Business Saturday/Cyber Monday Sale!
Cyber Monday Update – Sale price now available on BookBaby and Amazon! See the Dance Diaries page for links. PayPal links are still available for those of you who want to buy direct.
Thank you for supporting this author during this shopping season!
I confess – I’m jumping on the holiday bandwagon. Although many stores are ignoring the calendar and proper order of things, this Friday represents the beginning of a month-long shopping spree in America. Personally, I like to stay home and watch movies all day on Black Friday. A mall packed with eager and/or desperate crowds scrambling to find that perfect gift or best deal is not my idea of a good time.
If you’re like me and would rather shop online than in a crowded mall, I have a solution! The Dance Diaries series is going on sale this weekend, starting on Black Friday and going through Cyber Monday.
Anywhere you like to shop for digital books (i.e., Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iTunes, etc.), Learning Ballroom Dance and Ballroom Budgeting will be discounted to $2.99 and $3.99, respectively. You can also look for them on my own BookBaby shop pages.
Fun fact: if you buy my books directly through BookBaby, I get a greater percentage of the sale price AND the books are available in any eReader format you need – ePub, mobi and PDF.
If you have someone in your life who has been wanting to try ballroom, give the gift of inside knowledge with Learning Ballroom Dance.
If you know someone whose passion for ballroom is greater than the size of their wallet, give the gift of Ballroom Budgeting.
The sale is only during this crazy shopping weekend though! Friday through Monday, and then the prices go back to their usual amounts.
Please help spread the word, and as always, happy dancing!
Star Dance Tour – Ohio Star Ball!
Update: Teacher and partner made it into the semifinal round of the Open Pro Smooth event. They WON the audience wildcard vote, so they were still able to perform their show dance! Unfortunately, they just missed winning the final audience vote. Let’s rally and kick it up a notch for the grand finale of the Star Dance Tour at City Lights Open in January 2017!
Hello my lovely readers!
Before I start seriously packing for my cross-country road trip, I wanted to let you know that Teacher and his pro partner will be competing at Ohio Star Ball this Saturday, November 19, and we can watch it livestreamed!
For those who aren’t aware, Ohio Star Ball is a HUGE ballroom competition. For pro-am students, it hosts the final event for the Best of the Best Dancesport Challenge. For Teacher, it is the latest stop on the Star Dance Tour.
I’ll be on the road on Saturday, but should make it to my first hotel in time to watch Teacher dance. If not, you can bet I’ll be sitting at a rest stop livestreaming on my phone! As usual, you can watch the livestream here. Teacher has told me their first round is around 8:30pm EST, but if you want to catch other events happening on the same night, the session starts at 7pm EST according to Ohio Star Ball’s website. If I learn of any schedule changes, I will update this post.
Don’t forget to stick around to vote! You’ll be able to vote on the livestream website (just refresh the page if the poll doesn’t appear when the MC at the competition announces that it’s time). As usual, there will be a “wildcard” vote and then a final vote. The wildcard vote is for dancing couples in the semifinal round who do not make it to the final round. Whoever gets the most wildcard votes will still get to perform their show dance.
Once the show dances are over, there will be another chance to vote. Just like on Dancing with the Stars, winning the audience vote helps the couples advance in the tour. Teacher and his partner have won the popular vote at EVERY competition they’ve danced at for the Star Dance Tour. That should tell you something about their show dancing abilities (and how awesome their fans are). I happen to know, and I’ll share with you, that they are planning on performing a new show dance at Ohio. So if you’re thinking you’ve already seen their dance and don’t need to watch it again, you ain’t seen nothing yet!
Please join me to watch the livestream on Saturday night. Watch for Kris Suakjian and Briana Haft on the polls when they open, and vote, vote, vote! Also, as usual, I’ll be hanging out on Facebook, so please stop by and say hi!
Ok, time to pack! Happy dancing everyone!
The Girl with the Tree Tattoo 