Tag: ballroom dancer

I Hurt My Back Doing Body Rolls in Zumba (Happy EDS Month)

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I turned “the meaning of life” years old this year, but that’s not why I hurt my back (gold star if you got the reference). Some exuberant body rolls in Zumba class aren’t really the reason either, just the trigger.

May is Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Awareness Month. Ehlers-Danlos is the reason I’ve been spending a lot of quality time with my heating pad. Since being diagnosed a year ago with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS), I’ve learned a lot about this connective tissue disorder and how to manage the symptoms that come with it. I first became aware of EDS through social media when someone else shared their own diagnosis. So I thought I would pay it forward in honor of the month, just in case I can help another dancer find some answers.

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Where There are People, There is Dance: An Interview with Michelle Montanez Fox

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Photo provided by Michelle Fox

Dance enthusiasts, please welcome Michelle Montanez Fox to the blog! She is the Area Director of the Northern New England region for Fred Astaire Dance Studios (FADS) and the owner of the first FADS dance studio in Maine. Michelle started her ballroom career as a professional dancer and teacher at a FADS studio in Massachusetts and gradually worked her way up to studio manager, studio owner, and finally director of an entire region. Her passion for dance is matched by her passion for teaching adults and providing a truly positive and fulfilling experience for both her students and the teachers who work for her. 

I first reached out to Michelle when a post about the new FADS studio in Portland appeared in my Instagram feed back in September 2023. Maine has never had a franchised ballroom dance studio, so I was surprised to learn that one had recently opened! Even more interesting, the studio opened in September. Much of Maine’s population exits south for the winter, and so opening a new business in the fall could present extra challenges than if you opened around May when part-time residents and summer tourists are returning in droves. With curiosity, surprise and excitement over seeing that familiar logo here in Maine, I had to learn more.

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CanvasRebel Interview – Taking Risks

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Greetings dancers!

I recently did an interview with the online magazine CanvasRebel in which they asked me about taking risks and what resilience meant to me. I had previously interviewed with their sister magazine VoyageLA. The current chapter of my story looks significantly different, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to share my story as it’s evolved, as well as how my perspective has shifted on what it means to be a creative in today’s world.

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Dancing Queens: An Interview with Colette Marotto

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Leads and follows, please welcome to the blog: Colette Marotto! She is a mother, a businesswoman and an Open-level pro-am competitive ballroom dancer. Though you may better recognize her from her recent role on the show Dancing Queens. 

As I wrapped up my series on Dancing Queens, I sat down with Colette to talk about the impacts that dance has had on our lives and vice versa, as well as her experiences on the show. Let’s jump in!

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Dancing Queens Episode 6 – Ballroom Is Not All Sunshine and Rhinestones

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Another competition is in the books for the Dancing Queens ladies! They all took the floor at the Atlanta Open in Episode 6, except for Gaëlle who was there only to spectate. There were some tense moments on and off the dance floor, highlighting the fact that our dance journeys are not all sunshine and rhinestones. While dancers may be considered athletes of the gods, we’re still human and we have bad days.

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Dancing Queens Episode 5 – The Sacrifices We Make for Ballroom

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Leonie on Dancing Queens, BravoTV

We have arrived at yet another competition in Episode 5 of Dancing Queens. This episode served us more tension and drama between the women as they prepare to take the floor once again. For me, the drama felt much more manufactured via the magic of editing than in previous episodes, but hey, the producers have to keep the audience engaged, right? Not everyone tunes in just to see the dancing.

Aside from the artificially inflated tension, Episode 5 also highlighted some of the realities unique to the adult pro-am ballroom student experience. We are already living full lives when we first enter a ballroom dance studio. We have full-time jobs, homes and families that require our time and energy. Yet the passion for dance cannot be denied, and when we reach the point of committing to a competitive dance journey, sacrifices have to be made. The question is, are they worth it?

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Dancing Queens Episode 1 – Not What I Was Expecting, In a Good Way!

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Dancing Queens, a new reality show on Bravo about pro-am ballroom dancers, premiered last Tuesday. There was a lot of anticipation leading up to the first episode, after the trailer riled some people up. Personally, I was so curious to see how Bravo, a network known for melodramatic reality shows like The Real Housewives franchise, would portray this world. There is plenty of drama naturally in pro-am ballroom, but would it be enough for television or would Bravo’s producers need to amp things up a bit?

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The Merging of Practice Ballroom Dance and TGWTTT

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They were basically the same place anyway.

Somewhere along my entrepreneurship journey, wrapped up in hustle culture, I got it in my head that I needed a separate place for each piece of The Girl with the Tree Tattoo brand – the blog, the shop, the email list – they all needed their own home. Once I moved to Maine, as I continued to bask in the natural beauty of my own home and felt no need or desire to go anywhere else, I started to wonder why did The Girl need to be so spread out?

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