2016 was a rough year. Just in the last week, the world lost two amazing women, who were also two of my favorite Hollywood actors. Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds were an inspiration to me. Princess Leia showed us that we can be strong and feminine at the same time. The way Kathy Seldon (Debbie Reynolds’ character in Singin’ in the Rain) teases Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) as she’s driving him to Beverly Hills is my go-to when I’m searching for my Foxtrot character. I love the way she playfully puts him in his place and firmly stands up for herself, despite the fact he is a famous (and therefore intimidating) celebrity.
Tag: dance
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!
Winter Blues (#DontGiveUp)
Got a few things bringing me down, as sometimes happens. I thought I’d put the blues to good use by sharing them with you and also sharing what I plan to accomplish anyway, in accordance with my #dontgiveup and #keepgoing mantras.
So let’s get this riff started.
Energy and Motivation
In the Facebook group related to the Momentum ’17 challenge I’m doing, someone asked how many people were holding down a job while also trying to build their business, and besides the obvious time challenge, what their biggest challenges were related to that situation. If I haven’t already explained, this challenge is for people working on building their own brand/business, a.k.a. entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is starting to feel like a cliché to me as so many people reject the normal way of making money (i.e., get a job with an already-established company) and strike out on their own. It’s funny to think that being “self-employed” or an “entrepreneur” used to be a euphemism for “can’t get a job.” Now it’s all the rage! I’m not one to jump on trends (I frequently avoid them on principle), but I do want to be able to eventually support myself with my writing and dancing, and there’s no time like the present to start thinking of the business side of things. And when it’s a free challenge, why not!
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!
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!
On the Edge of Hope
I was chatting with another amateur dancer the other night and he was telling me about how excited and already exhausted he was about the upcoming dance season. Coachings were lined up, and competitions were on the calendar. He might end up too broke to eat, but it was okay. We all make sacrifices for the love of ballroom!
Into the Ballroom Desert
I’ve mentioned that I am going on a road trip soon. My boys and I will be driving across the country to stay with family in eastern Pennsylvania for a couple months. Three and a half days in a car with only two dogs for company! For some reason, a lot of people think I’m nuts. I say it’ll be an adventure and will probably give me a couple good blog posts.
The Girl with the Tree Tattoo 