Diary of a Dan-cer: First Time for Everything

Life is made up of a series of firsts.

We have baby’s first steps and first words.

A little later in life, we have the first time we ride a bicycle, our first date, our first kiss…*gulp* our first time.

Well last week, I had a first of my own. I dropped my dance partner for the first time. We didn’t slip. We didn’t stumble. I dropped her.

Hard.

My only consolation was that I fell, too, and much harder.

We were adding a new move to the routine and, for me at least, with dance moves there is quite a large learning curve.

Without going into much detail, in an effort to maintain the secrecy of my routine, I started to spin before we were both ready, and we went down like a sack of potatoes.

I picture us looking like a spinning top that was running out of steam before finally crashing to the floor.

In my defense, we had done the move successfully several times before the fall, and it was the end of a grueling practice, so I’m sure fatigue played a part in the crash— at least that’s what I’m telling myself.

Because the show is getting closer, and practice time can be limited, we were warned that some of the Stars may have overlapping practice times. That happened as well last week.

Fellow Star, Andrew Patterson, had his practice time overlapping my own. So not only did my partner and I have our fall, but it was witnessed by another Star and his partner. Andrew turned to his partner and said “Wow. They have a BodySlam in their routine! We need to put one of those in!”

Last week, I wrote about my confidence growing ever so slightly. With less than three weeks to go until DWTDS, we are definitely in crunch time. My routine has been completely choreographed so now we just need to smooth it out a little (i.e. no more dropping partner).

We have a few practices left to get in a lot of repetitions. That is until you hear the words “I’d like to make a few changes to the routine.” As any past participant in DWTDS can tell you, these words strike fear into you. I felt like the rug had been pulled out from under me.

This is a learning process, and apparently, we’ll be tweaking things up until showtime. I guess I will have to get used to this. We’re doing it for YOU! We want to put on a great show and we want you to

be so entertained that you walk over to the voting tables and throw an extra $20 in! Dig Deep!

The purpose of DWTDS is to raise money for Dedham’s schools and students. I encourage you to DONATE! Feel free to go to my FaceBook page “Dan-cing for Dedham!!!” and make your pledge!

This week’s Shout Out to new sponsors…..Joe at JD Home Improvement, Frank at The Body Workshop, Kristie at Calm Kids Yoga, Eileen at Sheep Skate Yarn and Crafts, Cheryl at Doucette Impressions and Sean and Laura Kelleher for raffle donations! Thank you so much for your support!