sorry its been so long

This has been a rollercoaster of epic proportions. The ups (sleeping) and downs (foot cramp, back spasm, knee pain, stinky body odor, the blind terror of having to dance in front of millions of people, Achilles tendonitis and the rest of the muscle group fatigue fandango) have sped by in a flash. And we are only just passed the second episode. There is still a long way to go, and this coming Thursday we literally have to dance for our place on the show. And to be completely honest I dont want to give it up for anything. Despite all my whining and moaning about my aching body, I really am having the time of my life. On a slightly masochistic level, hard work just feels good, I guess, but it’s more than that. Lets face it, dancing is rad.
Having said that, when you are trying to get something right and your brains are screaming out; “Feet! Feet! This is the brain calling the feet. Come in feet!” and your brains are tuning;
“Nooit my bru, I can hear you but I actually don’t give a damn anymore.”
Your silver lining does begin to bruise a little and thunderclouds loom on the horizon of your rapidly evaporating rad mood. Luckily the good days have been outnumbering the bad quite significantly so my radness is still intact.
The second episode has come and gone and the mambo is but a memory. That’s one of the weird things about this experience, you invest all this emotion and time into learning a certain choreography to a certain type of dancing style and then just as you start to get the hang of it, you have to say goodbye to it (discarding it like a half eaten pie) and move on to the next choreography to the next style of dancing. It’s weird. I miss the mambo already. It was kiff.
The show was eventful (not in a Chinese curse kind of ‘may you live in interesting times’ kind of eventful. A more positive, good tv, kind of eventful The judges were very complimentary to Mary and myself, SugaSmax made a great comeback and the ladies made an impressive statement of intent (I thought they all totally rocked – with the Anele show bringing down the house with raw attitude and spunk).
Since then it’s been quickstep, quickstep and more quickstep, with a bit of jive thrown in for good measure.
Loving the quickstep and looking forward to leaping on to that floor on Thursday.

standing by

5 minutes till we need to be downstairs to start the final dress rehearsal before we go live tonight. went blank again in the first couple of rehearsals ( i really hope this doesnt become a habit) but pulled it tight in the afternoon session. even got to do a little of the quickstep, just to get a feel of it on the floor before next week. but right about now its all about the mambo. the girls are certainly feeling the pressure today, but the vibe backstage is good - everyone upbeat, lots of jokes and radness.
lets see what the evening holds.
see you on the box.

ja, today was better.
things, that didnt yesterday, somehow started to make sense today. like the andtoe1 -2and3and4 -extend/dont rise toe first flat foot- 5 heel toe, and6and7 look dip8.
this is how my brain is starting to speak. in numbers, and body postions to the howling yawp of amy winehouse. valerie.

did very little mambo today. we should be solid there though. we've put in the work and it should be a bit more fun than the waltz, what with the whole men sweating it out to mambo number five in latin tights and pointy liewe heksie shoes thing going on.

Im more worried about next week. episode 3. elimination.

holy pyjamas

'this the brain calling the feet - come in feet!'

yesterday was a bit of a battle with the quickstep. ok, maybe more of a skirmish than a battle , but there were definately some wounds inflicted. the body just didnt want to obey the signals that my brain was sending it. it's impossible to avoid this overwhelming sense of too much too fast, because thats exactly what it is. learn eleven dances in as many weeks and perform them on live television to millions of people. um, okay. the trick i guess is to stay positive even when you are not feeling it and trust that something is going in (even if it is only the strength to push through the tough times) and that the following day will be a bit better.
i am at the studio getting ready for today's session. let's see if it gets better today.

group daze

the last two days have been all about the mambo and the quickstep. spent sunday primarily on the quickstep, trying out different things to wow the audience with and step up a notch from the waltz. we are almost done with the routine and then it's just repetition repetition repetition.
yesterday was the guys last group rehearsal with Brendan the choreographer. the group rehearsal days are really exhausting, cos we have so little time together with the choreographer (only 2 days) so one has to concentrate flippen hard and make the most of the time. i think it's looking pretty good - if we can just get our circle right. it really is a fun dance and i have been enjoying playing it up.
saw hlubi in the gym yesterday and she was working like a trojan with her partner khutso (who in my opinion is one of the most incredible dancers i have ever seen - the man's got skills) so expect something big from the ladies on thursday. the pressure is certainly on the female celebs this week but that does not mean we are slacking off. nope, there was a veritable flood of sweat in our rehearsal yesterday.
myself and mary are treating every dance like the final, so we will be giving it horns on thursday. count on it.

one down only nine to go

holy potato.
what a way to start. top marks. madness.
at this stage the marks don't mean anything, but our intention was to go out there and set a standard we could be proud of and then work our bums off to raise that standard every week.
and so the day after the first insanely stressful and mind blowingly exhilarating episode we hit the studio hard for 4 hours of mambo mayhem.
we were booked in for a two hour session today but i awoke to a blissful sms from Mary saying that we had worked hard enough for now and had earned a well deserved day off. i played it cool but my aching and swollen feet wept with grateful joyous abandon.
the show itself went by in a dizzying haze of nervous delirium. i cannot describe the fear and anxiety backstage. it is palpable. like a thick fog swirling about our heads. everyone, even the old pro's (mary) can hardly contain themselves. if you could bottle the adrenaline pumping through the ether in that backstage area, it would be illegal at the Olympics.
i tried every trick in my book, the breathing exercises , the visualisation, the stretching - you name it - but when i stepped out to do the waltz all i could think was "What!!?? WHAT!!?!!? Wait , i'm not ready, i'm not ready, i''m not READYYYYY!!!! - oh my holy hecking heck i'm dancing, i'm dancing the waltz, what the hell am i doing?? What's my next step?? Seriously , what's my next step?????!!!"
i went completely blank about three times - the first two times thankfully only for a split second before the reflex motor action kicked in and my feet instinctively went to the right place - but the third time was the killer - i swept passed my posse sitting in the front row in the last quarter of the routine and one of my friends yelled out "you're hot!!!" (thanks Bev) and so of course i burst out laughing and then to my utter shock and dismay, so did my feet - mary (bless her forever) gripped me so hard i could hear her knuckles cracking and we weathered the rapid and took that waltzing dinghy to the calmer waters downstream.
in the interview with the judges all i wanted to do was cry. seriously, the relief - the excitement , everything - it just made me want to tjank like a lighty who dropped his ice-cream.
and then we went and sat backstage - endorphins oozing out of us like the slime on Bill Murray in Ghostbusters- and watched everyone else kakking off. It was worst on the girls who had to wait through the entire first half and the hour break (for Muvhango and the News) before they could shake their stuff. and boy did they. they did look like a bunch of zombies during that break though, the waiting and the nervous tension had just about wiped them out. I am not looking forward to that wait on Thursday. I am, however, keen on the whole safety in numbers vibe. bring it on.

crunch time

it's thursday morning. i'm sitting back stage at the carlton waiting for it all to start happening. yesterday was intense, we came in and didcmera rehearsals on the floor and basically went through the whole show. i can safely say i don't think i have ever been more nervous for anything in my life before. i stepped out onto the ballroom floor and my mouth went dry, my eyes started watering and i went completely blank. our first couple of run throughs was terrible. got better eventually but man nowhere near what we were doing on the rehearsal floor. oh well, it's the first one. i cannot believe it.
gotta go.
first run through of the first day.
wish me luck.