thursdays have taken on a whole new meaning for me. the entire day spent inside the carlton hotel in the centre of johannesburg. the building is a shell - peeling wallpaper, holes everywhere, plug points and light fittings spewing forth from the wall in disrepair and decay. backstage, behind the ballroom floor where the show is shot - all sparkly, larny and magical, it feels more like the perfect set for a horror movie than Strictly Come Dancing. the lifts , in fact, definately seem possessed and have a tendency of taking you to the top floor and leaving you there regardless of what floor you pressed.
strange indeed.
tomorrow - thursday - foxtrot

i feel a foxtrot coming on.

been working hard on the foxtrot for thursday. hard to follow up on the high energy and success of the and jive. in fact people may feel a little let down watching the foxtrot after the mania of the preceding episodes, but i am really enjoying it. Feel like i have a much better understanding of the pricniples of ballroom and the topline, head position, eyeline, rise and fall seem alot more natural now than it did 5 weeks ago when i was stumbling my way through the waltz. feel like i am actually dancing as opposed to just remembering steps. getting a better flow as well and i am loving the intricacy of the footwork and how when you click into it, it just kind of flows.
did a little of the samba today which was a bit frightening. it feels very different to everything we have done so far and there is more hip swinging going on than shakira at a drunken pyjama party. kind of feels like i'm doing twister across the dance floor.
dont expect fireworks this thursday instead look for a beautiful dance done well. I am really pushing for good technique and a bit of grace and flow. time will tell.

jive bra jive

Another week, another episode gone and holy cow was this one a cracker. Mary and I worked our muscles to messy painful pulpy blobs in preparation for the jive. I told you all it was going to be fast.

Apparently the jive was named after a dance Minnie and Mickey Mouse did in an early Disney cartoon from the 40’s. Originally it was called the ‘jitterbug jive’ and I must admit that at times I did feel somewhat like a deranged cartoon character going though some sort of spastic heeby-jeeby fit.

We were completely blown away by our scores, as we made a couple of mistakes in our routine and we both lay on the floor panting heavily at the end of the routine thinking that we had buggered it up. In retrospect , having watched the episode again this weekend I realize that it looked a hell of a lot better than we thought on the night and all our hard worked paid off.

We definitely did it better a couple of times in rehearsal, but the nature of honest hard work is that even if you don’t quite crack it to the standard you would like it on the night, all the work that one puts in before really lifts your general standard so that even a couple of mistakes here and there are not disastrous.

I have Anele to thank for some lessons I have learnt from her. Number 1; gooi with as much attitude as you can and Number 2; if you make a mistake, own it, and gooi even harder with even more attitude. So I did and we ended up with the highest score of the competition so far. How rad is that?

I’m sure Grant and Tessa must feel a little peeved that they didn’t outscore us as their routine really was flawless - I guess what helped us in the end was the attitude and the pace of the performance. We really did enjoy that dance and of all the dances the jive seems the wildest so I guess a few technical errors here and there are forgivable if you are giving it as much energy and goetspa as we were.

Respect and shoutouts go to Garth and Hayley, Hlubi and Khutso and Cindy and Jonathan for making great comebacks. They upped their games considerably and showed without a doubt that this competition is very far from over.

Garth, in particular really showed some character after the previous weeks debacle, with a classy performance peppered with a gusty never-say-die attitude. He didn’t even need to worry about dodging any bullets (which he did admirably last week with help of some ultra dedicated supporters - just goes to show how important viewers votes are on this competition - so please keep voting for us even if you think we don’t need them - I don’t want a Tamara Dey happening with Mary and I).

Gugu (or Blogzilla as I now call him because he is a monster from the blog) was looking a little sheepish on Thursday after all the drama in the preceding week over his blog. I have to say , in his defense, that I have rarely met a sweeter guy and know that he would never intentionally hurt anyone’s feelings (even though Tessa was hurt - understandably so - and she put him in his place quickly - good for her - but they also hugged and made up - good for everyone- yay.)

Just in case anyone wants to know, I have cleared my schedule as much as possible so that I can dance as much as possible so that I can kick as much ass as possible.

However I am doing a lot of writing as well on a film script of one of my plays that is being made into an animated movie (which is totally rad) and I've been doing some stand-up, as well as my one man show on Sundays. It was my last performance on Sunday and I would like to thank any of you who supported me during the run.

Grant and his wife were there on Sunday and they giggled like maniacs the whole way through which was great to see. Also my man Blogzilla was there for the second time and he brought some lovely friends for which I am eternally grateful. Thanks Gugz you rock.

That's all for now folks. Thanks for the support and the radness.

it's the day before the day we do the jive for real. this one is so fast, i'm not sure if the cameras will be able to keep up. one of the real problems we will have is how to speak to Ian or Sandy after the performance cos currently we just hyperventilate and lie on the floor in total and complete exhuastion. i swear for the rest of my life if i hear Tina Turner's Proud Mary, my legs will start twitching and kicking involuntarily.
right, time to train. koebaai for now!

the time she flies

the time flies when you are supposed to be updating your blog - but let me tell you, the time veritably crawls by when you are doing the jive. the min 30 secs we are kick-ball-changing, footflicking and basically leaping about like maniacs on happy gas is undoubtedly the longest min 30 secs in my life. if you thought the quickstep was fast, hold on to your underpants.

yikes!

wow. last night was incredible - we had an absolute blast - and we scored a 9!!!! a flippen 9 people. a 9!!!!!!! man, what a feeling. respect to Grant and Tessa who shared the top spot with us, their routine was amazing, so slick, so classy, and they are the raddest people. Grant is a great help, always willing to give advice, which is greatly appreciated, cos the dude is a ballroom legend.
and then there was the 'titanic' quote from Tyrone about Hlubi and Khutso which i must say i thought was a bit harsh, i thought they were amazing, a really beautiful routine, and Hlubi is just a pure pro,, she works so hard and puts so much work in. I think she will make a comeback, that is one lady who will not take any kak lying down- she's a fighter- and expect her to come back hard.
i thought Adil really improved, he was Performing out there and loving it.
Really happy Garth made it through, cos they have also worked really hard as well, and they did their routine so much better during the rehearsals, -it was just too much pressure - and believe me the pressure is something else out there.
I am really going to miss ShugaSmax - the dude is a legend and was great fun to have around. And Seipati too, what a sweetheart - loved listening to her and Mary rattling away at each other backstage. Let me tell you, when those ladies talk, they talk fast.
I am preparing for my one man comedy show on Sunday at the Old Mutual Theatre on the Square in Sandton - it's called Rob Van Vuuren is Ron Van Wuren and it's totally rad. If anyone is out there and would like to come and have a good laugh, please come and support - you can book on 011 8838606 - and if ou would like to find out more about the show join my facebook group - Rob Van Vuuren is Ron Van Wuren.
Thanks for all the support - keep voting - you guys rock!

Again!

um, so i know this is supposed to be a daily blog, but i have slacked off somewhat of late and for that i apologise. At least i havent slacked off the dancing. The knee she is starting to hate me at the moment - but there is no time for whingeing - this is elimination time.
our quickstep is looking awesome. Mary's long time dance partner/champion/boyfriend came in today to give us some tips and finer detail direction. He is great and i know Mary appreciates having an experienced, trusted and respected outside eye to look with a critical eye - and ask the question - 'what will the judges think?'
he helped with the pivots and eye focus in particular. the pivots were taking too broad a base and therefore taking too long to revolve - also i was bending my knees a little too much, creating unneccessary bounce and rock on the swivel. the eyes give the dance direction and intention and it's easy to go internal - look but not actually see - so we gave the eyes a bit of focus and it's amazing how much more purpose it gives to the routine. he is very happy with the footwork and was stoked with how i took his notes on the heel turn and tracking (tracking = when your leg passes the base leg it should glide past and lightly brush each other).
He also loved the fact that i have learnt the Tswana word for 'again' - which Mary and i repeat to each other ad nuaseum. Repetition, repetition, repetition.
Are we ready for tommorrow? I believe so. Tell me what you think.