More tryout details

The tryouts were held in Jill's downtown Arthur Murray studio. In the new space next door that she's recently aquired. A nicely done space and although she said the square footage was the same, it felt roomier.
John & I both left work a little early. We drove down in about a hour which for that time of day wasn't bad. The tryouts started late because a lot of people we calling: stuck in traffic. So getting downtown a bit early was a good choice.
We danced a song of swing and one of Cha Cha.
For the swing, they played the song with the chorus "Chihuahua!" from the commerical for the movie Beverly Hills Chihuahua (where there's a large chorus line of dogs in Aztec headresses singing.) Dancing to that, John was singing along to the chorus, we were laughing.
Between that song and the next, one of the judges (a sportscaster) swatted John on the butt saying we're not supposed to be havng that much fun!
So we had a inkling that we might be picked...

Dancing with the Stars -2009 Road Show Tryouts

Wahoo! We made it. We're dancing at the All State Arena in January in the contest before the show starts.

Those who are in from the Schaumburg Arthur Murray:

Ben, Gail, Nancy, me, Francois, John, Staci & Ben.

Office Christmas Party

Last night, we went to my office Christmas party.

I had put the woman in charge of the party in touch with Julia, our dance instructor at Arthur Murray Studios. They arranged to have Charles and Natalie come to the party, give a demo and a mini lesson. There was about a third of the room on the dance floor for the Hustle mini lesson, a surprisingly large number!

During the demo, Charles and Natalie pulled John & I out to dance West Coast Swing with them. We’ve danced in front of large crowds before but this was a group of my co-workers and bosses. Hopefully, showing that we can dance was not considered making a spectacle of ourselves. We did get a lot of complements afterwards and we had a lot of fun.

Then we dance about every other song for the next 2 hours!
The best office Christmas party I’ve been to!

Lesson Notes

That's a lot to remember!


Foxtrot:
Jr Walks to Quarter Turn (stay close together) to Promenade to one Jr Walk to Grapevine (S S QQQQQQ) to Inside Turn (on 7, get arm up away from John’s face) , John: in turn, arm to back to lead in rest of rotation, Ann: step fwd and follow rotation.
Fwd with heal leads and back peeling foot up. Ann keep face left. Make sure when bringing feet together they are even; if off, throws off balance.