Cue The Music – I Can’t Believe It’s Almost Over
What a blur. What an amazing adventure I never knew I could love so much.
Sarnia Dancing With The Stars is coming up tomorrow night (Saturday Jan 19) at the Quality Inn. A event with a dance competition, sparkling reception, h’ors doerves, silent auction, live band and more – all to raise money for Community Concerns for the Medically Fragile.
People have been asking why I did it. It’s Eve’s fault. Eve Morgan is the person behind the event. She asked me back in late summer. I told her I would have to think about it. It seemed way too out of reach and out of my comfort zone. I am NOT a dancer. But after humming and hahing about it – debating back and forth about whether I should say yes – ultimately it was my fear that pushed me to say yes. I was thrilled it was for charity, but I went into it thinking I was unteachable.
The thought of doing something I have never done in front of hundreds of people was not exactly thrilling. Ha! You feel pretty vulnerable when you do something afraid of failing.
My pro dance partner is actually a fitness instructor and NOT a professional dancer like the others in the competition. But don’t let that fool you. He’s good at what he does. He is super talented. Brian Slaughter runs The Studio on Colbourne Street in Sarnia.
We’ve spent a few days every week for the past three months working hard to learn two dances. One is Samba and the other – Argentine Tango. I’ve been told the Samba is one of the most challenging dances to learn.
Day by day, week by week – Brian worked to teach me the steps and then we worked on it together.
Awkwardly at first. It’s strange to be so close to someone, trying not to step on their feet or hit them in the face with an awkward hand movement.
It felt so unnatural – learning these moves. They don’t come easily and it can get really frustrating when you’re trying so hard and want it to be perfect but you keep forgetting or stepping too soon or too late.
The Samba is a FAST dance. I’ve been getting some good steps on my Fitbit with this one. The tango is a slower dance. With the song Brian chose for us – it’s going to be a good one. Keep a Kleenex handy. Hoping it gives you an emotional connection too.
I’m excited about getting dressed up, hair and makeup done – feeling good. This past week has been practice every single day. It’s been a lot of hours and I think we’re both tired but running on adrenaline. Dress rehearsal tonight – one final run through. And then it’s all about waiting.
I have worked through a ton of emotions – didn’t expect this to be an emotional journey. I didn’t expect to deal with all this self doubt, and negativity about myself. All these buried feelings suddenly come to the surface. It’s hard to face yourself in the mirror and NOT only focus on the flaws. I will admit – when I was told to look in the mirror to get the moves right – I would get even more frustrated and mad – because I didn’t like how I looked and that made me feel worse. I went through a tough period for sure.
But then – just after Christmas – as we got back into it – and the movements suddenly became easier and you actually felt like you were dancing and not just counting steps – a freedom came over me. And suddenly it was FUN! Then I got to try on different dresses (big thank you to the Studio family for coming through for me on that). Hair appointments and makeup appointments were made. It was getting REALLY REAL.
So now – I just want to soak it all in and really enjoy the moment. I want to take lots of pictures so I don’t forget a thing.
I lived life afraid for so long. I was afraid to do things that scared me. I was afraid of failing and not being good enough.
These last few months have been about pushing through the fear and tackling it afraid. Yes it’s for charity – number one reason we are all doing this. But it has been such a life changing event for me.
I’m grateful to Eve and to Brian and to every single person that has been there to help along the way – with choreography (Stephanie Chaves) to bringing in shoes and dresses.
It’s been the most amazing experience and I’m so glad I did it afraid.
