Journal entry

Jersey has been our most comfortable spot so far, too bad it only lasted a few days :( but we have had fun. The house we are staying in is Diane olivieras and it is so big and beAutiful, our room has this gorgeous bathroom with a giant jet tub and a shower big enough for a family of four. Two separate sinks... It has been so great, the best is king size and it feels like a cloud, I wish it was mine door keeps! The tv is big and tons of AMERICAN channels, and besides that we have a car while we raw here, not your normal rental chevy four door but a cute car! Diana and Gary give great lessons and I like their studio a lot. It is big and beautiful, everything here is so green too and humid but fortunately it hasn't been extremely hot. Practice feels good but my body is tired, I wish I were home at this point if nothing else just to be able to sit for a while. Jurassic park is on tv I love this movie! Trey and I ate dinner while we watt he'd it. To or row we leave the house at 6:30 am so we can get to the airport and drop off the rental car and all that good stuff. Then it is off to Tampa where we co Pete again and stay in a hotel room. We are there till sunday. I hope that comp goes well, so far we have been really successful on the east coast. After placing seventh on amatuer at Yankee and first in rising star the following day we have accomplished a lot of goals. Sasha and oksana went pro at that comp too so that was really fun too. We see Shirley in Tampa and Alan will be there too, good thing because my hair is long, and it is arch a pain when it is grown out. Trey colored it a few weeks ago and it looks great but he can't do the cut :) I haven't been sleeping very good while I have been here encase I get really tired around 7 but I'm not ho e by then so by the time I am I am awake again.... Grr I hate that! So far everywhere we go we see max and his new partner Anastasia and that's really cool because they were taking in Utah with Shirley so we met them at home and seeing them along the road is fun and we chat :) I remember watching YouTube videos of him dancing with yulia back in the day and eventually beata too, he's really nice and his new partner is good I like watching her dance. We have narrowed all the luggage down to one big suitcase and our two carry ons! This makes me so happy. I am so sick of luggage. After Yankee I was able to talk to a lot of the judges and make some friends that I won't forget, I have had a lot of fun being with all these people. Just a few more weeks till Utah again, and I am excited but a lil sad, being on the road and especially the east. Past has been a ball.

Sexy good looks

Practice after our lesson with diana

You know what it is

Our jersey whip

After we licked the plate clean :)

Disco fries yummmmmm

Pompton queen diner in jersey

Cemetery along the freeway in jersey

Boston!

First time eating guacamole in a month after our win in Boston

My cute nails, they remind me of cupcakes :)

Treys dinner last night, buffalo wings, corn, and Gatorade

Monument in Norwood MA where we are staying

Journal entry June 14

I went and got my nails done this morning and it was so fun, the Asian chicks there spoke really good English, they do nails so much better here? The shape is so pretty... It was called California nails so I asked which one of you is from California? And we got to talking about la and dance and the weather. It was a blast. Last night we talked with Ruben, mash a turlopova's partner, they teach here at dance fever and he is a lot of fun. Marcus and ksenia are here teaching this week as well as Shirley ballis so there are a lot of couples, mostly amateurs, who are at the studio to take lessons and they all say hi. It is fun hanging out with other amateurs. Jean Phillipe and Laurence from Canada also teach here, and Saturday it was JPs birthday so last night we ate cake at the studio and hung out. The cake was Delish. Ronan teaches here with his partner Miriam, and they have recently gone pro... Ronan seriously teaches so many lessons he is always at the studio, I get here around 3 and leave around 9 or 10 and he is always here when I am, always teaching, I doubt he even eats. It's crazy... I wish the students in Utah were like the students here, these pre teen and junior dancers will have solo lessons, them and their coach, and then have more lessons later with their partners, it's not a lot of group classes, and this is such a good way to teach dancing! Because then the dancer gets the individual attention. I feel like everyone has been in a lesson where the focal point is one member of the partnership instead of the partnership as a whole. All the Russian is rubbing off on me a little bit, parents at the studio just assume we speak Russian so they will say priviet? And make jokes, or be telling a story to the group and look at me... They don't realize I have no idea, but I just smile and follow along, some things I can actually pick out, not the whole conversation but words... Like priviet. How are you? :) the dancing is feeling really good and I am anxious to compete this weekend. Blackpool went so well and was so much fun and we have made so many friends here that the Yankee classic almost feels like a local comp back home, everyone Is only concerned with where to go eat afterwards. Allen rudman and sandy, Ron and Ashley goldman all dance here and are in the youth final, Ron actually won not USA youth championships this year, so since they are here a lot at the studio when we are we have been hanging out a lot, they are cool and we've all been practicing together and having a lot of fun. Trey is going to have to bleach my hair before the comp... So probably like tomorrow... And we will see how that goes. I am sure he Will do great, I just wish I was a natural blonde and my life would be so much easier :)

Journal entry June 13

The weather has been nice and overcast with a cool breeze, not nearly as hot and muggy as when we first arrived. A lot of practicing and specializing has been going on. Today was nice we all slept till noon cuz we didn't have to be at the studio till 6 which is a few hours later than usual. Last night we went to Dance Fever's studio show case, we got there at 9 am and it ended at 8:30 pm, lo day just to sit, but we had good seats and I actually had a god time, the teachers are all good dancers, and the little kids are all pretty good as well. Sitting watching dance just made me wanna dance so I was really excited to get to the studio today but I do t think I am feeling very good, my tummy is a little upset and I feel head tired, unlike body tired. I know that T's allergies are kinda bugging him too. Not much is happening, it has already been a week here which is kind of shocking. Shirley is in town doing lessons, we don't see her this time but it is nice she is here, she feels a little bit like family. Last night at the showcase a lot of people kept coming up to me to talk about my hair which was flattering, it was fun to get the attention. We have a lesson with sasha tonight which will be good but his lessons always make me work so hard, I swear any muscle I gain is because of the hours with Him.

Treys First Post

Hope has been telling me to post on this blog since we began this trip. I am not one to post my thoughts for everyone to read so this is a first attempt so I apologize if it is boring haha. So far we have been away from Utah for 3 days short of a month and it has been an amazing roller coaster ride of emotions and experiences. England was an amazing experience starting with my ability to somehow get us from wherever we were to our destination without really knowing where we were trying to go we pretty much by luck found our way to our hotel and literally stumbled upon Semely dance studio while exploring around Norbury England. Rounds in Semely were the first eye opening experience we had on our trip sharing the practice floor with the same people that we spend hours watching on you tube was amazing. It was one thing competing against them and another thing entirely watching them go through there routines and work on there movement. Every one was extremely friendly no one made anyone feel intimidated or less then anyone else simple made us feel like we were at the right place for where we would like to one day be in our career. The staff at Semely were great Greg de Wet was the first to really make us feel at home he was in charge of the practice rounds as well as the music during the rounds and at Blackpool Dance Festival during the day session before the Empress Orchestra plays. Regardless of how many people were at the rounds and on some nights there was a lot the moment we would walk in he would give us hugs and ask us how we were enjoying our first time in Norbury he is amazing at what he does.
The first competition that we competed in while on our journey was the Crystal Palace Cup held in London. This was an eye opening and stressful experience first off we under the impression that the comp would be held at the Crystal Palace because of the title of the comp and what we had heard from other dancers in Norbury turns out this was not the case and it was in fact held at a hotel on the river next to Big Ben on the other side of the city. This was one of these other moments that we were able to find a location in which we had no Idea where it was there was 2 hotels with the same name more then a mile apart of course we went to the wrong hotel first and then ran to the other hotel carrying our dance bags haha. when we showed up we were for sure that we had missed our event and when we ran in we had missed the Cha Cha but the organizers at Idsf were actually super helpful and friend we walked up to the check in and explained what happened they looked at me and grabbed my hand and said follow me and started running dragging me behind. They took me up to the organizer who sympathized with us and told us that we would be allowed to dance in the re-dance in one hour and they apologized for everything that they didn't do wrong haha extremely nice people. Warming up before you dance may be important and helpful but running from one side of a city to another carrying bags on your shoulder is not necessarily the best way to warm up for something if that is what you plan to do I hope that is the only thing you plan on doing for a while. We were exhausted but still a fun dance comp and were able to see the first glimpse of some of our favorite dancers compete.

The Next night was an amazing party at Semely it was dance for Japan. Turns out that Peter Maxwell the man who runs Semely was in Japan the day the earthquake and tsunami hit. His plane left only 3 hours before the earthquake devastated the country so they wanted to do something for the dancers of japan so on the 25 anniversary of the practice rounds they did a fun raiser during there party. For the first time I was able to watch Brian Watson and Carmen dance live. When I moved out to New Jersey and began taking my dancing seriously they were the world champions and Michael Johnson introduced me to there dancing via you tube I would spend hours watching there videos. It was the first moment one this trip that I couldn't believe what me and hope were doing and how amazing this whole experience is and has been. They were still great I could have watched there dancing all night luckily they put on several different performances. At the end they fed every one which was fun just mingling with all the American couples and meeting new friends and having them introduce us to the people we were to nervous to walk up and talk to.

Blackpool Dance Festival was an experience that I will never forget the first time we walked out on the floor for Cha-Cha we realized that it wasn't something to be nervous about it was the place were talented people come together and show of there skills and not to sound cheesy but it is really a place where peoples dreams come true. For me and hope we were lucky enough to meet everyone of our goals. The first time we saw our name on the recall board it was a crazy feeling I couldn't stop looking at the board, Hope never listens or goes to look at the recalls she always sits back in a corner with our stuff and just does her hair and sends me to check and deliver the news. Every time the numbers were posted I tried to come back looking sad to just to through her off but she said that every time I came back I couldn't hide my smile even if it wasn't on my face she could see it in the way I walked never forget those moments telling her that we made it through to the next round. During Amateur we were able to make it through to the night session meaning we were able to dance fore the live band. Dancing for the live band was hands down the best part of England for me nothing else even compared to walking out on the floor and getting ready to dance and hear the flawless music that unlike music from speakers is raw and still full of passion.

Now we are in Boston I couldn't be happier to be back in The United States Diet Pepsi I had missed the. Soda in England I am sad to say is nothing short of gross haha I apologize if this upsets anyone but its the truth. The first night we were here we went out to the Yard House with Sasha and Oksana we ordered a pizza for an appetizer then I had a Big Bacon BBQ BURGER!!! and an uncountable amount of Diet Pepsi oh I seriously have never drank that much soda but I couldn't help myself so good. After that we went to Vasa and Nahzda's home were we have been staying they are an extremely nice and fun Russian couple. They have been in the united states since December so there English is a little rough but we have a great time laying by the pool eating dinner and driving to and from the studio. We have had several lessons with Sasha Since we have been here and everything is improving and finally looking something like we would like it to hopefully by the time we get back to Utah you wont even recognize our dancing ;).... Last night we went back to the yard house did the same amount of damage on soda had another burger and pizza with Sasha and Oksana and sadly watched Miami lose again to Dallas. We were all pulling for Miami but still a great night tonight we are going to out with them again to a movie theater that has waiters in the theater so we will have dinner and a movie... excited now off to the pool and the studio to work on all this material. So there you go Mom now you can read it from my point of view:)

Caffeine!

Boston airport USA!

Blackpool tower

The gang except T:(

Journal entry

Boston is awesome! It is so hot here but I really like it, it kind of reminds me of Utah but also like Spokane. I am just so happy to be around Americans again, I asked the lady at customs where e nearest taco bell was and she winked at me and said not close enough I'm afraid, in an American accent.... I am so happy to be home. We are staying with Nahzda and Vasa in their apartment and we are having so much fun, yesterday we laid out by the pool and talked and our Russian vocabulary is extensive, I now know how to say store, hello, thank you, good bye, come on, yes, no, and a few others that I can't recall, Vasa's birthday is today so last night I cooked spehgetti and made garlic bread, they had never had it so it was great. The day before that we had Russian soup for lunch, it is made of potatoes, beats, some vegetables and meet. You eat it hot with a dip of mayonnaise and black bread, it was good! Then we went to the local Russian market and that was really interesting. They say they dot like peanut butter because it is salty so I had to get a reeses that we are eating tonight with russian beer in celebration of Vasa's birthday, I am positive and determined that they will like it. Everyone at e studio is Russian and late last night after practice I was trying to talk to Trey and he joked that I couldn't speak at all now, Russian or English because trying to communicate with everyone has been exciting and sometimes challenging. I had to explain to nahzda why we call beef hamburger in general after a few confusing inquiries. It is hot as hell here and sunny, my tan is resurrecting again after the few sunless weeks in England. My new shoes have. Finally been broken in and practice last night was better because of it, new stiff shoes make ,e bitchy. But now they are so flexible and my point looks fab :) I just had some lunch and nahzda is home so we are going to the pool before practice, and then we have a lesson so lounge and nap in the pool will be blissful

Journal entry

When I was in gymnastics we were taught to visualize and I remember doing it quite a lot and then it bled into other thing in my life, if I couldn't sleep I would sit up cross legged in bed and start with one subject, like a cartwheel, then picture me doing it on a fence, then through a field, through the snow, while it was raining. The images helped me focus and relax my body and mind. Often times driving with my mom I would do the same thing, it became a way for me to think, just picture movement in my head. I do this still but when I try to visualize myself picturing myself do certain movement sometimes I can't. Like I used to picture myself doing tricks on beam but I would always fall, hurt myself. This was obviously counterproductive but I guess one thing it did help me do was visualize how my body would fall, how to countermove to eliminate pain. Anyway I do this with dance too, when I think of certain steps I can visualize how my body has to move to look the way I want or to control my balance and momentum. And sometimes I still visualize myself messing up, coming out of a spin with too much momentum and my body falling off balance. I was just watching a video of T and I from a few months back and I realize there were a few moments in the video where I I'd lose control like that but since I had thought of it in my head and knew how that would feel and look, I was able to cover it up well enough to convince the audience otherwise... We are riding the us back to London so we can fly to Boston tomorrow, watching the road out of the window reminded me of all those car rides with my mom to gymnastics, picturing myself doing back handsprings along the telephone wires. I have to pee but I won't use the bathroom on the bus...just because. And I really want it to be tomorrow. London is really fun but I want to get to Boston. I want to practice and eat taco bell and see our friends. I miss my momma quite a bit. In the past being homesick is just something you deal with, like a scab, picking at it just makes it worse, best to just deal with it. But being here with TJ makes homesick no big deal, he is my hello kitty band aid with all the comfort I need.

Gettin some sun

Chillin in the sun

At the beach for lunch today before we went back to practice, gorgeous weather!

Journal entry

Yesterday at practice the lightness coming through the windows and shining on the floor so I worked on my opening outs, sliding doors, and picture lines and using the sun ton make sure the "light of day" as Allan would out it, is not shining through my legs. We were able to go see pics at the comp of us dancing, I was happy about a lot of stuff but unhappy as well about others, just by looking at the pictures I can tell that Trey and I aren't coordinated, he will be leaving one step as I am just arriving resulting in unfinished lines and ugly feet.... Pictures really can almost be better then video because often times they will see a great shot and be just late of snapping it, so you get the split second in between which often you miss in video but that moment is important as well. Dancers work alot on their picture lines and the result, the A and the B moments but the steps in between and how you leave and arrive are overlookoed. I realized by the picks that my weight sis paten split when it should be clearly to one side or the other, that probably has a lot to do with my balance issues and feeling insecure using the floor so to help that Trey and i worked coordination through our movements together and connection. Coordination came easier then we thought after our lesson with Shirley and its fun to work on.... I was surprised how fun and sexy practice can be when Trey and I actually watch and look at each other the whole time... Who would have thought? And actually it is something we both noticed throughout the comp as well, it is telling, especially in rumba when the dancers are pulling dramatic faces never once looking at each other, it is very obvious that it is not genuine and therefore hard for me to watch personally. But when I dance with tee and he looks in my eye, every time I move my hips and the effect is him moving his it is very intimate to look at each other, then the expressions on his face are very genuine and I believe that's when people enjoy to watch. A lot of times telling the story is emphasized so much in dancing that the dancers forget that it isn't about making up a story it is literally about demonstrating your own. So taking e time to watch each other and learn from each others was really intriguing and fun for us and moving our bodies andnsweating together in harmony for a few hours :) felt really satisfying. I talked with my good friend vesa while at the comp yesterday and have some really exciting stuff to look forward to in november. So now that blackpool is over we are Shipping out to Boston (name the band) and things will be not so easy. Competing in blackpool even though intimadating was not much of a challenge because we could only do what we had succeeded in doing up tulle that point and watch and learn more, so now we have to go to the states and implement all we have learned here and apply it to our practice.... There are long days ahead. Both of us have lofty goals for this summer and we want to improve..like yesterday and since we are both very impatient with our dancing practices can be explosive if we get frustrated. Trey makes me so happy and I love him and all the roles he plays in my life. Thank you god xox

Watching Michael and Joanna kick serious A

Yummy, off to watch pro Latin

First Night Dancing Rising Star

Handsome after we danced amateur

First Night Dancing Rising Star

At our b&b after dancing amateur