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:)