Riot and Frolic

a mostly ballroom dance, but also a bunch of other stuff, blog

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I own and rock people’s faces off teaching ballroom dancing at Dancers Studio in St. Paul, MN. My husband and I compete professionally in American style and wrangle eight children in our spare time. I’ve been teaching and competing in ballroom dancing for over 25 years and have lots of opinions on it. I am an expert by any means, but there are quite a few dancers who are better than me and I have a solid knowledge of basic technique, so suck it.

Weekend at WSDC 2012

Let's take a peek at my weekend attending the Wisconsin State Dancesport Championships.  It's not DWTS, but it is a lot of hairspray and rhinestones.  And coffee.  Lots of coffee.  

Yet no photos of me in costume.  I always forget.  And feel stupid asking people to take them.  Sorry!

Sexiest picture ever on this blog:

 

sweating tanner

pre-drive run= sweating off tanner

 

Awesome hotel room provided by friend, America.  2 story windows, free full breakfast, free WI-FI, full kitchen:

Marriott Residence Inn Riverwalk MKE

ridiculous hotel room, ridiculous baby
downtown Milwaukee
MKE's Residence Inn art and architecture

 

Slowest long run EVER! on Friday.  Milwaukee is very perty.  Had to stop to take pictures:
view from Veterans Park
ginormous windcatcher in Veterans Park

 

Riverwalk Milwaukee

the Riverwalk, about 3.5 miles from our hotel

 

Mini-vaca with only one child= lots of naps:
relaxing after a run
relaxing on our day off

 

WSDC packs everyone in to this beautiful ballroom:
WSDC 2012
the fab Pfister Hotel ballroom

 

These aren't mine:
ballroom dresses
frocks

 

This will blind you at any time of day:
rhinestone accessories
more rhinestones than you can shake a stick at

 

Getting ready takes about 2 hours.  I don't have pics of the final product, but here's some of the process:
ballroom hair prep
preppin'

 

ballroom hair

more preppin'

 

Morning after the competition.  Hit up a local landmark for some food:
Milwaukee Public Market
breakfast at the MKE Public Market

 

coffee

duh

 

Dancing went great.  

On Thursday, we got 5th place in the Rising Star (the lesser of the 2 Pro divisions) Smooth out of 24 couples.  Weeee!  We just missed the final for Rising Star Rhythm, but expected as much.  

Saturday, we made the semi-final (beating 12 couples) in Open (the more competitive Pro division) Rhythm, which was awesome.  Then, we didn't even make the semi for Open Smooth.  "Flabbergasted" I think is my word for that one.  It felt great, though.  [I'm choosing to believe that was a fluke and not our result in Rising Star.  There are good reasons for me to believe that, besides leaving my ego intact.]

Have a great week, people!

 

Andre Gavrilene

Love you!

 

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