"Till the Whole World Knows!!" : STRICTLY Put Your Best Foot Forward

When it comes to dancing, I've always said, "do not dip me, do not lift me and you'll never see me on stage dancing".

Well... that was until October when I saw my friend Rebecca doing a Strictly for a fundraiser..... I mean, it looked fun. The music. The energy. But doing a dance on stage, in front of people? Yeah, not there yet.

Strictly Come Dancing is the British form of Dancing with the Stars. Here in Ireland they do mini versions for fundraisers. So instead of getting paired with a professional dancer and it being a whole season of dancing, you're paired with a partner who's as clueless as you are to dancing and you're taught one dance. After 7 weeks of practicing and training you perform it on stage, then you are judged and voted for. (The votes are with money, all going to the charity that the fundraiser's for).

In December Rebecca told me she was going to do another Strictly in February, did I want to do it with her?

Well, duh! Of course I do!

Reality though.... When was it in February? What was the time commitment to practicing? I have to raise money... how much?! How am I going to do that?? (Do I believe in the course enough to ask people to come along and support me?)

After a month of hemming and hawing I finally decided I had nothing to loose by at least going once to a practice.

I missed the first week of training as I was flying back from Spain (the Camino). I went the following week not ready to commit to anything. But sure, what's the harm in trying it.

There were about 30 people there to participate in the dance, with 2 instructors to teach and choreograph us, Ricki and Rachel. We went through steps to the group dance that would be done at the opening of the show, before we did our couple dances. Then they went through steps to all the dances we could be doing. Almost useless information for us as only one couple would be doing any one of those dances, but really it was so the instructors could better know which dances to give us and who to partner us with.

Then they got us in semi circle and told us they were going to teach us some lifts. But they needed 2 volunteers. After an awkward second or 2 the guy next to me went into the middle and said he'd do it. As firmly as I've always said "my feet stay on the ground", secretly I did want to learn how to do a lift. So looking around at the potential men... I decided my best option was the guy already in the middle. So I walked forward to the center saying I wanted to learn too. After we did it a couple of times, a couple more couples came up to try. Then Ricki and Rachel said they had another one for us to learn and needed 2 more volunteers. This time the guy next to me nudged me and was like, we got this! And indeed we did!

Rachel and Ricki then took us back to our group dance, telling us that we were going to be doing some of those lifts in the dance. I was paired with my "lift buddy", Stephen. We were positioned front and center of the group. (Not only have I never done lifts, but never have I ever been in front and center of anything!)

Let's just say, by the time I got home that night I was buzzing.

The following week, I received a text announcing who my partner was and what dance I'd be doing for the couple dance. As there was a shortage of men, I'd thought I would be put in group dance with just women. So, when I got the text saying I was doing Bollywood with Lee, I was shocked! Ironically Lee was the one person I'd said, "anyone but him!" I'd never even heard of Bollywood, so after Youtube-ing it I learned that it's basically the Indian version of Latin dancing. Fantastic! With my track record of being able to Salsa, this was going to be a breeze... not.

So naturally I called my mom, almost in tears. I'd been hoping for a more traditional dance... and why did I have to be partnered with that guy? (And why was I being so mean to the guy?)

Basically, my mother told to suck it up. Do the dance. When else am I going to learn to Bollywood?

So I did just that.

6 weeks later we won 3rd place for our dance!!

Standing on stage after they announced the winners, holding our prizes the couple that won 2nd place, Serena and Bradley (dancing the Tango), along with Lee and I, had a moment. The 4 of us had bonded quite a lot through the training and meeting up during the week to practice our routine. Bradley, 17, a sweet heart of a guy was bubbling when he told me he'd never before one a trophy. I was literally bouncing when I told him neither had I. (No, those "everyone's a winner" medals don't count!)