Dancing With the Stars has become a huge success amongst dance-loving homes across the United States, and the show platform has launched across the world. Dancing With the Stars, or some version of the show thereof, airs in countries ranging from the United Kingdom, where the show platform originated as Strictly Come Dancing, all the way to New Zealand, Hong Kong, and even Chile (where Simeon and I were invited to perform in their Santiago studio back in 2006).

Simeon and I watched the earlier seasons, and from time to time we’ll catch episodes of Strictly Come Dancing during our months of training in London. But since we started teaching, every day from 3pm to 10pm, we found it too difficult to keep up on all of the episodes. Besides, we soon found the commentary about the dancers a little too flippant for us. I mean, we dance as our careers. We know what ballroom dancing is supposed to look like. We know what things matter, and which ones don’t. After all, out of all the things a “star” could do wrong, is the “develope of the leg” really that important? And in the 21 years of my dancing, I have NEVER heard of Jive described as a “well-peeled onion”.

Our students have caught on to this, as well. The judges are too happy, too indulgent, and too frivolous. This was the biggest reason why we stopped watching. It’s also the biggest reason why most of our students stopped watching. The routines may be fun, the music interesting, the behind-the-scenes footage endearingly familiar, but the judges’ comments are simply too much to digest. So it was suggested to us to provide our own professional critique.

We thought this was a great idea. Simeon and I have the background to be able to tell at a glance what the stars are missing. We can tell their weaknesses and their strengths in a millisecond; and we can tell when the judges hit the mark, and when they’re a mile off. Therefore, starting with tonight’s premier episode, we will be watching the episodes and giving commentary on the stars’ dances, the pros’ choreography, and the judges’ comments and critique. We thought this would give the show some of the depth it is definitely missing.

So stay tuned! We will be adding our first Dancing With the Stars professional critique tomorrow.

Stonehenge and Salisbury

This is the sixth year we’ve come to the UK Championships here in Bournemouth, and despite Stonehenge being only 30 miles away – a quick day-trip, really – we’d never visited it! Mostly because we never have time to. But this year, with our recent focus on Standard and the decision to not dance Latin at this year’s comp, it meant we had an extra day off. We decided to make some good use of today, and surprisingly, it was Simeon who suggested going to see Stonehenge. For some reason, I had thought Stonehenge was further away, but as it turns out, it’s a mere 1 hour drive from Bournemouth, so we decided to hop in the car. Even more surprising, we had to drive through Salisbury to get there! I guess my mental map of the whole area was a bit screwed up. I always thought Salisbury and Bath were right next to each other, and Stonehenge was somewhere out in the boonies. Actually, Salisbury and Stonehenge are next to each other and Bath is a long ways off!

We didn’t run around Salisbury too much. We’ve been to Salisbury before, which was another thing that made it strange that we had never seen Stonehenge. But I’ll be honest. When I came to see Salisbury, it was during the time that I was writing my books about late Yorkist Era England.

The antagonist of my two novels, the love of my former life, the man who was at the root of my Medieval persona’s smashed dreams, was beheaded in Salisbury in October of 1483 for treason against Richard III. When I had come here the first time, it was to see the cathedral where Richard had prayed on the eve of the Duke of Buckingham’s execution. It was to find the sight of Buckingham’s burial, the sight of his beheading. And, can I say, it was eerie. Salisbury still is eerie to me. As we were driving in this morning, I could feel Buckingham’s presence as strongly as Simeon’s. I still have yet to visit Brecon, the seat of Buckingham’s domain and the location of his home castle, and I predict that when I do visit, I will be oppressed by him. But here in Salisbury, where he died, he is still present.

Regardless of Buckingham’s ghost, Salisbury is a beautiful city. You can see the spire of Salisbury Cathedral from across the plain as you drive in. We were blessed with a cloudless blue sky this morning, and that massive spire of the cathedral is omnipresent as you drive through. The city still has the feel of a medieval town. The streets are small and windy, the houses packed closely together, the city surrounded by massive expanses of farmland. Of all the places I’ve visited in England, I’d have to say that if I were to move to England, I should have to live in Salisbury. It’s only 80 miles from London, it’s gorgeous, and I somehow feel peaceful here, despite Buckingham… or maybe because of him?

But this morning we drove straight through and on to Stonehenge, which is just outside a small town called Amesbury. Our first view of Stonehenge was as we came around a bend.

It was incredible. I wanted Simeon to stop and take a picture from that view, but unfortunately there was nowhere we could pull over. Instead, we had to loop around and pull into the Stonehenge carpark. Stonehenge was far larger than Simeon imagined. For me, I didn’t know what to expect, but it was strange seeing all the normal sights of English countryside, only to come around the bend and see this huge monolithic sight basking in the winter sun on the Salisbury Plain.

Stonehenge was beautiful, but I wasn’t particularly affected by it. I know some people are, and it’s strange that I, with my penchant for history and my respect for the ancients, didn’t find the site incredible in its own right. My

a closer view of Stonehenge

explanation is that none of my past lives were much affected Stonehenge. In case you haven’t noticed, I believe in past lives, mainly because I’ve had personal experience with the proof. Past lives are my explanation for why some people feel drawn to a particular place in the world, a particular type of person or behavior, a particular period in history.

Coming back to Salisbury, we parked and sought out the Salisbury Starbucks, where we enjoyed a coffee and shared a cookie. Then we sauntered along the River Avon and an old water mill until finding the pub “The King’s Head” and ducking inside for a real British classic: A Curry and a Pint.

me still discovering my iTouch whilst digesting

We couldn’t stay outside for too long. Despite the nice weather, it’s freezing cold in South England right now and my toes, which were a little damp from the mud around Stonehenge, couldn’t handle it. But it’s nice to be back in Salisbury. It reminds me of the good times with Buckingham, even though he only died here. It reminds me of Buckingham in general. The city even makes me miss him, if you can believe it.

For more pictures, visit our complete photo gallery on our website at http://www.emotionsdancesport.com/uk-championships-2011.htm

Report from Bournemouth

Well, day one is over and done with. It’s time for a nap, but first, I guess I’ll give everyone an update of our comings and goings in rainy old UK.

So to start with, it’s not very cold here. Simeon’s grandmother was extremely worried about him not taking a heavy coat, so if anyone sees her, can you please let her know that it’s pretty warm for January and, besides, he has his big heavy coat with him? Anyway, on to the important things: On Saturday we had lessons with Stephen Hillier in the morning and swapped over to Latin for our lessons with Goran Nordin in the afternoon. Having spend the last few months focusing on Standard – due to our invitations to represent Bulgaria at the Professional Standard World Championships and the Professional Classical Showdance World Championships, as well as the fact that the International Championships in October only allows us to do one style, which for us means Standard – it felt really good to get back in the studio and get some information for our Latin. All four of our lessons, the Standard lessons with Stephen and the Latin lessons with Goran, were great! And we felt that we were dancing really well during our lessons. Stephen gave me some great pointers that I was able to apply the very next day at the Universal Championships. We managed to make the Quarter-Finals of the Universal, although I think we could’ve made the Semi. There were definitely some couples in the Semi that we have beaten before and I definitely think we are better dancers (not trying to brag, just an honest and objective opinion based on where I know our dancing is). But it’s ok, we’re not upset. Our Quarter-Final was not our best round, so I’m not too worried about not making the Semi. I think if we had danced better, and possibly if we had been in the other heat, we would’ve made it. It’s ok. It’ll come.

On Monday morning, exhausted as we were from competing on Sunday, we had to wake up bright and early for a 9am lesson with Andrew Sinkinson before heading down to Bournemouth. I love our lessons with Andrew. He is seriously so much fun. We made it down in plenty of time to check in, drop off a package for Richard Gleave, and feast at Pizza Hut’s all-you-can-eat buffet before heading over to the Bournemouth International Centre for the lectures. The lectures every year are free and are a great opportunity to hear different judges’ opinions on various topics. This year we had a special treat – our coach Gary MacDonald was doing one of the lectures! It was so much fun watching his lecture. He’s just himself, and it reminded me how much I have really missed him. I mean, apart from seeing him at various competitions, we haven’t had lessons with him since last June, and we need to get over to New York and get some more lessons with him. I really miss G-Mac!!!

I wanted to stay for the tribute to Oliver Wessel-Therhorn, who many of may not know was a very famous dancer and an important figure in the dance community who died from cancer last October. Unfortunately, we could not stay as our first event was scheduled to go on (today) at 10 am, and I still needed to get back to the hotel and tan and iron my dress. If any of you have seen my ballgowns, you can imagine how much work it takes to iron my gowns, but let’s just say it takes about 45 minutes if I don’t have any problems with filthy irons or ironing boards. Last night it took longer because the hotel’s fire alarm went off mid-task and we had to be collected into the downstairs parlor while the security checked every single room. But we finished at last and got to bed at a good enough time to have an acceptable number of hours of sleep.

This morning I had to wake up at 6 am sharp! But luckily I finished with everything pretty fast. It took me about 30 minutes to do my hair and another 30 minutes to do my makeup, so in the end I had a lot of time to just sit back and relax before getting the stuff together and heading to the comp. OK, and the breakdown on the comp: it felt great!!! The dancing felt wonderful, we got along the entire day, and we made the top 48! On top of all of that, we managed to speak a bit to Jennifer Hillier (Stephen Hillier’s wife), and she told me it looked really good. What more can one ask for? It felt good, supposedly it looked good, and the result was good. Needless to say, we were happy!