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!