Dancing in Every Form...

I came across this picture off my old computer! I love it!!! This is me 6 or 7 months pregnant with Tre.  I was choreographing a Contemporary piece for one of my girls, Amy Yamashiro. I had taken a class before that and had a few private lessons that day. I'm surprised I danced as long as I did with both pregnancies! I think it makes time go by easier. It's genetic - my mom danced up to her 6th month with me at the Golden Horseshoe at Disneyland.  What's so amazing is that it was taken by another students camera phone. It turned out so neat! 

So...We Think WE Can Dance!

My mom, Monica and I went to the BYU Adult Ballroom Camp this week and it was amazing! First of all, we danced approximately 6 hours every day. I haven't done that since college! I had done the camp about 9 years ago and right after, I stopped my latin dancing. A sad regret. I'm not sure many people know it, but I competed in International Ballroom for a couple of years. In 1999, my team and I went to Blackpool, England, and won the European Division. Some of the best years of my life. Now that I'm not teaching as much anymore, I've started it back up. My mom and Monica started ballroom over a year ago (you would never know it has only been a year. They are incredible!) Anyway, BYU bring in the best of the best to teach us all week and it was so thrilling! Check out our good time...
Registration. Check out our competition in the back! No joke - we went the youngest, blondest ones there...

       

Showing the old people coming in their competition...

My cousin, Jeremy, got us an amazing deal at a La Quinta and they had a waffle maker for our continental breakfast. It was the very first time my mom EVER made me a waffle. EVER. We had to document it! But I do have to thank my mom for my waist line!

JT Thomas, current American Ballroom Champion, taught us swing. She called us "The Fembots"

Pierre Allaire, 10 time world champ! He was so much fun!

Thomas Mielnicki, partners with JT. Just nice to look at... oh, and an amazing dancer!

Ron Montez. An incredibly well known icon in the ballroom world. I took his advanced rumba class and his teaching makes so much sense!

New Mocha M&M's... we over indulged when we came back from dancing all day! Yum!

Monica doing a Tango with our shared partner, Michael Jackson. His real name...He, He!

Mom dancing with one of the many hot men available...rrrr!

You may recognize this familiar face from "So You Think You Can Dance". Jean-Marc Genereux and his wife France Mousseau choreograph the ballroom pieces for the show. Such a fun teacher! He and France missed 2 weeks of the show to be with us. I performed a Cha-Cha he did for our advanced class!

France Mousseau. Beautiful dancer! She it so quite on "So You Think You Can Dance, " and so feisty when she teaches! It was funny; every time I took her samba class, I was partnerless. I never could seem to find someone to dance with so France would hook me up. Jean-Marc one day pulled me aside and said, "My wife keeps calling you the 'lonely samba dancer!'" Ha!

Our written steps for each class...

Eddie Simon. A true gentleman and a brilliant teacher. He taught my tango piece for the showcase. There were so many people that attempted harder classes like this one and they would ask the dumbest questions, but he always was very respectful to each person and made us look pretty good...even with all the rejects.

Meet Ashlyn. I always have to visit my closest friend Lindsay when I go to Utah. This is her new addition. Isn't she gorgeous?!(If I missed anyone in Utah, I'm sorry! I had to skip 2 classes just to visit her. There wasn't much time to sit and visit!) I also got to visit another friend Katie and her beautiful kids and brand new baby. I didn't take pictures with her because I had a feeling she wouldn't want me to since she just had a baby. Katie, I love you! I'm so glad I got to see your beautiful face!

Lovely Lynz...

Wednesday night we had a great banquet at the Marriott. A few of the BYU students performed for us.

We had very INTERESTING people at our table...

This is my old college roommate, Sharelle. She is deaf and I was very rusty on my sign language, but it eventually came back! She's a riot! And it was so much fun catching up with her...

With Patti and Kenny McEwan. I hadn't seen them in 15 years! They were in my homeward years ago! They haven't changed a bit!

Our final night was a banquet/performance night. We each performed a Tango and a Ch-Cha. Then the pro's performed and put us to shame!

Before performing...

To our surprise, we got an award. They gave out about 5 or 6 "funny" awards to some of the camp members. I guess we just stuck out like a sore thumb because we got the "there goes those 3 blonde girls" award! We got cute, matching, pink BYU shirts.

I found one of my old friends from my team back in '99, Candace. It was so fun to see her! Ballroom's a small world...

The Pro's showing off...

Thank you mom and Monica for an incredible week! I love you! Dance or die......

Yer Gonna Die!!

An old friend of Freddy's scanned these pictures recently of Freddy, Kenny and Blair at a mutual activity when they were 13! Crazy! Here are the before and after pictures...

Pictures by Autumn

My friend Autumn, who happens to also be my cousin's wife, is an AMAZING photographer. At the girls weekend out, she brought her camera and took pictures of all of the gals on our dress up night. It was long and hot out and I'm sure she was exhausted after all of her work, but her pictures turned out beautifully and we were ALL appreciative of her time and talent. We had a lot of fun with them. Check 'em out...

Diva's 2008

Every year the women in my family get together in Palm Desert to unwind and play. We call it Diva's Weekend. We shop, have spiritual lessons, eat crap, dress up and go out...basically all the important stuff. These are a few of the pictures from it. It gets better every year. I've made a different blog just for this if you want to check it out! Viva La Diva