I was completely with the reality TV boom for a while. I really liked a lot of the reality TV, and the one that lost me was the ballroom dancing one they do, 'Dancing with the Stars.' That was the one where I watched it and I was perplexed. I thought it was really boring.
The juke joint, the honky tonk, and the ballroom also represent one more thing, anthropologically speaking: a ceremonial context for the male-with-female-duet dance flirtation and embrace, upon which the zoological survival of the human species has always been predicated.
I went to four different proms in high school. I was addicted to the whole ballroom thing.
My parents used to go ballroom dancing in their latter years, and it gave them so much pleasure.
Ballroom is two people dancing together to music, touching in perfect harmony.
I'm a bit of a traditionalist; the ballroom is all about tails and I never mess about with that. But for the Latin you can have a bit fun: tight trousers, gold shirt open to my waist, be a bit ridiculous.
I started competing internationally when I was still in school. Every summer I would travel abroad to England because England was the place to be for ballroom dancing.
I did ballet at the Menlo Park Academy of Dance from age 4 to 11, but then I switched to ballroom, and I've been doing that ever since.
Sometimes people can get lost within the crowd, but we have to remember that ballroom dancing is an intimate sport where people look into your story and not the other way around. It's so important to just stay focused as a couple and that you don't let your adrenaline get the best of you by dancing too fast to the music or whatever.
Being on 'Dancing with the Stars' is an amazing opportunity. I consider myself lucky to be a part of the show and to be able to share my passion and love of dance with such a huge audience while managing to train a few celebrities in ballroom dance along the way.
