I am also the champion! Like mother like daughter. :)

So here's the story in case you missed it. On Thursday May 6, my friend Charles Duncan called me up and said he was going to be in a dance competition that Saturday, and that his partner (Carol) hurt her knee. He asked if I would compete with him in her place. I had planned to do a duathlon the same morning, but decided to give it a go anyway. I knew it would be tiring to do both activities, but hey, I'm a Nuttall. We're crazy like that.

Anyway...all the arrangements were made with the competition organizers and I was registered to compete with him. So Saturday morning I did my duathlon, and beat my goal time by 5 minutes. Whoohoo! Then I rushed straight home, showered, grabbed my already packed dance bag, and headed out the door. I stopped to grab a Subway sandwich on the way which I never ended up eating. :( Anyway, I got to the competition 30 min before we were supposed to go on the floor. We ran through a couple of steps at that time, but had not had any chance to practice at all. Charles never competes with a routine (and I would not have had time to learn it anyway), so we competed by him leading whatever moves he decided to do at the moment, and me following.

We competed in 8 events: waltz, tango, foxtrot, multi-dance smooth (same 3 dances again), rumba, cha cha, swing, multi-dance rhythm (same 3 dances again). We ended up taking first place in our first 4 events - the smooth dances. We were so excited and could hardly believe it. Then we did our next 4 dances and got first in all of those too!! YAY!

Several people came up to Charles and asked him where he got this new fabulous partner, including 3 of the judges that know him from his studio. They all said I was a beautiful dancer. After it was over and they had met me they said, "It's nice to finally meet you." It made me feel great that they were anxious to meet me. People kept coming up to us and telling us how good we were, and saying things like, "I heard you just filled in for someone today, and that you did a duathlon this morning. You are amazing!" Everyone was gossiping about me. Hahaha! I felt like a celebrity, or like Cinderella when she walks in to the ball and everyone starts whispering about her. One time I came out of the restroom and two ladies said, "We were just talking about you. We think you are an amazing dancer and we can't believe you just showed up at the last minute with no practice and danced so beautifully." One of the couples that is at the champion level (right below professional), came up to Charles while I was away and told him how great we were, that his frame was really good, that I had amazing poise and form, and that they wanted him to be sure to tell me. What a compliment!! Then when I ran into the same lady, she said the same things again, and told me I was a beautiful dancer. I was on cloud nine.

Here are some pictures documenting our fun day. I have tried several times to load the videos of us dancing, but they are too long I think. If you have facebook, or can get access through someone else, my videos are posted there.

Waiting to start our first dance.

Waiting to go on the floor

Charles and Carol (the person I was filling in for) checking what dance we were supposed to do next. Me sitting with really great posture. Do I always sit like this? Haha!

Charles leading me out on the floor.

Ready for another dance.

We were having such a great time! Yay for dancing!!

Waiting to receive awards for the smooth dances (waltz, tango, foxtrot). The lady in the sparkly, colorful dress was AMAZING. She is the one that told me I had great poise and posture, and that my dancing was beautiful. The lady behind me with the pink ribbon around her waist is one of the ladies who said she and her friend were talking about me.

We took 1st place in all 4 events in the smooth dances! Here is our plunder - 4 blue ribbons each! We could hardly contain ourselves. I know it looks like there's only 3, but it's hard to fan out so many ribbons. Trust me, there are 4.

Carol came and cheered for us the first half, but had to leave. Carlene (red hair) was our videographer and photographer. It was nice to have a cheering section. What great friends!

Going out on the floor for the rhythm dances (rumba, cha cha, swing).

Waiting for awards for the rhythm dances. The lady on the far right is the other lady who was talking about me when I came out of the restroom.

Picking up a 1st place ribbon!

Receiving our 1st place ribbon for another one of the rhythm dances. Couple 113 (lady in pink in the picture) was a little upset that we took first above them in every dance for both the smooth and rhythm styles. Especially given the circumstances (no practice, no routine, fatigue from doing a duathlon, etc.).

The plunder! I can't believe we got first place in all 8 events that we competed in!! We were thrilled! I know my eyes are half closed, but just ignore that and look at how skinny I look in this picture. This shirt does wonders for me. :)

We didn't have a lot of time so we celebrated with Carlene afterwards by going to Wendy's down the street. The dessert of champions.