Tango Time!

Hi everyone!

Hope everyone had a great weekend! I’m sorry I didn’t give you a full update last week – things have just been really crazy and insane! So I’ll try to make up for it now.

Going back to Tuesday, elimination night was so nerve-wracking! I was nervous going into it because you don’t really know what’s going to happen. Up until that point, you dance and hope you do well, but Tuesday was definitely like, “Wow, there’s a one in six possibilities of going home.” You don’t have any idea of what America’s thinking, who they’re voting for, so it was a huge relief when we were declared safe. It was funny because we’re standing there and I think Mark was just as nervous as me! He was shaking and fidgeting. You just want to get off the stage and be safe. It’s really kind of torture standing up there for so long!

I was really sad to see Penn Jillette and Monica Seles go. It was nice to have two weeks with everyone and you’re kind of like, “Why can’t we have six weeks together?” Everyone’s getting to know each other and in those two weeks you see them, so it’s just sad to see someone put so much into it and try and then have to leave the competition. We’ve all gotten close over the last few weeks. We kind of keep it fun and light. Everyone wants to do well for themselves, but it’s not a huge competition or anything. I think everyone supports each other.

Tonight I’m dancing the tango. Rehearsals have been going well. It’s a new dance, a new technique, a new attitude and character within the dance and I’m trying to bring that out. It’s a tough dance. Literally, it’s a lot of footwork and you’re trying to keep up with the music, which is really fast and intense. It’s totally different from the mambo. That was happy and fun. This is just very furious, passionate and angry almost. They brought in a performance coach to work with me to try to bring out the anger and more emotion from me. She gave some techniques that you’ll probably see in the package tonight. It was helpful and hopefully it’ll translate into the dance.

Learning a new dance every week in less than seven days is definitely hard. Since there’s such a short time, your confidence teeters over the week. I was like, “Oh my goodness, how am I going to do this?” Now I feel a little better. We’ll do a few more run-throughs and get it more polished for tonight!

I have another great costume for tonight! I don’t want to reveal too much, but it’s beautiful, long and black. Mark and I are both in red and black. So it’s pretty dramatic. Mark usually designs the costumes for us. He’s been incredible with his eye for what he wants and he’ll make suggestions and I’ll say whether I like it or not and maybe a suggestion here and there. But he’s really good. Then we take it to the design team and wardrobe team and they tweak it from there. They do a great job. I haven’t had an issue at all!

As you know, my kids flew into L.A. last week, so it’s great to be with them again. This is a fun show to be on, but it’s hard to spend so much time away from the family. It’s great to have them here. I think they’re used to having me around a lot more so every day, they’re like, “Oh, we miss you, mommy!” But it’s been great. My mom’s been here and she’s been great with the kids.

They’re going to stay through to Wednesday, then they’re going to the San Francisco area where my parents and brother and sister live to spend a little time there. It’s their cousin’s first birthday so we’re trying to get some cousin time in. Then they’ll come back — hopefully!

I don’t know if they’ll ever come to a taping in the audience because they’re too young, but they did watch last week’s show in a trailer. Their attention span isn’t that long so they’ll mostly watch mommy and that’s it! I think they’ll stay at home and watch it tonight. They had a lot of fun though. They love it here and being able to watch me dance. Keara has been watching both dances over and over on YouTube, and if I play the music to my mambo, she does most of the choreography already! It’s so funny! She actually dances it almost completely along with me. Mark’s like “Hey, get her in ballroom. She’s going to be really good!” So maybe I have a future pro on my hands!

Anyway, back to run-throughs! Thank you again for all your support!

See you soon!

Kristi