I know it will sound shocking to all of you but in many ways I'm a shy person. I can get on TV and deliver the news every night. I can give public speeches and host a party like no other. I'm definitely a people person. However, when it comes to certain things, I can not deal with being the center of attention. Not at all.

     So, when the WV Symphony called and asked me to compete in "Dancing with the Stars" my first reaction was "NO WAY!". I immediately had a horrible flash into the future. A glimpse of myself in a room filled with people, tripping on my heels and falling on the floor.

Dancing with the Stars: Charleston Style 

   But then I took a day to think about it and said "why not." I've been trying to do things over the last year that I would NEVER normally do and this was one of them. Ziplining is another adventure that I'm contemplating as well. 

   So, I spent the last 3 months practicing the Argentine Tango with my professional instructors. Manuk and Leda Colakyan. They are AMAZING dancers. Even though they make it look easy, I quickly realized how hard this was going to be. The tango isn't like a lot of other dances where partners do the same steps. We each do something completely different and let me tell you, it's complicated.

   Finally, after all that practicing we came up with a fun theme. "The Pink Panther." My thought process was that if we went out there and I was painfully bad at least people would laugh at our theme and THEN laugh at us (:  

  Friday, April 23rd, was D Day. Dancing Day. I was a total nervous wreck. Truly, I can't describe it. I was sick to my stomach all day. Heart was racing out of control and I was shaking like a leaf. When we entered the ballroom people were screaming and clapping for us and that only made it worse. My arms were shaking so bad and my heart was pounding so fast.

   I wish I could say that in the end, all went well. But it didn't.  No-one in the audience knew the difference but I was SO scared that I got off track and forgot our choreography. We forgot to do a few of our big "Wow" moves. With that said, the judges still gave us 3 perfect 10's and we ended up with 2nd place trophies.

  I felt bad because we had worked so long on these complicated moves and I forgot to do them in the actual competition. Yikes! When it comes to my job, I can easily perform under pressure. When it comes to dancing, not so much!

  Competition aside, we raised a lot of money for a very good cause (the Symphony) and everyone had a good time. I have to hang up my dancing shoes for a while and trade them in for tennis shoes because I'm training for the Charleston Distance Run. That, my friends, is a whole other story (: