As seen on Strictly.

Sticking with the theme of costumes, again courtesy of DSI ( my new favourite website ) I found Strictly gowns for sale!!

Heres just a few of the ones avaliable, a few pesonal favourites, and some genrally gorgeous dresses.

Ok.... I can honestly say I would give my right arm to own this one! ( ok maybe thats a little extreme but still!! )

This Latin piece was worn by Lilia Kopylova ( hence the whole right arm thing!) In I believe the "Ever fallen in love" Jive in series 7.

Sticking with the Lilia theme slightly, this dress was designed originally for her, however poor Richcard Dunwoody didnt quite make it far enough for her to wear it. So, with a few extra layers of fabric, creating more length and volume in the skirt, this dress was finally worn by Ali Bastian in her American Smooth. Im not really feeling the colour of this one, however the design sells it for me. I like how there are slight alterations in colour within the 'V' shapes forming the upper body of the dress. Breaks it up a little.

( I must also add, this dress looks suspiciuosly like the one worn by Laila Rouass in her Anerican smooth ... much prefer the colour of that one actually!)

 

Ok, so this has to be one of my personal favourites from the previous series of Strictly. Worn by Ola Jordan. Its massively simple in the actual design,with the asymetric shoulder and A - line skirt, which I think is what I love about it. The slight dropped waist allows for increased detailing on the bodice and as the skirt in itself is so simplistic, the pattern is able to be a little more irratic, without the risk of overpowering the dress overall.

The soft colours ( although I usually hate lilac) really work for this, in a stronger tone I feel the overall idea trying to be created by this dress would be lost.

I feel I have to mention this particular dress simply because of the 'up roar' shall we say, that it caused. Yes... Ola's rumba outfit. I actually really like this piece, it certainly a very clever piece of design, very typically rumba. Personally I prefer it in black and white when she and Chris made their debut, but still I have to admire her courage in wearing that!

DSI

Ok so things have been a little slow on the blogging front. However, I have just stumbled upon the 2009/2010 online catalogue for DSI. All I can say is WOW! ... Some of the photos are simply stunning, so much so I feel complied to share them with you all ....

I love how gorgeously dramatic and artistic these photos are, the way the dancers have been captured, the fact that they are not obvious dancing poses.

The outfits are given just enough emphasis to higlight the reason behind the images, yet the pictures to me appear so totally un catalougesque in style.

Beautiful.

Total Dance Disaster

Ok, so medal day is approaching ever more rapidly, and if that wasnt stressful enough I have gone and broken one of my latin shoes!

Disaster much! 2 weeks to go and at £90 a pair new ones are out of the question! So what to do!!?

Hoping and praying that shoe menders will fix them. The buckle pin has literally fallen out! Reparable apparently, but still a little traumatic!

And so ends my most pointless post of this whole blog! But hey, a little bit of random never hurt anyone!

Sweet simplicity.

Have been thinking about old times today. After spending the morning helping teach 5 year olds how to do the chachacha it got me thinking about how I used to do the very same dances, struggle with the same steps, and the sheer joy that came with learning the new dance.

Moving through the ranks, routines have gone from -tap-tap-cha-cha-cha- the basic time step and open out sequence, to featuring arm breakers, spirals and explosion lines. Gone are the days where you could do three steps and pass your medal. Its tough stuff sometimes.

So many things change as you progress, shoes have gone from small square junior 1 inch heels, to 3.5 inch balance challengers!

No more are the ankle socks, and little frilly skirts, hello ladders in tights, hairspray and sparkly dresses ( although no where near the style of a competition gown)

As the dance exams loom once more, the stress levels rise, as one frantic teacher and  pupils finalise sequences in all diciplines. This time round its 12 routines of my own, 3 1st time rosette dancers, and 3 2nd time rosette dancers, plus the toddler show number to compute. Making this years grand total of 19.

Looking back, I do miss the simplicity, but honestly, what Im doing now, and what Im working toward, creates such a sense of achievement. The feeling of being able to teach others, the fact I now have 15 years dance experience, and a whole lot of memories to go with it makes me think that moving on up isnt so bad after all.

The challenges and complexity of what we're being taught now, is amazing. Getting through a routine is often hard enough, so perfoming it and passing it is well ... an achievement! Honestly, I wouldnt change it for the world.