Hey everyone, welcome back 💫
For week 8 on Dancing with the Stars myself and Michael danced the Charleston to the amazing song ‘Hot Honey Rag’ from the movie Chicago with the RTE Concert Orchestra playing live behind us – WHAT A FEELING!!!
This week was my favourite week by far! Not only because we got such amazing scores (more on that later) but it was just everything about this week for me. The music, the atmosphere, the clothes, the makeup, the dance and even the swivels!!!
Now before we get into all the amazingness of Sunday, lets take you to the very start of the week. I speak in my recent post on Week 7 about how myself and Michael were in the dance off, you can read that post here. We must have done our lift approx 8 times over the course of the weekend and it really took its toll on my body. After the live show on Sunday I went home and I was in very bad pain. I had told Dylan about the lifts and the pain I was experiencing and we said lets go to bed get a good nights sleep and hopefully I would feel better on the Monday. When we went to bed I didn’t really sleep that Sunday night with the pain, I couldn’t move or breath properly so at 5am Dylan said lets go to A&E as I wanted to make sure there was nothing seriously wrong with a week of rehearsals ahead for the Charleston as that’s such an energetic dance with tricks and fast movements. So when Blackrock Clinic opened we went straight there. I couldn’t roll onto my right side at all and whenever I would breathe in deeply I would get this really sharp pain. I had an x-ray & the doctors examined me and thankfully nothing was broken or fractured but the ribs were very badly bruised.
For most of last week we walked our steps. We didn’t actually do a proper run of the dance until Friday! 2 days before the live show!! I was honestly in so much pain. The team in DWTS very kindly arranged an appointment for me to see a physiotherapist on Thursday and she basically advised that I shouldn’t dance but that really wasn’t an option. The competition is really firing up now and having been in the dance off the week previous there was no way I was missing out on Orchestra week.
Thankfully the lovely Salome gave us some of her time and she came to rehearsals to demonstrate the dance for me so I could better understand it in my mind and she also spent her time ensuring my ribs were all strapped up and it really did help me. There was a point during the week that I really didn’t know if I was going to dance but I am so glad that I pushed through it and went out there on Sunday because it was amazing.
Over the last few weeks I really did feel like I was letting go but this week I truly believe that I can honestly say I LET GO! I didn’t care if I looked cringy or silly because I had an absolutely amazing time. This dance was so fun. Of course, we were a little disappointed that due to my injury we couldn’t do any cool lifts or tricks but we still got 2 lifts in there which was better than none! But I really lost myself in this dance. I have mentioned before that I love this era and everything just came together so well. The amazing RTE Concert Orchestra really amplified everything and the energy was something I had never felt before. I will honestly never forget that feeling.
On top of that, we got amazing scores from the judges, it made me so happy! I’m also so delighted that they could see that I really did let go. That was hard for me, I am not a show person. I’ve never acted or performed in a sense. Anytime I have gone on stage I was always myself but what I am learning each week is that when we go on stage, we are performers, telling a story through our dance and once that clicked with me I could actually let go and I am really grateful to Michael and the judges and everyone on the show that pushed me to do that.
And we’re through to Week 9 – the quarter finals!! I can’t believe how quick time is going and I am so grateful to be still in the show. I am loving it. As I mentioned last week guys, you’re not guaranteed to be safe. So, if you want to keep me and Michael in the competition please vote!! The final is close guys and we would really love to be in it ❤️
You can watch our Charleston here:
Thank you guys as always for your incredible support, chat soon xxx
