Tony is a great teacher and he will never let me do anything that he thinks will really be too dangerous, but I can’t believe some of the positions he manages to get me to go in and out of.
I just did an interview for People magazine that will be coming out in a few weeks and they were particularly interested in the fact that learning the mambo has really, in some ways, substantially helped my back. So whereas I would normally be in physiotherapy about three times a week and really have a lot of trouble getting up in the morning, I am now really not having any pain at all (touch a lot of wood) and I’ve come to the conclusion that ballroom dancing particularly this Latin kind of movement is actually very good for people who have bad backs.
So if there is anyone out there with a bad back that’s feeling kind of helpless and feels they can’t do anything anymore, take it easy, but I have a feeling that ballroom dancing might also be a really good therapy for you too.
I’m having the time of my life, but I am absolutely exhausted. Today, not only did I feel that I had two left feet, but I managed to find another foot and actually tread on my own left foot. I’ve now got a bloody toenail, huge bruises on my knees, I don’t know where they came from and my ankle is definitely talking to me.
One of the biggest challenges for me with learning the dances is my brain. I, for some reason, I’ll learn it one day and then the next day it’s completely disappeared and I think that’s been a challenge for me because I hate that fact. I hate the fact I can work hard on something and then just can’t remember it the next day. But with a little gentle persuasion, with a little repetition, I do manage to remember it. I think the fact that I am doing this later in life is an extraordinary thing for me to be doing. I can’t believe I’m doing it, but I also can’t believe that I have the opportunity to do something so special. I keep wondering, however, what it would have been like to have done it when I was the age of some of the other contestants. Surely it would have been a lot easier. But hey, you know what, I’m out there, I’m holding my own so far and hopefully I’ll inspire lots of people fifty and older that life begins at fifty and this is a chance now when you can live out your dreams and try something new, think out of the box, or in my case shake that fringe and hope that the costume stays on and hope that I get that mambo snake action right tonight.
I want to thank everybody who voted. It’s one thing when people say, “I’ve been watching you on Dancing With The Stars”, it’s another thing if you actually voted. So if you actually voted and if you voted more than once, thank you, thank you, thank you. That will make all the difference to my score. So, let’s see how we do tonight!
