Andy & Arianne's blog

July 17, 2008 by Andy

Things are getting better. Slightly.

Arianne and I had a quick sashimi lunch after our 3hr lesson (healthy eating only for us semi pro dancers). We both felt a little better about the progress made. Don't get me wrong, we still have a mamouth task ahead of us. However, things are now taking shape and we are now placing our moves to the music. Well I say that, my right shoulder still has a mind of its own.

Since the launch of this website I have been on the receiving end of non stop p**s taking from friends and work colleagues. To be fair, I do look a bit suspect in those heels. I found out what my outfit will be for the big final. Quality! Let's just say that I am considering retiring from media following the final.

Things are warming up now and the competition is taking shape. I had lunch the other day with an old media friend and found out that a few of the other couples are putting in extra lessons in their own time.

I have just booked the Carat boardroom every Wednesday night for the next 8 weeks.

I hear that a book has been opened and that Sonya at MediaCom is hot favorite. Apparently her twinkly Irish feet will see her through on the night?

I you get asked, put your money on Amor and Cath. They have all the moves, trust me. I have seen them in action.

July 11, 2008 by Andy

Have now completed my 2nd 3hr lesson. My head is spinning with so many different dance moves and techniques I feel quite fearful.

If any of you thought (like me) that this 'come dancing' lark is all a bit of a giggle with a simple dance to learn that will wow the crowd with ease on the night – you are very seriously mistaken. Before I start, how do women wear heels? As mentioned in my previously blog my dance shoes have a Cuban heel of about one and a half inch in height. I've obviously never worn shoes with heels before so A) I feel very uncomfortable about wearing them – even within a professionally dance studio environment and B) I will definitely fall over because of them at some point in the next 8 weeks.

Left foot, tap, right foot, hold, arms, tap, extend, turn, posture, smile, spin, hold, hands, don't look down etc, etc......... Oh dear. My memory is not great at the best of times; this dancing lark will exceed my memory limits! Not sure quite what the solution is to this problem? I thought I could work a bit a 'Taylor freestyle magic' into our routine. Nope. I cunningly suggested to Ralph (Ralph and Kele are responsible for choreographing our dance) that we should work a decent 'full length dance floor knee slide' into the routine. He looked at me with repugnance. I took that as a staunch 'no'. I though I would try Kele with my next request as I thought she would be a tadge more open to new suggestions. I wanted to try and incorporate a few of my legendary shoulder moves into the routine – here response scared me.

After 3 hours of a one-on-one lesson we managed to learn what I thought was pretty much the whole dance. Smashing, I've cracked it. It turned out that we had only managed to cover the first 20 seconds of our routine. Oh dear. How are we going to learn the rest of the dance in such a short space of time? Oh dear.

I must say that Arianne my dance partner is very driven, focussed, committed, competitive and forgiving (thankfully). I only stood on her toes about four or five times, which I was really pleased about. Got away with murder I thought.

Finally, I must confess, Nearing the end of our tiring 3-hr lesson I know that during one of our trickier dance moves that I accidentally got a plentiful feel of Arianne's left breast. We were tired and getting clumsy. Arianne never flinched, never mentioned it and remained 100% professional. For the record Arianne, I apologise. Not deliberate I swear.

I think I'm going to enjoy this dancing lark!!!!!!

Until next time.

July 08, 2008 by Arianne

The sequins! The shoes! The hair and make-up professionals! Yep, Strictly is definitely for me. Pity I didn't think about actually having to learn a dance and then perform it in front of 250 people.

It did not bode well when I missed my flight home from a rather pleasant mini break, ensuring I completely missed the first lesson. In my absence Andy showed a flair for the Samba, a very fast, Brazilian dance, and so that is the dance we were given. Oh. My. God. Fast forward to our second lesson, and all my fears have been realised. I cannot dance.

A remarkably patient Andy has so far suffered wrong moves, bruised toes and a hell of a lot of swearing. Poor bloke!

After the first 3 hour lesson, which included me being reprimanded for saying 'can't' too much, not listening properly, and not letting Andy lead me (anyone who knows me will realise how difficult this is for me!), my feet were killing me and I was exhausted.

After the second 3 hour lesson, including more of the above, we were informed we had now learnt 2/3 of a 2 minute routine. WHAT????? Just 1 minute 20 seconds under the belt. And that's 1min 20 seconds of completely ungraceful moves by the way, with little to no technique, performed out of time, and with the music playing about half speed. So, more work needed then!

Having said that I certainly feel a little more comfortable with our promenade walks (read: seriously complicated running whilst swinging each other round) although I don't think my hips will ever master the moves they are being asked to do. Am considering dislocating them – may make it easier.

Luckily Andy is a great partner and the whole experience is proving to be a great laugh. The dance teachers are amazing and they are extremely confident we will get there in the end which is very reassuring. All I need to do now is to persuade my bemused boyfriend (“what do you mean this is work??”) to practice with me in the living room at every opportunity and fingers crossed I may just get there!

July 02, 2008 by Andy

OK, let's get one thing very clear before I start. I cannot recall ever dancing before 10pm in my entire life. Here I am at 10am on a Monday morning trying to execute the perfect waltz in front of two professional dance teachers and a room full of other highly skilled media ambassadors who I barely knew. I trust you know how I felt?

I was dealt a blow at 8am that very same morning when my dance partner (Arianne Salter) texted me from Milan airport saying that she had missed her flight home and would not be attending the training session. There were times throughout the session when I had to dance on my own whilst the rest of the group danced with their partner. I trust you know how I felt?

Arianne mentioned in her text that she really would prefer a Latin dance as opposed to the Ballroom option (you were assessed by the teachers throughout the morning and allocated one or the other at the end of the session). Obviously not wanting to let my partner down, I managed to completely screw up the ballroom test dance (on purpose!!!) but let my well trained 'snake hips' come to life in Latin test dance. So, Latin dance it is then. Well, the Samba to be precise.

For the last hour of the session the 'Strictly Come Dancing' dancers entered the room for some specific 'Latino' training. Lilia was my instructor (I think she and her celeb dance partner got voted off first – not that encouraging?). However, I think she took a liking to my never say die approach and the compulsive need to throw a bit of shoulder action in every now and again!

Lilia described my dancing to be like a 'Maypole dancing soldier playing in goal on a dance floor' – which translates in to a gay looking, very stiff dancer with too much hand and shoulder action. However, I think Lilia quite liked me on the quiet although I'm not sure she should have been laughing quite that much?? I trust you know how I felt?

We need to buy a pair of 'proper' dance shoes for next week's lesson. I walked past the allocated dance shop this evening on my way to the station (it is very close to Carat) and saw a pair in the window – they look very suspect and have a high Cuban heel??? I have asked one of the girls in the office to come with me to the shop tomorrow.

In summary, the first lesson was very tough, tougher than I thought it would be. But we now have a single dance to focus on, we have the song that we will be dancing to, 7 more private dance lessons and we have 9 weeks or so to perfect the routine. Smashing.

Until next week!!!!