Dancing Diary: Working things out

With a little more than two months until Harcourts Dancing with the Stars, dance partners Natasha Whitewood and David Beck are putting in work. Photo / File

The clock is ticking and our practice sessions are getting longer and more frequent as we look to master what we have learnt so far.

We had a few very different sessions recently. One night we felt very clunky, Tash and I both had moments where we knew something we were doing was not quite right but could not get our heads around it or explain it to each other. I could even see her getting a little frustrated, which is rare.

Luckily, we are blessed with some very patient and intuitive dance teachers. Troy Smith and Shelley Martin have the tough job of choreographing 10 different dances and looking around the room at practice, I have no doubt they will all be spectacular.

Then there is the wonderful Glen Law, who is always on hand to help out as we stumble through our routines. Glen is the type of guy who could find a way to make watching paint dry fun. He approaches every practice session with such positivity and enthusiasm that you cannot help but be uplifted.

Last week he noticed that I was being a bit tentative and it meant we were not getting our timing right. I'm not afraid to admit I've have had my issues with anxiety in the past and I am a terrible over-thinker.

I get so bogged down trying to do each step perfectly that I'm not even listening to the music. Glen told me to just loosen up and go for it. I did and he was right, things started to click.

We took that positivity into our next practice and it felt like things were coming along a lot better. We have more or less got our heads around the first section of our dance and are starting to look at the finer points such as our posture and what to do with our hands while we are moving around the floor.

While my weekly updates are (hopefully) for your entertainment, it is important to remember that at the end of the day this whole process is to raise money for Rotorua Hospice, a fantastic cause.

Harcourts Dancing with the Stars is their major annual fundraiser. Table tickets are on sale from June 1 at 9am on (07) 343 6591 ext 0. They'll sell out fast so get in quick.