This week is rock-themed on Dancing with the Stars, and my partner Tony Dovolano and I are dancing to "Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen. I love classic rock, so it's really fun! We're doing the paso doble, and Tony's starting to push the limits by making our choreography super challenging. So we've been working really, really hard in the studio.
We're actually doing two dances this week. I'm also learning a second dance for the marathon, where all seven couples take the dance floor at the same time to perform a minute-long routine over and over for four minutes. Whenever a couple starts to struggle or get tired, the judges tap them out of the competition. The last couple dancing gets ten points added to their score for the day.
The dance Tony and I are doing for the marathon is completely different from the paso doble. It's a combination of the jive, the Lindy hop, and another dance. It's really fast and there are lots of lifts and flips. Meanwhile, the paso doble is very intense and aggressive. We're going to be stomping our feet a lot and looking kind of mad and sultry. The other dance we're hopping around, having fun and smiling. They're completely different!
It's really hard learning two dances at once. Plus, it's beyond the halfway point in the competition now, and all this hard work is finally starting to hit me. My whole body just feels sore and achy. I feel completely exhausted. It's really starting to get hard!
At the same time, I'm really happy to make it this far! I honestly didn't imagine that I would make it to the halfway point. I didn't know that I could do any of this, so it's really exciting. But there's also a lot more pressure and nerves because I know it's only going to get harder from here.
I was really sad to see Florence leave last week. I didn't think she was going home. I thought she did so well, and she had good scores! But it just really proves that you're never safe. Every week it seems to get more and more quiet around the studio. I don't like it! Everyone just feels so exhausted. We're all struggling to find that excitement again – especially because we have to push ourselves even more now that the judges are going to be judging us even harder.
At least all the dancers are supportive. We're not really competing against each other right now – it's more like we're competing against ourselves. We're all nervous every single week, and even though sometimes it doesn't show, when we're backstage talking to each other, we're all feeling exactly the same way!
Thank you all for your support and for voting! Voting really does count, and it definitely proved last week that it doesn't matter if you're at the top or the bottom – you're never safe. It's really up to the voters, and hopefully you're seeing my progression every week. This week is going to be really challenging and hard, but I hope it's entertaining you and that you're having fun watching!
Credit: Audrina Patridge for People Magazine
