Tag: ballroom dance

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TREMOR is out!

Hey Everyone!

Just letting you know TREMOR, the next installment in the Infectious Rhythm Ballroom Romance series, is now out! This one focuses on Arabelle, whom readers of the other books in the series will recognize as Sasha’s former dance partner, and a theater dancer she meets in Las Vegas, Jett.

Here is the back cover description:

After losing her husband and dance partner to a motorcycle accident, ballroom showdance champion Arabelle has developed a hand tremor, making it impossible to perform the beautiful balletic feats she is known for. In her devastation, she’s lost her love of dance anyway. But when she meets Jett, a theatrical dancer specializing in daredevil aerial stunts, Arabelle feels a double tremor – one producing trepidation, the other pulsing excitement, as he evokes the bad boy ways of her husband that had so enthralled her but had also resulted in his tragedy. Can Jett help Arabelle overcome the pain of her loss, cure her trembling body, and reinvigorate her passion for dance and life? And can Arabelle tame Jett’s reckless ways before they result in his own misfortune?

I’ve put this one in the Kindle Unlimited program, so if you’re a member, you can read it for free! Otherwise, it’s $2.99, as are the others in the series.

Happy reading, everyone 🙂 And, again, thank you so much for your support! It’s been a while since I last published since I’ve had a lot happening in my life (more on that later), so I really appreciate you sticking with me!

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More “Naked Dancing” to Come, LOL!!

2“Should you read it? Yeah! As a whole this is a series that will make you want to go out there and take some ballroom dance classes of your own!”

“Smut level: Naked dancing here people. Naked…dancing.”

Hehe, I LOVE these two very entertaining and enthusiastic reviews of Fever, Books Two and Three from the fantastic blog, Romance4theBeach 😀

December 10th will mark the six-month anniversary of Fever‘s publication. This is my very first romance series, and my first set of books focusing on dance, and being such a first, I am immensely grateful to all of the bloggers I met either online or at conventions who took a chance on a new author, to all the reviewers on Net Galley, Reading Alley, Nerdy Girls, BookLikes, Reading Addiction – and anywhere else people found advance copies- who read and reviewed the book(s), and to the wonderful readers who left their thoughts on Goodreads, Amazon and other online bookstores where they purchased the books. It’s extremely helpful for a new author to hear what readers think. Readers most liked the emotional development of Sasha and Rory’s relationship, the increasing intensity of their passion (which really gets underway in Book Two) and the detailed descriptions of dance and the whole dance competition scene. Many people thought the relationship took a bit too long to get underway, and many didn’t connect as well with the suspense element that mainly occurs in Book Three. So, I’m serious when I say there’s more naked dancing to come 😀   – in that I intend to focus more on passion and romance and emotion – along with dance of course – in the next books in the series.

I hope to have the next two books in the Infectious Rhythm series out in spring and summer of 2016. Stay tuned for cover reveals and synopses in the coming weeks!

And, again, thank you SO MUCH for your support, everyone!

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FEVER Blog Tour Begins Today!

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Hey Everyone!

My FEVER blog tour begins today! Please feel free to visit any of the stops (listed under the “Follow the Tour” tab via the link). There will be excerpts posted of my favorite scene in Book 2 of the series – the one where things really begin to heat up between Sasha and Rory! And you’ll have several chances to win a paperback copy of Book 2 (The eBook version of Book 1 is currently free in most online book stores, so you can easily read the first one if you want to get caught up for Book 2). There will also be some interviews, and some reviews of Book 1. The tour is on until August 21st.

I hope to see you along the way 🙂

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ANNA MIKHED AND VICTOR FUNG HAVE SPLIT

 

According to Dance Beat magazine, US and World Standard finalists Anna Mikhed and Victor Fung have broken up. Though not technically the best in the world, I’ve often found this couple just oozing with charm and charisma, as have others — they’re kind of America’s Sweethearts. They placed third in the world this year and they’ve long been second in the US Nationals. I don’t get it — first Mirko Gozzoli and Alessia Betti — well, and before them, Karina Smirnoff and Slavik Kryklyvyy– these couples break up when they’re on top.

Anna tells DB she’s “thoroughly enjoyed these last 6 years of dancing with Victor,” saying they’ve grown individually and as a partnership. “There was no incident that took place, just a recognition, perhaps mostly by myself, that our paths in partnership and in dancing were going in different directions.”

She tells fans to watch for each individually, and DB says Victor has begun looking for a new partner. Still, I’ll miss seeing them together.

Here they are Viennese Waltzing in Hong Kong earlier this year:

(photo from PBS.org)

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IS MAINSTREAM AMERICA STILL HOMOPHOBIC?

So, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamantion called Nigel Lythgoe on his anti-gay comments on SYTYCD last week and Lythgoe apologized. I missed last week’s show, but according to the Times he told a male ballroom duo that he didn’t think the show’s audiences would be receptive to them and that, though they’d had men dancing with other men on the show before, they’d never danced “in each other’s arms.” (The pair danced Samba). Lythgoe said on the show that he’d like to see them both “dancing with a girl.”

Lythgoe rightly apologized for his comments and word choice but my question is, is such a couple really not right for the show’s audience (which is mainstream America)? Would people these days really get so upset over watching two men ballroom dance together? I’ve lived in New York for so long now (and been part of the dance world) that I feel I’ve kind of lost touch with middle America. I mean, would the average American seriously be offended?

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MISSING BLACKPOOL

The Blackpool Dance Festival has begun and for the first time in four years I’m missing it. So sad. I felt like I needed to save on expenses this year with the recession and all, and I was disappointed that my favorite, Slavik Kryklyvyy, likely wouldn’t be competing again, and I was aggravated with the predictability of last year’s results and figured I’m going to get frustrated all over again. So, I decided to take a year off.

But, thankfully, two wonderful young ladies from England, Eleanor and Becca, who I met from this blog, are going to do some little write-ups on the goings on later this week. They are fans of Sergey Surkov and Melia, so they’re rather perfect for this blog 🙂 In fact, today, they are modeling in the Chrisanne ballgown show in the pavilion, along with Melia!

(Here’s a picture I took in the past of the runway)

Chrisanne boutique in the pavilion.

I’ll also be keeping up via Dance Beat.

Today and tomorrow are the increasingly popular daytime Congress lectures on things like technique, performance quality dancing, and ballroom dance history by the top pros of today and yesterday, and tonight is the ridiculously exciting but somewhat goofy country team competition. The two most important nights of the week will be Wednesday and Friday, Wednesday being the Pro Latin and Friday the Pro Standard. I’ll be rooting for Sergey and Melia of course, along with the top U.S. couples Riccardo Cocchi and Yulia Zagoruychenko in Latin, Katusha Demidova and Arunas Bizokas in Standard.

Standard champion Mirko Gozzoli from Italy giving a Congress lecture,

after giving a demo of mouthwatering splended perfection with partner Alessia Betti.

Former champs the charmingly funny Luca Baricchi, with his partner Lorraine, doing the same.

American team’s elegant team comp intro from two years ago.

And last year’s. Still not sure where we were going with that what goes on in the teepee theme…

I’m excited though to be in NY for all of ballet season, for the first time in a long time this year. Between ABT and NYCB I don’t think I’ve missed a day of ballet in the past week.

But, still, it’s always nice to go away. Some of my favorite pics from the past:

(an unusually warm May day in the northern sea-side town)

Riccardo Cocchi rocking it out with his former partner, Joanne.

Karina Smirnoff when she last competed.

Sergey and Melia the first time I saw them dance and the first time they placed in the finals. Kind of funny, it looks a bit like he’s spanking her here 🙂

On the train ride from Manchester to  Blackpool. Sheep! I know, why do Americans always take such pictures? It’s like we don’t have any such animals here…

Curry dinner from Taka Dance’s Japanese restaurant, which they set up in the base of the Winter Garden for the duration of the festival.

Slavik with Elena Khvorova, last time I saw Slavik compete.

Max and Yulia’s advert page in the program the year they made the top six.

The nearby beach. Pretty but cold.

Cheesy, Vegas-y “Eiffel Tower” that houses a lot of casinos and pinball machines, along with pseudo-Vegas-type shows.

Day trip to Liverpool, in between Latin and Standard finals.

The always happening Ruskin Hotel where people like Maks Chmerkovskiy can often be found.

Arunas and Katusha in last year’s finals.

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WOW — DANCE TIMES SQUARE IS GOING ALL OUT

For their May11th “ballroom” showcase at the Danny Kaye Playhouse. I put ballroom in parenthesis because, though the studio specializes in Latin / Ballroom instruction (and is the studio where I took lessons with Pasha), it seems that they are really expanding, at least for their biannual showcases, which used to be student-oriented and are increasingly centering on pro performances — and pros of all kinds, not just ballroom.

The May 11th show will feature, in addition to Pasha and Anya (!); David Parsons Dance Company performing Caught (regular readers of this blog know how I feel about that dance 🙂 ); Sabra Johnson, Travis Wall and Twitch from So You Think You Can Dance; the Mark Stuart Eckstein Dance Company (which I don’t know of); choreographer Tricia Brouke’s OtherShore; opera star Aprile Millo; and for ballroom, the EXCELLENT Eugene Katsevman and Maria Manusova, top American Smooth contenders J.T. Thomas and Tomas Mielnicki, and (the very good, very sexy) former Latin junior champs Manuel Favilla and Karolina Paliwoda.

Expected guest attendees include Baryshnikov (!), Desmond Richardson (!), Edie Falco, Susan Sarandon, Cynthia Nixon, Mickey Rourke, Barbara Walters, Antonio Banderas, Harvey Keitel, John Turturro, and more — including judges and choreographers from SYTYCD (which DTS studio owners Tony Meredith and Melanie LaPatin choreograph for as well).

I’m happily stunned that my ballroom studio has become kind of this major outlet for popular concert dance in the city!

There’s also an after-party at the studio, as well as a pre-show reception at the Danny Kaye Playhouse for Angel on a Leash, which the program is benefitting. Angel on a Leash sponsors rehabilitative dogs (for people with seeing, hearing disabilities, etc.)  Go here for more info.