IT'S A WRAP PARTY part three (final one!)

lovely smiling and clapping Mark and Martin
*
group hug!
*
the very gorgeous Mr F and Ms R
*

flowers from Mr F
*
flowers the next day
(the sight of these helped WOW’s hangover)
*

And finally:

Dancing On Wheels. . .It’s a Wrap, but it's not the end…

Next time (next week on DOW)
WOW goes Morris, sorry Boris dancing….

IT'S A WRAP PARTY part two

Not Where’s Wally..more like where’s Marky?
Can you spot Mark? Is he hiding from James and Ola!
Also pictured: Lucy and Clara from Fever Media
*

David Tibballs has a really good time with Kristina
*

Di with one of BF’s – Jane
*

Di thanking Kaaj – one WOW’s ‘Karma police’
– Neil Rubenstein is the other…
*

Shock Horror! WOW caught bang-to-rights drinking!
Nothing escapes the Boss Brian though!

(Ed: I heard on the grapevine that WOW, without her wheels, had to be ‘carried’ to the taxi by her dance partner at 3am.)

IT’S A WRAP (PARTY) part one

Thought you wonderful WOW Watchers might enjoy some views of the Dancing On Wheels wrap party:

WOW decides to pay her own personal tribute
to Michael Jackson (RIP) in glitter jacket,
with Neil Rubi Rubenstein
(Ed: We could always hang her up from ceiling
and spin her round
– a new take on the disco ball?)
*

Brian with WOW’s gorgeous daughter, Lara
*

dance contestants pass judgement on
WOW’s DOW photo memory album
created by WOW especially for Brian
*

David Tibballs, Exec Producer on DOW,
with Pippa, Brian and Kristina

Wicked Soul

One day - soon - I hope to be able to create and perform a dance to this stunning song: Wicked Soul, by Kubb.

During training I suggested it to Brian - and Kristina - and they both loved it as well - there was then a discusssion as to what type of ballroom/latin dance should be applied. Brian thought the hustle or a merengue.
Of course I have to agree with the Boss, but tango moves keep coming to mind. Is there such a thing as a 'Tustle'? in the dance world?
So all you dancers out there - especially experienced males who think they could leap into the wheelie dancing world and whisk me off my rhinestone wheels...

. . .I am waiting.

FORTUNA FANTASTICS LOOK AWAY NOW!

the things WOW has to do in the name of dance -
it’s a tough job, someone’s got to do it!
(Ed: someone seems to be enjoying this training
a little too much...)

TRAINING
Dance: The Waltz (and repeat of The Tango)
Music: Fascination, Nat King Cole, Pa’ Bailar (Tango)
Debrief: Sunday
Training Days: Monday - Thursday
Training Hours: split between Brian and Pippa, with some help from Kristina.

the things Harry has to do in the name of dance…
it’s a tough life eh?

Tricky Moves:
(1) Getting down from the ramp on the floor to Mark in time with the music.
(2) Being ordered by The Boss not to let Mark kiss me until the live show. . .
(3) Not throttling James, when he - having broken his wheelchair - dismantled the whole thing in one of our training sessions, knowing full well Brian would stop training us in order to fix it (Brian is not only highly accomplished at most everything he turns his hands to, he is also a bit of geek). He fixed it – two hours later (with Mark’s help). Then Mark had a go at my chair:
Number of jellybeans consumed this week:

the trouble with jellybeans is that WOW has quite big hands
and once you have developed the ‘scooping’ action required,
before WOW realises, the whole lot has gone
(Ed – she also has a big mouth)

Back to training:

Pippa shows us how not to hold our arms in separation.

We have a go.

is it back to the effing Albatross again?

Most over-used word of the week/Star of the Show: Ralph (who's Ralph? click here!)

WOW sense of achievement: High (again) mainly due to getting to practise kissing with two hunks of burning love….

Filming with these crazy people is making us go a bit bananas:

Neil Rubi Rubenstein (Producer/Director) and
Lucy Lu Bauckman (Production Assistant)
can't stop monkeying around

THE SEMI-FINAL LINE-UP:

(with Kristina Rhianoff)

(with Lucy Bauckman, Production Assistant,
and Kristina Rhianoff)

The Eye of the Tiger

WOW WARNING! DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME

TRAINING: Week 3
The Dance: The Paso Doble.
Music: Eye of the Tiger, Survivor.
Debrief: Saturday 4 July (someone stank of drink, someone didn’t show up).
Training Days: Sunday 5 July through to Thursday 10 July.

Training Hours: Enough to get through dance ok, including a snatched couple of hours on Sunday with Mark, missing a lunch drinks party and the Wimbledon Final.

New nicknames this week: Three, Brian on Diana - Little Bo Peep; Brian on himself - Tony (as in Tony Soprano – due to Brian’s vocal delivery in heavy duty Bronx accent, and him seeming to be tougher than ever on all of us, especially with regards to the difficulty level of ‘tricks’); Diana on Mark - Daddy Longlegs.

No of Liquorice allsorts consumed this week: One full box (half price from TK Maxx – Woo Hoo!). Even ate the nasty little nubs of pure liquorice. Always start with pink and yellow coconut ones. TMI, sorry.

Heated Debate of the Week: Brian and Simone.
Most over-used word of the Week: Cambridge.

WOW Sense of Achievement Rating (scale of low through to high): High.

Three tricky tricks: Brian pushed Mark and I to the limit for daring, with twists on the standard dance and character themes for the pase doble. . . the bull, the cape, the matador and the flamenco dancer.

Brian to Di:
"you'll have a couple of centimetres clearance"
(note Brian's right hand!)

and we did!
thank goodness for Daddy Longlegs

The ‘Ouch’ Factor: Quite a few.

clearly Mark can feel the strain
of my incredible Liquorice Allsorts diet

Top ‘Ouch’ prize this week however goes to Harry Maule. . .

. . .for dancing beyond his pain boundaries to create the most beautiful, loving Viennese Waltz with Michelle. Their dancing even made James ‘Dread Judge’ Jordan emotional: Result!

This week we all had usual number of sessions with Brian and Pippa Roberts.

Pippa and Mark demonstrate
the highs and lows of separation

the long and short of the sixteens
and the little and large of the side steps
of the pase doble

The fragrant Marilyn Monroe Lookee Likee, Kristina Rhianoff joined us. She is lovely – superb dancer, obviously, but also pleasantly empathetic, and also has emotional depth. Good teacher as well.

as you will note from this photo,
my eyes should be envious green, not Tiger hazel in colour

The Show
Number of Bouquets received: Nil
Number of Cards received: 3 – including another lovely Thank you one from Mark. He wrote: "Di, Thank you for being so patient and training so hard. Week 3, let’s see if we can make Week 4 !! Love Mark, Your Matador x" (loving the Matador look Marky)
.
Wardrobe: Wonderful Wardrobe Mistress Louise Egan, and her support team including the v funny Jane ‘Popper’ Spice have done it again.They produced a stunning costume, the colour ways in muted golds, greens, almost simulating tiger fur/and eyes.
Only trouble is it’s a two piece, v short bolero top and below waist skirt, and all that belly flop space in between. Lou texted me a picture of the outfit, then on Tuesday Jane brought it over. I was holding myself in so much almost turned blue, but hey, with the flesh coloured body stocking, you can't see the odd ripple of flesh or the two tiny holes in my tum where there once was a sapphire belly button piercing. I’d had it done nearly 10 years ago, it looked great, until I put on weight (overdosing on stress and cortisol hormones as CEO of a charity 2003-2005). The belly ring disappeared between two comfy spare tyres of fat. Had to remove it. Could go back in again no trouble now…eurghhhh, WOW wonders if this is just TMI. Sorry.

Make-up: The fabulous Edith is my make-up artist.

Edith spray paints me
(Ed: what are you? a car?
I've seen Skodas with better colour than that.)
number of liquorice allsorts WOW wishes she'd eaten: zero

amount of make-up required: none

Cutting Floor Comment: My comment about the BBC Licence Fee payers.

the devil's in the detail, eh David?

WOW’s quote of the Week: (as I am about to go onto the dance floor) “Just going to make final check on the seat-belt, otherwise – Di, SPLAT.”

Finally, we're on: Hours and hours of effort for a minute and a half of spine tingling joy. (Now, what does that remind WOW of?)

and. . .
we're through to the semi-finals!

For all you FFs out there! The Eyes of the Tiger. . .