Last week we bid a fond farewell to another couple — Leeza Gibbons and Tony Dovolani, or rather Team Gibbolani. You'll never meet a classier, more upbeat person than Leeza. She has one of the kindest souls of anyone I've ever met. And Tony — what can you say about Tony? Fun, driven, passionate and a bit of a jokester. Two wonderful people who we're definitely going to miss at Dancing with the Stars.
Another week, another dance — this week we have the samba. The samba is a get-up-off-your-feet and "shake what your mama gave you" kind of dance. It's another Latin dance and one of my favorites. It encourages you to let your hair down and really feel the music. Ian loves the fast dances, and this dance is fast. He has the perfect personality for the rhythm of the music, and I believe the audience is going to love what they see. Our music is pretty awesome this week, too. I can't tell you what it is because we like to keep that top-secret until the show, but it's a real crowd-pleaser.
On the topic of music, so many people ask me who picks the music. I'm happy to tell you that the producers do. That's what makes each dance extra challenging. I'm not always familiar with the songs and I'm not always sure what I'm going to choreograph. I want the dance to be fresh and I want Ian's fancy feet to shine. Sometimes the music is a bigger challenge than teaching the celebrity how to dance!
We have such intense schedules while we are in production on DWTS, it's a wonder we ever find time to do other things. But tonight, Friday the 13th, I get the chance to do something fun for charity. Edyta Sliwinska, Tony Dovolani, Louis Van Amstel and I will dance the opening number at the annual Race to Erase MS charity event in Los Angeles. It's a great, big star-studded affair with special musical guests Earth Wind & Fire — talk about great dance music! Doing these events is always so much fun. I get to dress up in something other than sweats and workout wear, in this case a beautiful Kenneth Cole dress (on loan), and gorgeous shoes that don't smell funky like my dance shoes do! In fact, I think I just might start using those dance shoes to torture Ian into doing what I want him to in each dance. A few whiffs of those and he'll be at my mercy.
On Saturday the 14th Ian and I also get to do something a little out of the norm. We're heading up to my hometown to throw the first pitch at the Oakland As baseball game versus the New York Yankees. My palms are already starting to get damp just thinking about having to throw a baseball 60 feet. This is one thing that Ian is going to have to teach me how to do. I've never pitched a baseball that far in my life. I consider myself fairly athletic, but I'm still nervous about only being able to throw the ball halfway to home. Maybe I can bribe one of the players with dance lessons if he'll let me cheat and stand a little closer.
So tune in on Monday and see if my pitching arm is any good and to see us dance our samba. And as always, don't forget to vote!
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