a boy with a dream...

OKKKey Okey Okey (In my newly developed Chinese Accent)

Sorry it has been so long since my last update, but we have been working our butts off.

It’s now Thursday over here and we’re starting to finish up our THIRD week of work! Episode 1 and 2 have already aired!

Episode 1 consisted of celebrity trios (Introduction Week) and Episode 2 was just the men competing.

I will try and find some videos online to let you see what were doing:)

Oh and remember that soundstage that was under-construction?! Well check out the finaly product!! It’s absolutely amazing! (Made in China)

So for week 3 it is just the women competing! Every week has been so stressful because we’ve been trying to get a adjusted to the way they work and vice versa, it seems that we finally have a system that works good. ORGANIZATION is always the best way (Surprisingly the Chinese are not very organized like you would think, and they believe in quantity over quality which is huge difference to the way we like to work)

This week we were able to create pieces from our own concepts that we have done before, such as ‘California Girls’ (That’s right Hammond’s kiddies), ‘Bird’ (Unity 2), ‘Dolls’ Unity 2, ‘Hollaback Girl ‘Unity LA’. I can’t wait to see our pieces on stage tomorrow!

Besides work, we really have had no personal time to relax, explore the city, etc. Unfortunately the city we are in is very rural so there is not a lot going on, its really a city owned by the TV Network Hunan TV that we work for, so the only reason you would be around this city is for work. But there is an amusement park and a ‘Sea World’-type place nearby (I can see a wannabe Disneyland Castle from my window…lol). It is owned by Hunan TV and ‘I’m looking forward to going over there when we get a day off.

The food here has been pretty good, my only complaint is the lack of variety, I feel like I’ve eaten the same food for the past 3 weeks! Except there is one place in Hunan where I LOVE to eat……PIZZA HUT! Here in China the Pizza Hut’s are sit-down restaurants with a full menu, and their food is the bomb! And having a pizza that tasted like it was from America was the best!

Okay so 3 weeks almost down, about 8 more weeks to go….Not too bad. It’s crazy waking up every morning and realizing i’m not just a drive-away from home, I’m literally on the other side of the world!!!! 

Well I hope all my friends and family are doing great back in the states, miss and love you all!!

Goodmorning! or Afternoon, or Goodnite (Wherever you are!)

I’m starting to lose track of time, days, everything! I don’t think my body has truly adjusted to the time here yet…..which sucks! The whole team has been in rehearsals all day for the past couple days. Currently we are working on our ‘Super Mario’ piece (Almost finished it looks amazing!), the Futuristic-Themed Opening Number, ‘WipeOut’ (Based off the American-Japanese Obstacle Course Show, so much fun!), ‘Hotel’ (A quarrel at the bar between two men over one girl), and today we are starting a new piece called ‘Green Snake and White Snake’ (Based off an old Chinese Tale).

Everyone is starting to feel the effects of our heavy workload, but luckily we have each other to push through! (Thank god!!!!!)

With every day comes new challenges, whether its last-minute rehearsal changes (I mean LAST MINUTE!) or a Celebrity/Contestant that just can NOT dance! I am definitly learning something new every day:)

Yesterday, in the middle of rehearsals, we had a photoshoot for the show. We are really being featured on the show here, which is amazing!! It’s just our 5-member choreography team, plus a Chinese Ballroom team that create all the choreography for the show….phew!

It was fun getting all dressed up and looking good with my friends. Especially because it gave us a little break in our crazy schedule.

Keep sending the good energy too us from home friends. Looking forward to a day off soon…Just wondering when it will be…

So its 6am, Saturday, April 16th here in Changsha, China right now. Just wanted to fill you guys in on our day yesterday.

We began working with our stars and dancers for the first episode next week. Me and Natalie worked mainly with the stars for our ‘Super Mario’ piece, and the rest of the team worked with the dancers for our opening number which is supposed to have this futuristic theme to match the amazing ‘Tron’ inspired stage.

Our stars for our ‘Super Mario’ piece are Ryan (Model/Actor), Cindy (Entertainment TV Show Host) and Mr. Bi (Comedian). These names are of course their english names, do not ask me what their real names are…..haha

Luckily they understood english a little, so that helped a a lot! But during our 6 hour rehearsal they were also filming for the package (If you ever seen DWTS, or SYTYCD in America, I’m am talking about the filmed rehearsal video they show before the dance) So not only were we trying to teach the stars, we of course had to put on a show for TV! 

Needless to say I was exhausted on way back to our home, today we have more rehearsal with the same group, a photoshoot, and another rehearsal which they have yet to tell us what for…haha.

When I get the chance I’ll show you guys the Villas we are staying in during our stay!!

Hi ALL!

So after days of travel, we went from Los Angeles, CA to Shanghai, and now finally I am in my beautiful home for the next 3 months in Changsha, China! It is 1am on April 15th here and I am beyond exhausted and I have no idea what time my body thinks it is!

Today we had lunch with the directors and producers of Dancing With The Stars China and long story short….There were chicken heads and a delicacy called stinky tofu that smelled like poop…literally! I wish I was only joking! Besides this there was great food for us to eat! After that we went into a production meeting for our first Episode next week. We got 6 pieces to choreograph this week so we are definitely hitting the ground running! 

We also got to take a look at our ‘soon-to-be’ beautiful sound stage for this season! It’s amazing that it’s going to be finished by our first episode next week, but those Chinese people be working all day! The concept pictures they showed us are amazing it’s completely TRON inspired and I can’t wait to see the final product!

After this meeting we had a dinner with our translators and I learned some very ‘useful’ Mandarin words ;) lol

After our dinner, Tessie put us to work and we all started choreographing and planning out 3 pieces. We go into our first rehearsal tomorrow with some of the professional dancers and the asian celebrities (In case you were wondering, DWTS here is different; they have the stars plus professionals do entire pieces, instead of one star and one professional dancer). Wish us all luck guys!! :) 

I’ll try and give more updates on some of the crazy adventures we’ve already gotten ourselves into once I get some sleep. Thanks for all the love and support, miss you all!