Hi everyone!

 

Hope you had a great weekend!

 

I’ve been working long and hard on this paso doble! I think it’s coming together and I’ve been concentrating on the characterization and emotion of the dance. It’s full of intensity and after last week, I definitely have motivation to bring my performance level up a few notches! Watch out!

Some people have been asking about my diet since I’ve started the show. It hasn’t changed drastically. I’m just trying to eat healthy and everything in moderation. At this point, I just snack on whatever is available, like granola bars. Yum!

 

Back to work! See you all tonight!

 

Kristi

Hi everyone!

Thank you to everyone who voted for us! We live to see another week! I’m so excited. It was nice to be the first one to be called safe. You can relax for the rest of the night, but you’re still tense wondering who is going to be leaving.

I’m really sad Steve Guttenberg is leaving. It’s never easy to see anyone leave and Steve, obviously, is so well-loved with all of us. He was such a positive person to have around. He loved being here. He was enjoying every minute of it and he brought it all into perspective for us as far as, “Hey, this isn’t a competition. We’re also here to enjoy it and have an experience.” We’re all going to really miss him.

I loved Steve’s “mango” with Jonathan Roberts. That was hilarious! It was great of them to go out there and joke poke fun at themselves. They’re both great sports. I don’t know if Steve wants that to be his last dance though… or maybe he does!

 

How many of you were fooled by our April Fools' Day hobby skit? Some people have said they really believed it at first! It was really fun to shoot. The competitive hot dog eating was Mark’s idea — leave it to my partner to do a humiliating thing to me! I couldn’t really eat all the hot dogs so I had a garbage bag full of chewed up hot dogs! I actually do like hot dogs — but not 18 of them at once!

 

Next week we’ll do the paso doble. It’s another intense, passionate dance and I’m ready to bring out the emotion the judges are looking for!

See you next week! Thanks again for your support!

 

Kristi

Hey guys!

Yay! The tango is done! I’m really happy with my performance last night. The tango was very difficult to learn and I was having trouble all week remembering the sequence of the steps and getting it down so I’m thrilled to get the steps right! I felt the performance is better than I’ve done all week, but we still have ways to go.

All week long Mark was telling me to enjoy the dance but also trigger the emotion of seductive passion, anger, love. The performance coach helped a little bit, but I don’t know — I’m just used to being happy and excited and showing that so we’re working on it still.

I take Carrie Ann [Inaba]’s criticism about not showing enough emotion to heart. I think that’s something we’re definitely going to think about and work on if we’re coming back next week and try to bring it to another level — try to express a little bit more in future dances. I can see how the tango was just a little bit one-dimensional. I would like to bring out a more passionate and seductive side of myself. I can see what the judges are talking about. Bruno [Tonioli] was asking for a little bit more dirtiness and naughtiness so I had to flash him a little big of leg! Just to let him know, “It’s in me. If you’re asking for it, I’m going to do my best to make it come out!”

I loved my dress! I thought it had the classic tango lines and was very pretty. My hair on the other hand is crazy! It’s like Medusa! I was scared of it! I looked in the mirror and was like, “Whoa! Who is that?” It’s an art piece. I think for the tango, I imagined waves and scrolls on the face, so I think the hairstylist did an amazing job. It’s a very stand-out hairdo.

Tonight’s elimination night again! No matter what you think or feel, you really don’t know what will happen, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Thank you to everyone who voted for us!

See you tonight!

Kristi

Hi everyone!

Hope everyone had a great weekend! I’m sorry I didn’t give you a full update last week – things have just been really crazy and insane! So I’ll try to make up for it now.

Going back to Tuesday, elimination night was so nerve-wracking! I was nervous going into it because you don’t really know what’s going to happen. Up until that point, you dance and hope you do well, but Tuesday was definitely like, “Wow, there’s a one in six possibilities of going home.” You don’t have any idea of what America’s thinking, who they’re voting for, so it was a huge relief when we were declared safe. It was funny because we’re standing there and I think Mark was just as nervous as me! He was shaking and fidgeting. You just want to get off the stage and be safe. It’s really kind of torture standing up there for so long!

 

I was really sad to see Penn [Jillette] and Monica [Seles] go. It was nice to have two weeks with everyone and you’re kind of like, “Why can’t we have six weeks together?” Everyone’s getting to know each other and in those two weeks you see them, so it’s just sad to see someone put so much into it and try and then have to leave the competition. We’ve all gotten close over the last few weeks. We kind of keep it fun and light. Everyone wants to do well for themselves, but it’s not a huge competition or anything. I think everyone supports each other.

 

Tonight I’m dancing the tango. Rehearsals have been going well. It’s a new dance, a new technique, a new attitude and character within the dance and I’m trying to bring that out. It’s a tough dance. Literally, it’s a lot of footwork and you’re trying to keep up with the music, which is really fast and intense. It’s totally different from the mambo. That was happy and fun. This is just very furious, passionate and angry almost. They brought in a performance coach to work with me to try to bring out the anger and more emotion from me. She gave some techniques that you’ll probably see in the package tonight. It was helpful and hopefully it’ll translate into the dance.

 

Learning a new dance every week in less than seven days is definitely hard. Since there’s such a short time, your confidence teeters over the week. I was like, “Oh my goodness, how am I going to do this?” Now I feel a little better. We’ll do a few more run-throughs and get it more polished for tonight!

 

I have another great costume for tonight! I don’t want to reveal too much, but it’s beautiful, long and black. Mark and I are both in red and black. So it’s pretty dramatic. Mark usually designs the costumes for us. He’s been incredible with his eye for what he wants and he’ll make suggestions and I’ll say whether I like it or not and maybe a suggestion here and there. But he’s really good. Then we take it to the design team and wardrobe team and they tweak it from there. They do a great job. I haven’t had an issue at all!

 

As you know, my kids flew into L.A. last week, so it’s great to be with them again. This is a fun show to be on, but it’s hard to spend so much time away from the family. It’s great to have them here. I think they’re used to having me around a lot more so every day, they’re like, “Oh, we miss you, mommy!” But it’s been great. My mom’s been here and she’s been great with the kids.

 

They’re going to stay through to Wednesday, then they’re going to the San Francisco area where my parents and brother and sister live to spend a little time there. It’s their cousin’s first birthday so we’re trying to get some cousin time in. Then they’ll come back — hopefully!

 

I don’t know if they’ll ever come to a taping in the audience because they’re too young, but they did watch last week’s show in a trailer. Their attention span isn’t that long so they’ll mostly watch mommy and that’s it! I think they’ll stay at home and watch it tonight. They had a lot of fun though. They love it here and being able to watch me dance. Keara has been watching both dances over and over on YouTube, and if I play the music to my mambo, she does most of the choreography already! It’s so funny! She actually dances it almost completely along with me. Mark’s like “Hey, get her in ballroom. She’s going to be really good!” So maybe I have a future pro on my hands!

 

Anyway, back to run-throughs! Thank you again for all your support!

 

See you soon!

 

Kristi