Euro Tour Photo Recap

Well, we're posted up in Manchester right now at our favorite chain of hotels, the CityInn's. Which I highly recommend to anyone traveling around the UK! (free internet, imac tv/comps in room, large beds, delicious room service, etc) We leave today to travel to New Castle...

Our boss has a bronchial infection that has made us postpone a few shows. This is something that she and the band definitely needed. They have been going non-stop with chartered shows in distant countries everyday. Unfortunately, that just means we come home later... and considering I haven't seen my family, boyfriend or friends in almost two months, I'm definitely wanting to come home. I just hate missing all the holidays.

The dancers have been lucky enough to have a few days off here or there in some amazing cities,
Manchester being our current one. Everything closes super early, so it's the perfect opportunity to update with some pictures!

The dancers dressed and ready to perform 'Umbrella' at the World Music Awards...
This is one of the shows where we added more dancers from the UK to perform with us. They were a kind lot and definitely liked getting to know their ideas and lifestyles and how being a dancer in the UK differs from that in the US.


This award show was in filmed in Monaco, France. If there is one place I definitely want to go back and visit anytime of the year... it would be Monte Carlo, Monaco. Rumored to be the richest city in the world, this is an dream getaway and all of us had a hard time grasping that we were getting paid to enjoy this beauty! This was the view from the gazebo of our hotel! The weather reminded me of LA!

On our way to the hotel, our driver stopped and took a picture of our car full of ladies in this breathtaking city! (from left) Ashleigh Haney (background vocalist), Me, Tina Landon (choreographer), and Rachael Markarian (other dancer)





Beautiful Birmingham and their wonderful Christmas spirit! Just imagine Christmas huts continuing to the left and right of this photo... they go one forever!







Rachel and I messing around backstage in our wigs for the "Breaking Dishes" number... For those of you who haven't seen this one performed, we basically act like crazy and quirky robotic-like girls who know that their boyfriend is acting stupid and it's almost as though we lost a few screws... we tick, tip, and basically dance like we're going to break dishes we're so mad. It's my favorite routine without question.


The monstrous Dom Cathedral in Cologne, Germany. This cathedral has a spiral stone staircase that Rachel and I climbed over 600 stairs to overlook the entire city from the top! Germany had some of the best shopping too... I mean, I had a week off in that city, so I definitely did some damage! :D










Performing "Breaking Dishes" in Serbia... this was the crowd that before we even got on stage broke the front barricades... we love crazy crowds!
They give us energy on those days we feel like we have none.






Ladies in our dressing room before our rainiest show yet!
This was the first time I fell on my a** and nearly couldn't get up on stage! The show was an outdoor show and it was raining... quite fitting for an artist whose main hit is titled Umbrella, but none the less the stage was soaked and as soon as the opening song started, I pranced out with heels on attempting to grip the stage, only to have my feet slip from under me as I nearly slid off the front! This was a painful show... not to mention Bulgaria was one of our larger audiences too! Hope they enjoyed the fall!


Iscghl, Austria... When we chartered into this snow covered country, Kevin (our keyboardist/DJ aka Kevmo) and I were too busy filming and taking pictures of the deep white mountains and trees to even exchange words of disbelief. We would glance at each other with surprised faces and then both look out of our respective windows still breathless... We entered this small town of only about 1500 people where everyone knew their neighbors and nothing opened before noon. It was quaint and cold.

These pictures are just from this European Tour... I'll attempt to put some up from our Canadian Tour and Promo dates in other countries.

Begin Again!

This is the beginning of a new blog that I will do my best to keep up while on the road. My old blog page was much more difficult to keep up and access, so this is the new address! Thank you for catching up with me and all that is going on in my world.

For those just tuning in, I'm currently in the United Kingdom, Birmingham to be exact, touring with Rihanna. She is a music artist most notoriously known for her 'Umbrella' song off of her 'Good Girl Gone Bad' soundtrack. This was a picture taken from our show in Munich whilst performing her other hit 'Break it Off'...

I absolutely love my job... we get to travel around on our buses, perform in a new city every night and best of all, get to experience all the Christmas spirit these Europeans can throw at us! If you've ever been to any city center of any European town, chances are you'll have crossed what is known as the 'German X-mas Markets.' They are a slew of holiday huts, similar in size to a food cart at a carnival, and they sell traditional German treats. Everything from crepes, candied nuts, mulled wine, rum cocoa, homemade jewelry, gingerbread everything, scarfs, and trinkets galore! If there was a ever a year that I felt the Christmas spirit, this one is it! This picture here is the Christmas market here in Birmingham that continues past that corner for a long while of holiday goodness!

Our shows having been going great... my favorite audiences have been in Dublin, for reasons that you probably already know (they're irish), Serbia (audience pictured), because we were 70% oversold and when you pack more people than should fit into an arena, the circumstances just make it significantly more interesting. From what I heard, our largest audience has been something short of about 30,000 people and I think that was during an outside performance in the rain in Bulgaria. I'll have to double check those statistics, but that was the rumor. Our coldest performance was in Iscghl, Austria, where we performed outside at night on a ski resort. Yes, we were definitely surrounded by snow!

Of course with live shows, mishaps are bound to happen and I can only confess my own... Basically there are a few songs that have super quick changes between them. I change on the side of the stage in order to make it out on time. The only problem is that we go to a blackout between numbers, so I was changing in the dark. I put on my outfit for the song, 'Shut Up and Drive,' and about halfway through the routine turned to the other dancer, Rachael as she starts laughing out loud on stage. I had put my outfit on inside out. It's a race car jumpsuit costume that doesn't look so cute inside out. That was the hardest time I've ever had keeping a straight face.

As for my pleasant company... I'm blessed to work with 3 other amazing dancers who have toured with many artists before and have learned so much from each of them. Rachael, my normal partner in crime, is an amazingly talented and kind-hearted individual who I often go to for advice on everything from the professional to personal issues. Bryan(second from the right), the man who doesn't stop moving, is an incredible performer who likes to mix things up on stage. He has also taught dance classes in nearly every major city we've toured when we don't have a show. Julius (far right), the man with his own language, is not only known for being a master of movement, but has a language all his own. If you have ever heard of skeeter bop or pankin' the tweeter on the banger... then you've spoken his language fluently. It's got no pre-defined meaning or insinuations, but in whatever context you read it, you'll understand it's implication... then laugh loudly.

We also travel happily with a band filled with Bass, Drummer, Keyboards, Guitar and 2 vocalists. They are also part of our tour family and never let a moment go dull... Their introductions will follow shortly but as you can see in this picture of all of us posing after bowling in Sheffield... they're a fun bunch! And we finally got a wardrobe assistant! Miss Jaclyn gets to come play with us now!

I'm so blessed to have such a great family on tour and only wish to be able to share more of it with all of you! HAPPY HOLIDAYS! :D