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