Nancy Kerrigan and partner Artem Chigvintsev wait to perform their foxtrot on the fourth episode of season 24 of "Dancing with the Stars."
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Nancy Kerrigan won figure skating bronze and silver at the 1992 and 1994 Olympic Winter Games. Follow along as she blogs for TeamUSA.org each week during her journey on season 24 of “Dancing with the Stars.”
I went straight from last week's show to the airport and caught a redeye flight to Boston so I could spend the week at home. But if I had a thought that it might mean a less hectic schedule, boy was I wrong!
With rehearsal for the foxtrot, interviews with the “Dancing with the Stars” crew, a People magazine shoot and a radio tour, along with trying to spend some time with my family, the week zipped by.
And the foxtrot is not an easy dance so the rehearsals were hard and I got a bit frustrated. I even accidentally hit Artem in the head a few times...oops!
But I was able to be home to see some of my daughter's ballet lessons, my son's gymnastics meet, put my kids on the bus to school in the morning and to bed at night – and not much beats that!
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This week's theme was "most memorable year." I found it difficult to pin down just one year, so while there were many memorable periods (and not just the obvious ones like 1992 and 1994; second grade was memorable; I got married in ‘95, had Matthew in ‘96, etc.), I decided that I would talk about "motherhood" as a general theme that spans years and topics.
And let's not forget the dancing. I went into the week thinking that the foxtrot would be a little easier to learn. It's closer to a waltz and didn't have some of the attitude that the samba required. But I just wasn't getting it as quickly as I thought I should and by now you know that creates some added tension for me and, as a result, for my partner.
So things progressed slowly throughout the week until finally, on Saturday, just before getting on a flight back to LA, I felt comfortable that I knew the dance. But now we had to take it back to the DWTS studio, run the number on the set, which is bigger than all of our rehearsal studios and make it work with costumes, props and lights...and a live studio and television audience.
Sunday and Monday were going to be interesting!
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Sunday's blocking went pretty well, I thought. Our number has a big tree on the dance floor, which is a little unusual but looked good and the dance felt good in rehearsal. With a little clean-up Sunday night, I felt like we would be ready. Only negative was that I was expecting my mother to come out for the show and her plans changed. Hopefully she can come later in the season...assuming I am still around.
Monday was the usual long day, but I didn't get a great night's sleep as someone was arrested outside my window at about 3 in the morning. A little scary because it was so loud with people screaming. Then my rehearsal in costume for the first time wasn't great and my hair was distracting and in my way, so it was a tough morning.
And I knew the show would be emotional with all of the intimate stories being told, including mine on motherhood.
But as the day wore on, I was able to relax a bit and do a little running to lower the anxiety level. All of this helped me to focus when it came time to perform. The video about my journey was seemingly well-received. I was proud that we got another set of pretty good scores and we're able to move on to week five, which will be Disney themed...and my kids are coming to visit. Should be fun!