Nancy Kerrigan performs her paso doble during Week 6 of "Dancing with the Stars" on April 24, 2017.
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.”
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I knew this was going to be a tough week with a group number and my own number to learn, plus my family was in town all week since the kids are on April vacation so that should add an element of fun...if I have time!!
This week we danced a paso doble, which is a bit tougher dance – more technical – and as I have come to find out, Artem's best dance. And all of a sudden we are in Week 6 so the competition is heating up so I feel like I have to be better than I have been. And, it seems that everyone has realized that I am now the oldest person left on the show, which is a weird and unusual position for me to be in.
So the stakes are getting higher. The pressure increasing. And probably most important for me, my expectation level is getting higher.
All of this made Thursday a little bit more stressful than previous Thursdays. I was a bit on edge and having some trouble with the choreography but by the end of the day on Friday (after I went with my family to Disneyland for my son Brian's birthday) I felt like I was a lot closer to knowing the group and individual number so went into the weekend feeling much better.
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One thing that is adding to the stress is that the choreography on both numbers is a little – or maybe a lot – suggestive. That is not my style and certainly not in keeping with being a mom, so I have been a little self-conscious when trying to perform the numbers. To deal with that I have to look at it as if I am just acting and playing a role, but already one friend of mine wouldn't let their kids watch the show because it wasn't "PG," so I remain a little concerned that even my own kids will wonder what is going on.
That said, I feel like the costumes for this week are a little more conservative than I was expecting, so that put me at ease a bit.
As always, Monday mornings come sooner than I might like and the 8 a.m. call time meant another long day of hair, makeup, rehearsing, dress rehearsal and then the show and the press line. There were a few changes in the numbers as one of our guys got injured and I didn't have quite enough time to work with the cage I am using, making me not quite as sturdy and safe as I might have liked. So the morning was a bit of a challenge. But by the afternoon, I felt ready...maybe not quite as ready as past weeks, but enough to feel confident.
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Dress rehearsal went well, although they asked me to change boots so that threw me a bit and we didn't have our best performance of the season. But our scores were solid so, while I was disappointed, I knew we still had the team dance, which I thought also went well.
What I really didn't expect though was the elimination announcement before the team dances. It was a little nerve-wracking to hear that one of the girls was going home and even more unsettling to be standing there as one of the last two in jeopardy, and more than that, standing next to Heather who just received all 10s from the judges. So I was happy to get through and hope I don't have to stand there again.
On to Week 7!