Nancy Kerrigan performs her tango during Week 7 of "Dancing with the Stars" on May 1, 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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My schedule finally looks a little lighter this week, which is nice – although not sure I understand why since we have four routines to learn and this week will be double elimination (two teams go home!) with a challenge round, so it's not like the show is getting any easier!
I opted to stay in LA to practice since my kids were just here, but I will miss them. My mom is coming for a couple of days over the weekend, though, so that will be nice.
This week we are dancing a tango to “Oh, Pretty Woman” for my main performance. The tango is a very precise dance, but I think it will suit me well.
The only issue is that we were given some fairly strict guidelines for this performance by Len so we need to be sure that we tell a story that delivers the elements of romance and precision that he has required; it may not be that easy.
And then there are the challenge dances, which means I have to be ready for the cha-cha, rumba and jive, so we spent some time reviewing and learning those as well.
Remember, for me, one of the real hurdles in this process is that as a skater we learn two or three new routines per SEASON. Here I am learning my seventh dance in seven weeks! This requires a whole different mindset, which I think I am just now getting used to and that I think is suiting me. With more to learn, the process is compressed, which requires greater concentration and not as much time to look at some of the extraneous issues which might have been slowing us down. We'll see.
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After a few days of rehearsal, that seemed to be the case as I was feeling pretty good about how things were going as we headed into the weekend. And I really liked the costumes for the week.
One of the funny things about “Dancing with the Stars” is that the weekends are probably the busiest time. From Saturday morning through Monday night, it is non-stop. I’m not expecting this weekend to be any different. Below is the schedule for Sunday, April 30:
9:10 a.m. – call time to CBS Studios for camera blocking of our tango
10:15 a.m. – costume fitting
10:45 a.m. – break
12:30 p.m. – second call time to CBS for all-cast opening number rehearsal/blocking
2:45 p.m. – dance-off blocking
3:30 p.m. – wrap
5 p.m. – rehearsal (if needed)
We did rehearse after all of this and it went well, so we cut it a bit short and I went to dinner with my mother and her friend. Nice evening.
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As usual, Monday morning came quick and I found myself in the hair and makeup chair where I asked them if they could loosely copy the hairstyle from one of the numbers from my old Dreams on Ice special. Always liked that look.
Loved our tango and thought our scores were strong. Wasn't crazy about going up against Simone (Biles) in the dance-off. Gave it my best shot, though, but fell a little short.
Then came the news that we weren't advancing. Can't lie...that was tough to take, but if I step back far enough I realize that this was a great experience. I didn't go on this show for any reason other than I thought it would be fun...and it was. But it was so much more. I am proud of my effort. I was surprised but honored that the show created a platform of sorts for me to talk about so many different issues: motherhood, parenting, miscarriages, eating disorders, competition, competitive spirit and more.
The reaction from people was overwhelming, and I am so moved by the fact that I just may have helped many people across the country by being willing to open up and let people in to parts of my life I haven't spoken about much in the past. While it may not seem that way as I drive to the airport to fly to New York for “Good Morning America” and “LIVE with Kelly and Ryan,” I know that I will take that with me for the rest of my life.
And I am reminded that I will go back and dance in the finale, so I will be back here on TeamUSA.org in a few weeks for my final comments and thank you's because I couldn't have done this without the help of a lot of people. Hope you'll come back to share those thoughts.
In the meantime, let's keep dancing!!