A Dancer’s Diary III, the night we left it all on the dance floor….

It was such an honor and a thrill to dance at the Seattle Dances! event benefitting The Plymouth Housing group. It was a joyous and festive evening and at the end of the night we raised over a million dollars to help the chronically homeless people of Seattle.

credit Emily Heston & Travis Whetman

I was paired with the most wonderful professional dancer, Travis Whetman, and after hours of rigorous rehearsals, wardrobe consultations and adjustments, moments of frets and doubts, full body butterflies as well as many laughs and smiles our Balboa Swing performance came out swingingly {an adverb, chiefly British, meaning: very, extremely} well.

credit Emily Heston and Travis Whetman

At the bottom of the post is the official video of our performance, we danced to “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that Swing” by Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga. Travis choreographed a great routine!

credit Emily Heston & Travis Whetman

At our first rehearsal in front of a live audience {the other dancers, and people from Plymouth Housing and Century Ballroom} my knees felt so shaky I wasn’t sure I could take a step. Thankfully, Travis made sure I took that first step and then some.

credit Travis Whetman flips Emily Heston

Our next rehearsal was in full dress at Fremont Studios, the venue for the big evening, which was a good thing to do because that’s when I realized that my dress was way too big on top, to the point that we were at risk of a “wardrobe malfunction”.

credit Emily Heston swings with Travis Whetman

Thankfully the amazing costume designer, Jamie Von Stratton was there to whisk it away and then bring it back the next evening, steamed and fitting perfectly. To learn the story behind the dress click on A Dancer’s Dairy II. She also embellished the dress and my shoes with rhinestones and pearls, taking them from demure to dazzling and adding serious sparkle power to every flip, skip and jump, see the original version of the shoes at A Dancer’s Diary.

credit Emily Heston and Travis Whetman do the Balboa Swing

I found these charming jeweled bees and at first attached them to the toes of my shoes. Once again, thank goodness for rehearsal, because the metal fasteners cut into my feet with every step.

So I decided to let the cute little bugs migrate to the back of my shoes, where they could flit and flutter with every Balboa swivel.

credit Emily Heston Balboa Swivel Travis Whetman

By the dress rehearsal I was able to push my fears aside, calm the butterflies and go out and enjoy doing the dance I love. It was great to walk away that afternoon with this positive experience under my sparkly little belt.

Travis Whetman “lifts” Emily Heston

The day of the event, I rolled in with kits, clothing and a caboodle of play things for the guests sitting at my tables. Here is how the tables turned out…

credit Swing with Team Emily

Nothing but the best for my friends, family and supporters, I supplied cold bottles of my favorite champagne, Piper Heidsieck, now being offered with these fabulous covers to keep them safe and cool.

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The champagne glasses I set at the table come in a rainbow of colors and light up when filled with liquids.

The noisemakers came from Oriental Trading, my favorite is this customized swinger!

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After setting up my tables it was time for hair and make up. The team from The Beyond Project

knew just what to do. This is a unique organization that pairs the talents of health and beauty professionals with people who are suffering and may not have the means for treatments that may boost their confidence and allow them to move on in life.

And then it was off to the “non” {for me anyway} cocktail party to greet our guests.

Seattle Dances Hair do Emily Heston

After plenty of sips and bites guests formed a Congo line to get to their seats and we dancers went backstage to change and prepare for our performances.

credit backstage with Travis Whetman and Emily Heston

To keep nerves at bay we ran through the dance a couple of more times, dodging trays of food that were storming out to feed the guests.

credit Joyful lift backstage, Travis Whetman and Emily Heston

It was actually quite exciting to be behind the scenes watching Kaspar and his catering crew prepare to serve over 500 guests. I especially loved seeing the progression of this salad each time I walked by, spinach leaves, pea leaves and tendrils corralled in a strip of zucchini then surrounded with colorful cubes of watermelon and squash and topped with feta cheese. Laid out on the table they looked like an incredibly well tended garden.

Finally, it was our turn to go on stage. It was exciting to walk out on the stage to enjoy the culmination of all of our efforts. It was exhilarating to share our dance with all of our friends, family and supporters of Plymouth Housing. Their cheers of support encouraged us to go for every move and to leave it all on the dance floor!

Before I knew it we were at our finale which entailed Travis swinging my legs high up to his left side, then to his right.

credit Swinging it, Travis Whetman and Emily Heston

and then a carousel ride, spinning around the stage, me facing back and out, a situation which always makes me laugh!

credit The lime green Carousel Emily Heston and Travis Whetman

Throughout our practices I was always focused on executing my steps, so I love having the chance to see all of my partners smashing moves in this video, this guy really has a great style.

I hope that you’ll enjoy it too.

Thank you to all of my generous and devoted friends who took time out of their busy days to vote for me on~line with their donations to Plymouth Housing. I’m so grateful, as are the people who’s lives you will change forever.

A special thank you to all of you who came to the event to cheer us on, I truly appreciate all of your support!

I also want to thank Rolan Wong and Vivian Hsu of HRV media for all of the great images in this post.

Thank you to Plymouth Housing Group for all that you do and for allowing me to be a part of your efforts to build hope and transform lives by dancing at this extraordinary event, it was my pleasure.

Thank you to the extraordinary Hallie Kuperman for her spirit and devotion and all of her dancers from Century Ballroom, I loved swinging in your special world.

Thank you Jamie Von Stratton for making my dreamy dress, it was so very fun to dance in!!

Thank you to Rachel Hile and the crew from The Beyond Project for your special mission and vision and for making all of the dancers look their best.

To my partner Travis: Merci beaucoup, tu es très gentil. Et rappelez-vous, ça ne veut rien dire si ça n’a pas ce swing!

Swingingly,

Emily Heston, Celebrity Dancer

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