Meet "The Meat"

Dear Madonna,

I can't believe I haven't told you about this already: yours truly will be competing at this year's US Open Swing Dance Championships.

My partner, affectionately known as "The Meat", picked me up - quite literally - at SwingDiego last May. We met late one night before the awards ceremony for his "kids" (he coaches a couple of young competitive dancers - so cute!) and started practicing the next day.

I should mention that the US Open is the most prestigious competition on the West Coast Swing dance circuit.  We're competing as Masters - over 50 years old - so the field is somewhat limited, but there are some very experienced competitors in that division, well-known to the judges, and probably accustomed to the pressure of dancing on the US Open floor.

I should also mention that The Meat lives in Prescott, Arizona. It's been a *crazy* schedule of travelling and meeting up at dance events all over the country in order to finish the choreography, rehearse, and get private coaching sessions.  He's here in Toronto this week, and we've ordered our costumes - so the whole thing is getting more and more real.

The Meat heads back to Arizona on Monday, then I fly out there on Wednesday and attending Desert City Swing (http://www.desertcityswing.com/) next weekend . He'll be back here again just before Swing Niagara (http://www.swingniagara.com/) where we hope to put the routine on the floor for the first time.

I keep imagining Robert Royston, the emcee for the US Open, announcing:  "From Prescott, Arizona, and Toronto, Canada...."

Ciao,
Julie