Blackpool

For those of you who haven't heard we finally received our OFFICIAL invitation to perform our cabaret at the blackpool dance festival in blackpool, england this may. We were invited in August, however, we didn't receive our official invitation until the end of February. We are so excited!!! even if we take last it doesn't matter, because we were still INVITED to take part :))

WEBSITE

Initially i started this blog to keep friends and family updated on our dancing endeavors. However, i will no longer be using our blog to post our results and such. you can now find all of the info on our website:

www.travisandjaimeetuft.com

However, i will try to continue using this blog to post about all the fun we are having while we are at our competition :).

Please take a minute to check out our website and look at all the videos and photos we have posted. It is still a work in progress, but we are excited about this new avenue we have created for ourselves.

also, you can become a fan of our page on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

http://www.facebook.com/TravisandJaimeeTuft

@TandJTuft

Thanks for your support of us on this exciting journey!

Illness

If you read my last post, you have some idea about how busy we have been the last few months. We have been so busy that we both came down with a nasty cold, however we couldn't slow down, and so we have not been able to shake it. The other day i was coughing a lot while i was teaching (i actually finally felt really great, but i couldn't stop coughing). So i went to Target to pick up some day time cough syrup. I asked the pharmacist about what they recommended and they suggested i take Delsym. I took the recommended dosage and immediately felt some relief from my cough. I went back to the studio and back to work. About 30-40 minutes later i was talking to some people when all the sudden i started feeling really weird. Needless to say within 30 more minutes i was complete incapacitated by the cough syrup. so much so that travis had to walk me out the car, take me home and let me sleep off the affects. i've never understood why kids would buy cough syrup to get high/buzz, but now i understand, it can really make you go crazy. So consider yourself warned. YIKES!

busy, busy busy!!

Wow! we have been so busy since the first of january that i haven't even had a chance to BREATH, let alone blog. Here is what we have been up to:

January 12-16 we flew my little brother Justin out here to visit for his 13th birthday present. We had some sky miles left over from when we used to fly delta that we used, so it was a relatively cheap birthday present. We had so much fun!! It was kinda nice to have an excuse to run around NYC acting like a tourist. :)

January 19-22 We went home to visit our families. Unfortunately we don't have any pictures, but we did have a really nice time. We didn't really do anything too crazy, but it was very great to see everyone again.

January 28 We had a competition in Stamford Connecticut.

February 4 We had a competition in Maryland

February 11-13 We had a competition in Costa Rica. Such a great weekend! we were really busy dancing, but we managed to have time to go zip lining through the jungle with some friends.

February 17-19 We had a competition in Florida. For the most part, we just hung out at the hotel. but we managed to have enough time to walk down to the St. Petersburg pier and look around. Not the most fun, but a nice way to spend the afternoon.

February 24-26 we had a competition in NYC. Not only did we dance but travis also danced with some of his students.

March 2-4 we had a competition in Las Vegas. My parents came to watch. We had a nice time with them. we also managed to do a few things like go to the circus circus adventure dome and also go to the old strip and Pawn Stars pawn shop.

March 8-14 We were hired to go to Italy to do a show and also some coaching. We had a really great time and LOVED the students we worked with. In addition to that, we also had fun seeing some of the sights.

March 17 we were hired to do the show for the Baltimore Dance Challenge. We had a great time. I LOVE doing shows!

March 23-24 We danced at the Tri-State competition. not only did we dance but travis also danced with some of his students.

March 25 We were hired to do the show at Kent State Dinner Dance. The audience was great and we had a really nice time.

March 30-April 1 We danced at the Michigan Dance Challenge.

last little bit of 2011

We finished up 2011 with 3 competitions in December.

Southeastern States in Orlando, FL. We took 1st in Rising star smooth, 2nd in rising star theater arts, 1st in pro show dance, 2nd in pro rising star, 1st in pro theater arts. it was a very busy weekend since we did 3 different show routines in addition to all the rounds of smooth, but we had a great time and we were even able to spend some time in Sea World (which was really cool!!)

Holiday Dance Classic in Vegas. We took 1st in rising star smooth and 1st in open pro show dance. we made the semi final of the open pro smooth. This was also a fun weekend since my parents were able to come and watch again. We were also able to spend some time with our really good friends who moved from new jersey to utah.

Yuletide Ball, Washington D.C. We took 1st in rising star smooth, 1st in open pro showdance, and 1st in pro smooth. Talk about a great way to end the year.

We were also able to ring in the new year by performing with the philadelphia orchestra on new years eve. It was such a fun and exciting event to be apart of. It definitely had its challenges since dancing to live music is subject to interpretation and different from the recorded version we had practiced to, but we were so glad we could be included in this special evening. What an honor to perform with such an amazing group.