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.

Puerto Rico

We had so much fun!!! aside from dancing we had some pretty fun adventures.


Wednesday we arrived in the afternoon and just checked out the gorgeous resort. That night we went to a pig roast for the welcome party, and it was delicious!!! afterward we went with some friends to another resort and played a little roulet. my parents arrived late that night (and rightfully so they were pretty grumpy after flying all day).

Thursday we took it pretty easy: checked out the resort, lounged, found the local market to buy some snacks and then danced rising star that evening.

Friday we went downtown to explore old san juan. it was a fun afternoon activity, not my favorite, but still nice to get out and see the city. for dinner we all went out to dinner with our friends the Marzells and had such a nice time. after dinner we dance open pro smooth.the fort at old san juan

what a freak!!!

this delicious coconut beverage was created right in front of out eyes while this man was just hacking away at the coconut, kinda scary since one slip and there goes his hand. but it was a tasty refreshing treat.

Saturday we spent most of our time at the beach just lounging and swimming in the ocean. so beautiful and so relaxing and i actually was able to tan a little, a REAL tan, finally! That afternoon we went to watch a local cock fight, which sounds really horrible and shady but it was crazy becuase the arena it was held in looked like a mini NBA sports arena with a jumbo tron in the middle, it was such a nice facility. this was definitely my dad's favorite activity and in general we all had a nice time. That night we danced showdance.

look at that happy face

the locker room where they are prepping the cocks

Sunday we rented a car and they upgraded us to a jeep (which was so much fun) and we drove to the local rainforest, which is currently in the running for one of the wonders of the world. It was pretty fun to drive through and hike around a little. Then we drove to a beach and took a kayaking tour to the bio-luminescent bay, which was such a fun activity. The tour lasted about 2 hours and the four of us were laughing the entire time especially whenever we tried to race. it was really funny to see my dad play a little "dirty" in the races, one time he rammed our kayak and pushed us into the trees, it was so funny. It was really funny becuase we all managed to stay dry for the most part until at the very end when we were all getting out of the kayaks in like 12 inches of water and my dad caught his foot and fell in, i guess thats what he gets for pushing us into the trees :)).

famous waterfall

look at that leaf

happy little campers

the sun was so bright

hiking into this waterfall was so funny because it was pretty hot and every time we turned around my dad had shed another article of clothing

Monday morning we woke up early for one last swim in the ocean. then we ran inside, showered, packed our bag, and left for the airport. It was so hard to leave, especially since this is the first time i've gone on a relaxing tropical vacation with my parents and it was so great to see them relax a little and just hang out. All in all we LOVED the weekend and LOVED being able to spend time with my parents, since we get to see them so little now.

last swim!

busy busy busy!!!!

We have been traveling like crazy the since my last post. here is what we have been up to:

Sept 23-25 we went to boston for a competition. we didn't dance since there weren't any pro events, but travis took a few students and they did SO well! One of his students' took first in her scholarship event and his other student took first in her single dances. woohoo!

Oct 1 Constitution State in Stamford, Connecticut. we took 1st in showdance and 2nd in open pro smooth. they didn't have rising star at this competition.

October 7-9 First Coast Classic in St. Augustine, Florida. we took 2nd in Rising Star (we weren't very happy), 2nd in show dance and 4th in open pro smooth. Even though we weren't very happy with our results this weekend we had SO much fun hanging out. It was such a crazy weekend because we flew the same day we danced and we had a layover in DC where we missed our connecting flight because we were complete idiots and we were just talking and laughing and next thing we know boom... the door was closed and we missed our flight, ah! however, we were able to get on another flight and barely make it in time to dance. Also, we rented a car for the weekend and they randomly upgraded our car for free to a mustang :)). plus we were able to do some great shopping at some outlet malls near our hotel, so we managed to have a good time.

Oct 14-16 Hotlanta in Atlanta, Georgia. This competition was awesome we had so much fun yet again, plus we had great results as well :). We took 5th in open pro smooth (amazing result), 1st in showdance and 1st in Rising star smooth. plus we spent a day in Atlanta hanging out. we went to the world of coca cola which was so fun since they have a big tasting center where you can try all of their sodas from around the world. we also had lunch at a place called mary macs. they found out we were dancers and they took our pictures and thought we were famous, it was so funny.

Oct 21-22 New Jersey State Open in Longbranch, NJ. We took 1st in open pro smooth, 1st in rising star smooth and 2nd in show dance. definitely a good weekend plus it was nice because we were able to drive each night to the competition and spend the day at home for a change.

Nov 2-7 Caribbean Classic in Puerto Rico. Best competition of my life!!! so much fun and the most amazing vacation all wrapped into one. and it was double the fun becuase my parents were able to come and see us dance for the first time since we turned professional. it was so fun having them come and seeing how proud they were. we took 1st in rising star smooth, 1st in open pro smooth and 2nd in showdance. I will post details about the vacation portion with pictures later.

Nov 17-21 Ohio Star Ball in Columbus, ohio. This was our first time going to the infamous Ohio Star ball and it was such an exciting weekend!! We took 1st in the Professional Theater Arts division which was a HUGE accomplishment since the couple that took 2nd has consistently beaten us in the past, so we were shocked to win and couldn't have been more excited. In open pro smooth we made the semi-final, we were hoping to make the final, but we were very happy with our dancing. For rising star smooth we took 1st in all dances, which was exciting and we were very happy with our dancing for the weekend. all in all it was a very successful weekend and definitely one to be proud of, especially since it was our first time ever attending the event.