On Saturday, August 26th I competed along with seven other great Clevelanders in the Dancing With the Cleveland Stars competition benefiting the Lupus Foundation of America Greater Ohio.

When I signed on to do this 2 months ago, after supporting my friend Christina who had competed prior-and won!, I was a mixed bag of excited and apprehensive. On one hand I’ve always wanted to take ballroom and missed dancing tremendously, but on the other hand I haven’t danced in years so I’m pretty rusty. Add to that the time commitment, which was just two months to train, the first of which I was unable to make it to more than two rehearsals. I spent August cramming, trying to get down not just one but two dance numbers. Luckily my instructor (and the man in charge of it all) Johnny gave me an awesome dance partner in Nick Malusky. Nick was incredible to work with and through this experience I’m grateful to gain his friendship.

Dancing With the Cleveland Stars models itself off of the hit ABC Show, which I’m personally a huge fan of! Each dancer learns a number that was actually performed on the show as well as a Latin routine. The judges score each contestant and we had fan votes which were ticket stubs put in the contestants vote jar. Those combined helped determine the winner. (Spoiler Alert: I did not win, but had the first perfect score of the night! Three 10’s!!)

Overall, as frustrating as it could be at times (I was definitely challenged by this experience-in a good way), I’m so glad I did it. The best part is the amount of money and awareness we raised for the Lupus Foundation of America! For more info on the organization click here: http://www.lupus.org/ohio/news 

Show night was captured by my boyfriend Patrick, and you can now watch my Intro and both dance numbers on my YouTube Channel! (Don’t forget to click to subscribe!)

HUGE THANK YOU to all of my family and friends that came out to support me through this experience and on show night. I am blessed to have you all in my life. Thank you to my love Patrick for his unwavering love and support, and for being my cheerleader and rock through it all.

Check out http://www.lupus.org/ohio/events/ if you would like to learn more about the Lupus Foundation and get involved in the next Dancing With the Cleveland Stars!

XO,

Leah*

Don’t forget to follow my adventures on Twitter and Instagram at @ClevelandLeah