High Heels & Ice Skates – Attending Emerald Ball & Disney On Ice

When I was younger I loved to watch ballroom dancing on PBS. I loved seeing the beautiful dances and the sparkly dresses and the sheer elegance of it all. Now I may no longer watch ballroom dance competitions but I still really admire the art form. So much so that I took ballroom dance lessons a few years ago. I won’t be lighting up the dance floor anytime soon but it was a lot of fun.

And you know what else was fun? Attending the Emerald Ball – a ballroom dance competition held annually in Los Angeles. It’s a big event in the ballroom dance world and I was lucky enough to be a spectator.

What an event! It’s a whole world I never knew about. First of all there’s lots of vendors selling all your ballroom dance essentials. It was fun looking at all the (very expensive) costumes and jewelry.


lots and lots of earrings

Love these dresses from Dore Designs!

After looking at all the dresses on the racks I wanted to see them in action so I headed to the ballroom to check out the competition.

Ooohhh…sparkles!

But the dresses weren’t the only things that impressed. I was happy to learn that the world of ballroom dance is very open minded. There were people of all shapes and sizes – skinny, pleasantly plump, young, old…everyone was represented. I love that you don’t have to fit into a box to ballroom dance – as long as you love it you can compete. At least that’s what I surmised after watching the competition.

It was fascinating. And exciting to watch it in person. I had such a good time that I’m thinking I need to sign up for lessons again!

And if ballroom dance isn’t glitzy enough…I also recently attended Disney On Ice. Just like ballroom dance I loved watching figure skating when I was young. Even more so. I was all over the Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding drama. And Oksana Baul. And Kristy Yamaguchi. And Victor! Who could forget Viktor Petrenko!

Anyway, I recently saw Disney On Ice when it rolled into town. I had never gone before and it was an experience. The show was Treasure Trove and it featured scores and scores of Disney characters. My favorite had to be Pumba.