DWTS – Cheryl Burke’s Press Tour For New Book “Dancing Lessons” (Excerpt from Book)
Cheryl is making her rounds on TV (Good Morning America, Extra, Entertainment Tonight, and The Ellen Show) today. Here she is on Good Morning America this morning.
You can also read this exclusive excerpt from her new book “Dancing Lessons
The Freestyle: Finding Myself in the SpotlightThe freestyle dance is not restricted by any conventional steps or required choreography. It is simply a dance in which the dancer can showcase whatever movement or emotion seems appropriate.
I’ve always been kind of a play-by-the-rules girl; I tend to like things structured, predictable, and sometimes even a little boring. But all of that changed on February 26, 2006, the last night of my first season on Dancing with the Stars. It was an evening when all of my rules went out the window and everything in my life suddenly changed for the better. Yet I almost missed out on what has been the greatest adventure of my life so far because I was afraid to break out of the comfortable mold in which I was living. I know it sounds unbelievable to say that I almost turned down the opportunity to star as a professional dancer on the hit reality dance show, but that’s the truth.
Six months prior to that February night, I was living in New York City with my boyfriend and ballroom dance partner when suddenly I received a phone call from one of the show’s producers, who wanted to talk to me about the show on ABC. The dancer Louis van Amstel, whom I knew from the ballroom dance world, worked on season one of the show, and he recommended that the producers get in touch with me. I didn’t have an agent at the time; some of the producers just saw me perform at a competition in Los Angeles and agreed that I might be exactly what they were looking for, so Louis passed along my number.
My immediate reaction was to turn them down because of my strong fear of cameras. But the more I thought about it, the more I figured, “Why not? Give it a chance, at least, before you turn them down.” So I went to Manhattan for the meeting, but even then I was not bowled over with enthusiasm. I kind of downplayed it to my dancer friends, who were as skeptical as I was.
Extra also interviewed her. Note what she said about being on the show this upcoming Season in bold text.
Cheryl decided to go public with her painful story in her new book, “Dancing Lessons,” which is also an account of her lifetime struggle with her body image, and the travails of enduring two abusive exes. “I had no self-esteem. I had no self-confidence.”
The dancer also recalled gaining 10 pounds and receiving negative attention from the media. “And then the next day I had to go and perform in front of millions of people in skimpy outfits.” During that time, Burke revealed she did not have the support of Max and Louie, her co-stars on “Dancing.” “That was very hurtful, but we are at peace now and everything is fine.”
Burke went on to tell Adrianna that she has “a good feeling” she will be back for season 12 of “DWTS,” but has yet to find out who her new partner will be. The new cast will be announced on February 28.
And here she is on The Ellen Show. I love some of the pictures from the book they show in this.
Entertainment Tonight also interviewed HERE.
Some good interviews. She certainly has been sharing a lot lately. Hope she doesn’t regret it–lots of crazy stalker people out there.
Disappointed to hear her say she had a fling with Chad. Guy was such a player–she really should have known better.
At least she acknowledges that she has made poor choices–hope she is making better ones now. Cause knowing you make bad choices doesn’t mean much if you don’t learn from those mistakes and make some changes. She has too much going for her to waste her time, energy and emotional health on those type of bad relationships. Good luck to her!
Hum… I can’t believe that a girl who danced in front of a lot of people on a ballroom competition was afraid of cameras… it sounds… weird… =p
I think that she would say something about her and Drew (that I really thing that happened =p ).
And I barely remember when Louis and Maks talked about her wheight but find something here: http://www.examiner.com/celebrity-news-in-national/dwts-maksim-chmerkovskiy-louis-van-amstel-want-cheryl-burke-lacey-schwimmer-to-lose-some-weight
A little gross, uh? (Specially from a gay guy as Louis that surely must have suffered some sort of prejudice – as he showed on his dances with Niecy and Cho, for example)… =/ well, past is past…
Anyway, I think she can win next season. She’s not my favourite pro, but I like her specially after her argentine tango studies… =]
Can you guys adjust the embedding for the bottom video on this post? It always auto plays when I come to the site and I hate having to turn my sound off or not come here cause I’ve heard that first line “You were sexually abused as a child” twenty times. It’s not a big deal if you can’t, but I always like not having to worry about videos auto starting when I go to a website! Thanks!
Wellll….John knows how to do that, I think, and he’s away for the week. I don’t know the code, although at this point maybe Vogue can change the embed to a link, since the post has been up for a while – because I’m having the same problem.
Sounds good. I’ll do that right now.
Awesome, thanks so much! Sorry to be a pain
My Dad just finished Cheryl’s book. He called it “Masterful”. He was so into the book, he read it in two days. He said her warmth shines through no matter her hardships and struggles to become who she is today. He especially loved the story about her visiting a terminally ill child in a Chicago hospital.