Dancing Through Life by Candace Cameron Bure, Erin Davis

while learning a happy dance was fun enough, but the experience was made even sweeter by the support I received from my former Full House castmates Lori Loughlin and Andrea Barber. You might know them best as Aunt Becky and best friend Kimmy Gibbler. They made a special trip to the rehearsal studio to support and encourage me. Andrea and Scott Weinger, who played my boyfriend Steve on the show, were also in the audience for the live show that week. They joined with John Stamos, Dave Coulier, and Bob Saget (a.k.a. Uncle Jesse, Joey, and Danny Tanner) in rallying for votes through social media. They couldn’t all make it to the set, but all of the cast members were extremely supportive. It was exciting to show the world that even after all these years, we are still such a huge part of each other’s lives. Their cheers joined the chorus coming from my family and friends and fed into the excitement and joy I was feeling at this point in the journey.
    I needed all of that love and support to carry me through the physical side of learning a jive. The jive is supposed to be lively and uninhibited. Cue: “Dancing Queen” music . . . “You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life; ooh, see that girl, watch that scene, diggin’ the dancing queen!” I bet at least your toes were tapping as you thought of that song. The jive makes everyone want to move! It is a dance that is really fun to watch and do, but it’s very physically demanding. It’s fast and involves a lot of hopping up and down. Rehearsals made me feel like I was in a cardio exercise class for hours! To top it off, this was the week of competition when our practice times were lengthened from four to six hours. We literally clocked in and clocked out for each rehearsal. We were not allowed to stay longer than our allotted time and were not permitted to rehearse off site. Our contracts made it clear that any couples that violated these rules would be instantly kicked off the show. Betcha didn’t know dancing could be such serious business!
    The length of our dance also increased by fifteen seconds this week. In real life, fifteen seconds feels like nothing. I can’t even answer an e-mail in that amount of time! But as I was listening to “Blue Suede Shoes” for the first time in rehearsals, I could sense the difference that fifteen seconds could make in the dance world. I could almost feel how many more steps I was going to have to take. It made my body hurt just thinking about it! As we rehearsed, I learned just how precious and taxing fifteen seconds could be.
    Attitude Is Everything
    While I was determined to enjoy myself, that didn’t always happen naturally. I picked up the steps to the jive very easily to Mark’s surprise, but when I tried to merge those steps into a fluid routine adding choreographed arm movements, I just couldn’t seem to do it. I was so frustrated! It was obvious to me that I wasn’t dancing at the pace I wanted to be and that bothered me.
    Remember how I told you that Mark was a very patient instructor? That’s true! In general, his approach with me was gentle and I responded well to that. But a good coach also knows when to push his student, and this week Mark pushed me to respond differently to the challenges I was facing. To put it bluntly, he called me out on my bad attitude.
    He said, “Your attitude is everything, so that’s coming across in your movements and how you’re dancing.”
    Mark warned me, “As soon as the song starts I can already see in your body language and in your face that you’re not going to get through this routine.”
    He pointed out that the reason I did so well in week one was that I enjoyed myself. He knew from experience that the mental game is what starts separating the pack of contestants on DWTS . People who start getting mentally frustrated will get eliminated because the pressure will ultimately accompany them onto the dance floor. I didn’t want my frustrations to lead to