Oct 4th
2013
Dancing With The Stars Damian and Tina Arena Contemporary

Dancing With The Stars Damian and Tina Arena Contemporary
So it was a very busy schedule leading up to performing our first dance on Dancing With The Stars series 13, and the week’s lead up was one I shall not forget. I was lucky enough to get along and see Tina perform the national anthem for the start of the AFL Grand Final between my beloved Fremantle Dockers and the Hawthorn football club. Unfortunately Freo couldn’t get the win on the day! We can leave that topic there…

Tina Arena Singing The Australian National Anthem at the AFL Grand Final 2013
However to see Tina performing to over 100 thousand plus people at the game, not to mention the million’s of viewers around the world had me thinking how would I react in that situation?? If I had only a few weeks to prep myself in an industry that she has managed to carve an amazing career out of. It wouldn’t have been pretty… Well welcome to Dancing with the Stars.
Dancing With The Stars Damian and Tina Arena Contemporary
I thought all the stars did really well on Tuesday night and handled the pressure of getting out on the dance floor and out of there comfort zone’s to perform live around Australia very well, It’s a lot harder than it looks trust me. So first up for us this season was Contemporary, which is new to the format and rather new to me as well, but I liked the challenge and I thought Tina handle it amazingly. We were given a great track to work with and it really helped in setting up the story of the dance, plus along with the costume and lighting effects it all came together quite nicely. All the judge’s comments were positive which is a great start and all the hard work Tina has been putting in definitely paid off.

Dancing With The Stars Damian and Tina Arena Contemporary
The judges scores,
Todd McKenny – 9
Kym Johnson – 9
Helen Richey – 9
Adam Garcia – 8
Total for the night – 37
In case you missed it here’s the dance,
Can’t wait to show you what we have install for you next week, so keep smiling and keep dancing and we’ll see you at 7.30pm on Tuesday…
Professional Dancer
Damian Whitewood
October 4, 2013 at 6:28 pm
Tina did a great job with the anthem at the AFL Grand Final, as we knew she would. I think it’s great that you look at the challenge of singing to an audience in contrast to what Tina is doing.
The contemporary dance was worth the wait, beautifully choreographed, and gorgeously danced 🙂
I look forward to next week – “you’ve got my vote”
October 5, 2013 at 1:01 am
Hi Damian,
Being a Tina Arena fan for a long time now, I must say that you worked wonders with Tina Arena in terms of her dancing. The ‘contemporary’ dance and the choreography were amazing. Thank you too Damian for posting these Tina snippets here in your website.
I’m not from Australia but me and my friends would vote through the website (Thank God that’s possible).
The Tina-Damian tandem is just superb. Keep up the great work!
You’ve got a fan here in the Philippines!
Can’t wait for next week!
November 26, 2013 at 4:17 pm
So shocked by last nights results. Tina was robbed.
Damien, you guys did such a beautiful job throughout the competition. You Paso last week was unbelievable and I was unsure it could be topped. THEN you pull out that Freestyle!!!! Helen was in tears, doesn’t that say it all. Absolutely amazing. You should have won, but that dance left no doubt as to what an amazing job you had both done. All due respect to Cos, I loved his Tango last week, but you and Tina were more consistent.
Trophy or not, thanks you for 11 weeks of beautiful entertainment and for providing Tina with the platform to show the world how incredible she is. Australia should be proud.