{"id":3913,"date":"2017-06-26T10:00:36","date_gmt":"2017-06-26T10:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/?p=3913"},"modified":"2017-06-26T10:00:36","modified_gmt":"2017-06-26T10:00:36","slug":"charlene-proctor-loving-dance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/blog\/dance-info-news-trends\/charlene-proctor-loving-dance\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlene Proctor: Loving the Dance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>As a self-help author who writes books on positive thinking, interfaith and personal development, and other groundbreaking spiritual pursuits, Charlene Proctor has found new life and enthusiasm through dance.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not really such a leap from her former career \u2013 with extensive experience in television and radio, Charlene is used to performing and enticing a rapt audience. And now, in her glorious gowns and deliberate dance steps, she is once again capturing crowds.<\/p>\n

\u201cDance can be so very challenging,\u201d says Charlene. \u201cIt takes a lot of years and time to set a goal, and whether that\u2019s bronze, silver, gold, or social dancing, dance becomes your passion. At least, it is for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Charlene teaches her readers in countless books that have made it\u00a0to the best seller lists, is how important it is to be fully present and full of joy for that thing you love to do. If you take that approach, everything falls in place at the right moment.<\/p>\n

Dance is a sport as much as an art form, Charlene insists. \u201cDance comes \"\"<\/a>from a deep place inside a person. It\u2019s challenging to always let go and be able to express something that\u2019s greater than yourself while still keeping a competitive focus,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Charlene Proctor grew up in Chicago, married and moved to Michigan, where she has lived for most of her adult life, currently in Bloomfield Hills, just minutes from the Fred Astaire studio.<\/p>\n

Her sons were devoted athletes, so much of her parenting years were spent on soccer and football fields. As they grew, she returned to dance with her husband. She attended a dance competition and was \u201ccompletely mesmerized with competitive dancing.\u201d And that was it. \u201cI jumped with two feet in, and I have never looked back,\u201d she says, with relish.<\/p>\n

Charlene practices six days of every week and has two partners \u2013 with our instructor, Viktor Tkachenko, and with Igor Kiselev, from Atlantic Ballroom in Baltimore. She dances international style with Igor and American smooth with Viktor.<\/p>\n

When asked what her favorite mode of dance is, she can\u2019t commit. \u201cAll of the dances are like our children,\u201d she says. \u201cThey\u2019re all endearing in some ways and I love them all so much, honestly, the only dance I probably would say out of the international, fox trot is my favorite. I love and appreciate all the dances so much. I wish I could keep up with all the styles.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>She competes once every three weeks, sometimes more often, totaling something like 18 competitions a year across the nation.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s competed more than 115 times, winning many titles and awards \u2013 top bronze, silver, gold, or top competitor at least 60 times. Last year, Viktor and Charlene won the smooth championship at the Fred Astaire Worlds. Also last year, at U.S.D.C., she was a finalist in three styles and won the rising star Latin.<\/p>\n

There is so much to love about dance, says Charlene, not the least of which is the gorgeous attire. Over the years, she\u2019s worked with many professional designers. At nearly six feet tall in her dance shoes with a long body, Charlene likes working with designers to create custom designs that fit her and her style perfectly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the aspect of custom design because everybody has different requirements,\u201d she says. \u201cI don\u2019t like a lot of fussiness to the costumes. It has to have a certain cut and fit for me and over the years I have developed different preferences for fabric and skirt style. That part of the sport and the art is very glamorous, but to be able to perform properly, to really express yourself, the costuming is important; it is one of the most fun and unique things about our industry.\u201d\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI get a lot of questions from people who start the process, maybe they\u2019re not certain, or they find it really challenging,\u201d she says. \u201cOne coach I\u2019ve had for 7 years, Ray Rivers, always says that everything is simple and nothing is easy. I remind myself of that. Sometimes when the process gets overwhelming, and it seems like it\u2019s too challenging, we have to remember that after many years of practice, the process of the dance journey is super important to remember.\u201d<\/p>\n

Says Charlene, \u201cIt\u2019s not all about the winning even though most of us who compete, that IS part of the experience. We want to perform to our potential and perform with excellence because if you do that, the winning comes naturally and you don\u2019t lose the joy in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always try to keep the best attitude that we can to make sure all the boxes are checked at the end of the day and we can still put on beautiful gowns on and go out and enjoy ourselves and be in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a self-help author who writes books on positive thinking, interfaith and personal development, and other groundbreaking spiritual pursuits, Charlene Proctor has found new life and enthusiasm through dance. It\u2019s not really such a leap from her former career \u2013 with extensive experience in television and radio, Charlene is used to performing and enticing a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[43,45,76,38],"class_list":["post-3913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dance-info-news-trends","tag-ballroom-dance","tag-bloomfield-hills","tag-dance","tag-fred-astaire-dance-studio"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3913\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/bloomfield-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}