On Carolien's bucket list

Participating in Dance Dance Dance

Sometimes there are those things that come along and you immediately add them to your bucket list. For me, at the top of the list is: participating in Dance Dance Dance.

‘Why would you voluntarily exhaust yourself for four months?’ I hear you thinking. First of all: you get the chance to work with the world’s greatest choreographers, you learn music videos one-on-one that I mimicked as a little girl (including embarrassing performances that the whole family had to watch) and as the icing on the cake: in the end, you get to perform those clips in a gigantic studio, together with fantastic dancers. You won't get closer to a Beyoncé stage experience than this. Hopefully, that dream will come true someday, but this year I can already experience the whole adventure up close through my boyfriend Jelle de Jong. Together with Bridget Maasland, he has been training non-stop since February for one amazing choreography after another that I would kill for. Every week I receive a video of the rehearsals and I am already so proud! All the rumors you hear are true: you train as a candidate for at least twenty hours a week, everyone faces injuries, and then you also have to perform at the top of your ability during such a live show. Last week I was allowed to attend the recordings of the second live show and I was almost as nervous as the candidates themselves. The set was gigantic, the jury looked even more impressive than on TV, and all the professional dancers were so fucking good. I have so much respect for all the candidates who stand on such a stage without any dance experience and then dance their hearts out. Behind the scenes, you might think that the rivalry drips off, but nothing could be further from the truth: in the past months, they have shared blood, sweat, and tears during those grueling training sessions and everyone wishes each other their best performance tonight.

Fortunately, no couple is eliminated after this show, but the tears flowed abundantly afterwards. Out of happiness, but also because one was upset that she did that one dance step wrong, or the other because that injury is really going to play a role now. Nothing but respect for these candidates who can rightly be called semi-professional dancers at the end of the series! Who do I think will win? You’ll have to watch for yourself this fall, but I can already reveal that there are a lot of surprises in store. This fall, I will definitely be glued to the screen in my ‘team Jelle & Bridget’ T-shirt, somewhat jealous but mostly incredibly proud.