Ballroom Books: Cheryl Burke's Dancing Lessons

With one week to go until the cast announcements for Dancing with the Stars speculation on the stars and pros for season 14 has reached a fever pitch.  In honor of the craziness, I decided to read Cheryl Burke’s Dancing Lessons: How I Found Passion and Potential on the Dance Floor and in Life published last year.  A friend of mine, a self-proclaimed DWTS fanatic who is for the most part otherwise uninterested in ballroom, lent me her copy after giving the book a glowing review.  Unfortunately, I just didn’t have the same love for Dancing Lessons that she did and I suspect it is due in part to my greater knowledge of ballroom dancing and lesser knowledge of DWTS!

The book covers Cheryl’s life up to the present (she was only 26 when it was published) as well as some anecdotes from her DWTS career.  All in all, there isn’t much content there (did I mention she was only 26) and the book gets pretty repetitive.  Here’s my take on some of the highlights and lowlights but first a quick forewarning!  You may be reading “spoilers” since as I’ve said the book overall is pretty repetitive and low on content and detail.

Cheryl in one of her favorite costumes from DWTS

The Good

• For fans of the show, or those with mild curiosity, there are some interesting sections about Cheryl’s relationships with all of her past DWTS partners as well as the backstage workings of the live shows.  This is easily the most entertaining part of the book.

• For dancers, the history Cheryl provides of the start of her ballroom career is interesting.  Starting out primarily in pro-am, Cheryl took a different path from many of the young professionals you see around today, who more typically begin very early with amateur partners.  When covering her move into amateur and professional competition, Cheryl gives some back story to her previous partners including popular ballroom designer Vesa (Vesa Hietala) and Rhythm champ Jose Decamps.  However, for non-dancers the information is probably confusing and for dancers it’s just not enough detail to really make it enlightening; a problem most of the book suffers with.

• Cheryl’s willingness to openly discuss some very traumatic incidents from her childhood and teenage years can’t be overlooked.  In her chapter entitled “The Paso Doble: Fighting Back” (the majority of the chapters are tied to a specific ballroom dance), Cheryl reveals she was molested as a child.  Writing about the incident and the aftermath of the trial as well as the difficulties she had in understanding everything at such a young age could not have been easy.  Similarly, revealing her subsequent relationships with abusive boyfriends took courage.  This is one section of the book where her light treatment of the subject matter can be forgiven; for doing something so hard she deserves credit.

The Bad

• Did I say yet this book is repetitive?  Well I didn’t say it enough!  If I could sum up the whole thing in 30 words or less it would be:  Once shy, with an awesome and driven mom, Cheryl’s learned to deal with fame and weight issues all while learning to brand herself and focus on being a role model.  Sure there are some side stories but chapter after chapter you hear about the same things and the same themes.  After awhile you may seriously wonder if someone moved your bookmark and you’re rereading a whole chapter.

• There are some truly endearing stories in there.  Why is that a bad thing?  Mostly because the truly interesting things are treated so lightly you barely get a taste.  It is so frustrating by the end you are wishing you had learned more about her mother, her nanny, her childhood struggles, her difficult past relationships, or really anything.  Even the DWTS “gossip” wasn’t deep enough, most of it you could probably guess even if you haven’t watched the show.

There are more stars in this book than all the seasons of DWTS

The…What?!?

• You just can’t get past the feeling that you are reading a book that is one part teenage diary and one part after-school special.  There just isn’t anything to suggest that the book was written by an adult for adults (which could be great for you if you are under 16).  After hearing how amazing Cheryl’s mom is throughout the book you have to wonder whether she got the chance to edit it before someone hit print.  All signs point to no.

• The random, awkwardly placed dancing tips and bubbles of inspiration are just confusing.  As the book goes on the tips get less and less useful to anyone and the bubbles get more and more unbearably saccharine.  

This book has a serious bubble problem

 

All in all I’m sad to say this isn't a very good book, but if you do read it, it won’t take up much of your time.  If you are a DWTS fanatic, a tween, or both this book could be for you.  And if you fall into either of those categories it might just hold you over until the next season premieres on March 19th!