— from an interview from a recent issue of Dance Notes.
 

You both achieved moderate success with other partners but when you got together you catapulted straight into the finals. To what do you attribute that success?

Dan: It's having the right partner. I think that's the bottom line.

Nicole: I met Dan probably four years prior to actually dancing with him when I was very new to competition dancing. My partner and I saw Dan and his former partner dancing and we introduced ourselves at a comp. Then he became my coach for a couple of years. He would come to my school and judge the showcases. One showcase they had us get up and dance, and it kind of clicked. I thought it would be really fun to dance with him.

Dan: I always thought it would be great to dance with Nicole. When I was training her and her partner I said to him, "If you ever want to stop dancing with Nicole let me know because I would love to dance with her." He always thought I was kidding but I really wasn't. For about a year I didn't go to her school. Then when I went back I got the feeling her ex-partner was kind of tired of competing. I think he also knew it wasn't going to go as far as he wanted it to.

Nicole: His love for dancing was not as strong as mine. I think he actually knew I could go further with Dan, so he thought it was a good business decision for me to dance with him. We were at a competition in Vegas when he told me he didn't want to dance anymore

Dan: I had just broken up with a partner when Nicole's partner approached me about dancing with her. I thought it was a great opportunity, but initially I said no. He kept pushing me and calling me but for several months I said no. It was simply because Nicole never asked me herself. She never came to me and asked me to dance so I felt her heart wasn't in it.

Nicole: In the back of my mind I always wanted to dance with him but I didn't say anything because I felt I had to think of my partner, who was also my husband. It all started in August, and in the meantime Dan was trying out with other girls. I thought he didn't want to dance with me. At the Ohio Star Ball I came over to him when he was in between dancing with students and I said, "Dan, I want to dance with you. It doesn't have anything to do with my husband wanting me to. I want to do it." So we had a tryout.

Dan: Glenis Dee, my long time coach and friend, knew I was looking for a partner so I asked her to watch Nicole and give me her input. Glenis encouraged me to have the tryout. So we danced in the lobby of the Hyatt in Columbus. I respected Glenis' opinion and it felt right to me, so I decided it was what I needed to do.