Mark Ballas' 'Dancing With the Stars' blog

• Monday's dance: The quickstep
• Follow Mark on Twitter at @markballas
• Bristol wins "most improved" in week 1

Week 1 down, nine to go ...

Bristol had such a great first week, and she received the "most improved" award from the judges, which I think is 100% deserved! On the dance floor, she was more outgoing than she has ever been and I firmly believe she's got even more of that magic in her.

Our next dance is the quickstep, which promises to be a lot of fun because it's not exactly conventional. At this stage, I'll do whatever it takes to get Bristol to exude confidence and personality.

This week we are dancing to her favorite song. It's been a bit of a challenge for me because I've never danced quickstep to this genre of music, but I've never seen her so excited and enthusiastic about dancing. She is loving it and that's all that matters!

We also did something extra special this week to help get into the spirit of the dance and it was a blast. .. Put it this way: I hit the bull's-eye quite often, and did it in true Houston fashion!

On my down time, I've been doing two things: hitting the gym (I'm still working on getting back into shape after a summer of indulging) and watching back-to-back episodes of Breaking Bad. This helps pass the time while we are in Arizona, since I don't know anyone out here. I'm obsessed with Breaking Bad -- it's so awesome. (Krysten Ritter - call me, maybe?)

Well I'm looking forward to sharing this quickstep with y'all, and am pretty sure you're gonna enjoy it.