The Passion of the Dance

My current project is The Passion of the Dance by Elsa Williams which is a 'grown-up' ballet dancer in pink on black aida. I rarely stich with a final destination for the finished piece in mind but this one is specifically aimed at my daughter's bedroom which has a dance theme. I spotted it on ebay a few months ago and had to have it - eventually bought it from the cheapest online shop I could find it in. I couldn't find it at my local cross stitch supplier (Hobbycraft). I started it a month or so ago and did a tiny patch, using just one length of thread. The fabric is very stiff. I didn't go any further with it, finished the large project I was working on at the time instead and finally came back to this one on 1st July.
I've never worked on a dark fabric before but its not overly daunting. The only problem is I have trouble finding the holes from the back of the fabric but this may be more to do with the fact that the fabric is so stiff. I really do prefer working on evenweave, the advantages (softer fabric, easier to do fractionals, more impressive finished result), in my opinion, far outweigh the disadvantages (counting is more difficult), but with kits you get what you're given.
There's only about 12 colours, no fractionals, and hardly any backstitch. A lot of the colours are very similar in shade so I was finding it very difficult to keep track of where I was on the chart, eventually resorting to colouring the chart in as I went along, something I've never done before, although I was comforted by my Mum at the weekend who told me she would find cross stitch impossible to do if she didn't mark the chart as she went along.
At the moment it just looks like a blob of pink stitches, which it probably will do for some time to come. I've done about half the skirt. Will post some WIP piccies soon.