CINCINNATI, OH – Who will be voted Cincinnati’s best celebrity dancer? Which stars have the right moves to rule the dance floor? Find out on Saturday, April 11, 2015 when the Cincinnati Arts Association (CAA) presents its ninth annual DANCING FOR THE STARS at the Music Hall Ballroom to benefit CAA’s Overture Awards – the nation’s largest locally-run high school arts scholarship competition – and arts education programs.
Inspired by the hit ABC-TV show Dancing with the Stars, DANCING FOR THE STARS will feature eight Cincinnati celebrities paired with some of the area’s finest professional dancers in a competition program, at which the audience will vote for their favorite celebrity dancer. The competitive dance for the evening will be Salsa, and each dance pair will have 90 seconds to woo the crowd and the judges.
In addition, DANCING FOR THE STARS will feature:
- Silent auction
- Showcase performance by a 2015 Overture Award finalist in dance
- Dance music by guest DJ “Rockin’ Ron” Schumacher, WGRR-FM
- Pre-event reception and wine tasting
- Open dancing before and after the competition
- Lite bites provided by some of Cincinnati’s finest restaurants and caterers
- Cash bar
Last year’s event introduced the DANCING FOR THE STARS Fundraising Champion – the celebrity dancer who raises the most revenue toward the event’s fundraising goal through table/ticket sales and donations from fans, who can add a donation under their favorite celebrity’s name at the time of ticket purchase, or simply make a donation if they cannot attend the event. These donations will help one of the fans’ favorite celebrities win the Dancing for the StarsFundraising Champion award, which will be announced the evening of the event. These direct donations (outside of the event ticket price) are 100% tax deductible.
The event will benefit the stars of tomorrow – the talented high school artists who participate each year in CAA’s Overture Awards – as well as CAA’s diverse arts education programs. DANCING FOR THE STARS committee includes: Dr. Tracey Skale (chair, Dancing for the Stars 2011 winner), Phil Schworer, Christina Bolden, Terry Foster, Sue Gilkey,Jim Howland, Ginger Loftin, and Rosemary Schlachter.
Tickets are currently on sale at the following levels (a portion of the ticket price is tax-deductible):
$100 – Patron (includes pre-event reception and two drink tickets)
$1,000 – Corporate Table (ten Patron level tickets and a half-page black-and-white program ad)
$1,500 – Celebrity Circle Table (premium “first-row” viewing of competition area, ten Patron level tickets, full-page black-and-white program ad, recognition on event signage)
RESERVATIONS AND INFORMATION:
(513) 977-4188
Aronoff Center Ticket Office
www.CincinnatiArts.org
THE STARS:
- Cristen Appleton (Northern Kentucky real estate agent; reality TV star)
- Mary Bettman (owner, Chef’s Café – Sharonville)
- Doug Bolton (managing principal, DTZ, formerly Cassidy Turley)
- Johnny Chu (owner, AmerAsia Kungfood Restaurant)
- George Foster (former member of the Cincinnati Reds’ ”Big Red Machine”; Cincinnati business owner)
- Barbara Hauser (manager, Ohio Government & Community Relations, Procter & Gamble)
- Diana Maria Lara (corporate director of media & public relations, UC Health)
- Devinder Mangat, MD, FACS (founder, Mangat-Kuy-Holzapfel Plastic Surgery Centers)
THE PROS with Star pairing:
- Leigh Bradshaw (Cincinnati Ballroom Company) – Doug Bolton
- Bonita Brockert (independent dance instructor) – Devinder Mangat, MD, FACS
- J. Patrick Clements (Step-n-Out Studio) – Cristen Appleton
- Doreen Beatrice (Step-n-Out Studio)- Johnny Chu
- Brian McNamee (Cincinnati Ballroom Company) – Barbara Hauser
- Jeremy Mainous (Arthur Murray Dance Studio – Cincinnati) – Mary Bettman
- Desiree Mainous (Arthur Murray Dance Studio – Cincinnati) – George Foster
- Jozsef Parragh (independent dance instructor) – Diana Maria Lara
THE HOSTS: Chris O’Brien & Janeen Coyle (“Married With Microphones,” 103.5 WGRR-FM)
THE JUDGES:
- Douglas Beal (independent dance instructor)
- Britney Ruby-Miller (director of operations, Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment; Dancing for the Stars alum, 2014)
- Third judge to be announced
PRESENTING SPONSOR: UC Health
EVENT SPONSORS: Alleen Company, Arthur Murray – Cincinnati, Bonita Brockert, Carey Digital, Cincinnati Ballroom Company, Heidelberg Distributing Company, Jozsef Parragh Pebble Creek Group, and Step-n-Out Studio.
Cincinnati Arts Association’s Arts Education Programs
CAA’s Education Department promotes life-long learning through its programs, which are diverse, multidisciplinary, and accessible to all ages and cultural groups. SchoolTime presents a series of programs that feature nationally-recognized artists at CAA’s two venues (the Aronoff Center and Music Hall), and Artists On Tour brings the finest local artists in the region to Tri-state schools for interactive arts experiences aligned with the curriculum.
The Overture Awards Scholarship Competition is the largest locally run arts scholarship competition in the country. The program annually provides a $4,000 scholarship to six area high school students for education and training, with 18 finalists each winning a $1,000 scholarship. Each year, more than 450 students are nominated by their schools to compete in one of six artistic disciplines: Creative Writing, Dance, Instrumental Music, Theater, Visual Art or Vocal Music. There are three levels of competition: Regional, Semi-Finals, and Final.
The Overture Awards was developed to recognize, encourage, and reward excellence in the arts among Tri-state students in grades 9-12. It also provides students an opportunity to share their talents and interests among their peers in a supportive environment outside of their individual schools. Now in its 19th year, The Overture Awards was launched in 1996 by the Cinergy Foundation and Leadership Cincinnati (a Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce program).
Founded in 1992, the Cincinnati Arts Association (CAA) is a not-for-profit organization that oversees the programming and management of two of the Tri-state’s finest performing arts venues – the Aronoff Center for the Arts and Music Hall – and is dedicated to supporting performing and visual arts. Each year, CAA presents a diverse schedule of events; serves more than 600,000 people in its venues; features the work of talented local, regional, and national artists in the Weston Art Gallery (located in the Aronoff Center); and supports the work of more than one dozen resident companies, including Cincinnati Ballet, Cincinnati Opera, Cincinnati Symphony/Pops Orchestras, May Festival, and Fifth Third Bank Broadway in Cincinnati, presented by TriHealth. Since the inception of its acclaimed arts education programs in 1995, CAA has reached more than 1.3 million students.
Behind the Curtain Cincinnati 