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 8, 2017 when the Cincinnati Arts Association (CAA) celebrates the eleventh season of its annual fundraiser DANCING FOR THE STARS at the JACK CASINO Ballroom (1000 Broadway Street in downtown Cincinnati) 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 Foxtrot, and each dance pair will have ninety seconds to woo the crowd and the judges.
In addition, DANCING FOR THE STARS will feature:
- Silent auction
- 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
In addition to the winner of the dance competition, DANCING FOR THE STARS will crown a Fundraising Champion – the celebrity dancer who raises the most revenue toward the event’s fundraising goal through table/ticket sales and donations. Fans may 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 direct donations (outside of the event ticket price) will help one of the fans’ favorite celebrities win the Dancing for the Stars Fundraising Champion award – which will be announced the evening of the event – and are 100% tax deductible.
Tickets are currently on sale at the following levels (a portion of the ticket price is tax-deductible):
- $150 – Patron (includes pre-event reception and two drink tickets)
- $1,500 – Corporate Table (ten Patron level tickets and a half-page program ad)
- $2,000 – Celebrity Circle Table (premium “first-row” viewing of competition area, ten Patron level tickets, full-page program ad, recognition on event signage)
RESERVATIONS AND INFORMATION:
Tickets on sale February 1
THE STARS:
- Alvin H. Crawford, MD (Honoris Causa, FACS, Professor Emeritus, Orthopaedic & Pediatric Surgery, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine)
- Robin Creighton (Owner/Photographer, Robin McKerrell Photography/Mecca OTR/Cheapside Café)
- Amal Daoud (Community Volunteer)
- Mark Heidrich (Director of National Accounts, ProSource)
- Rohan Hemani (Procter & Gamble Fabric Care Intrapenuer)
- Allison Holzapfel, MD (Plastic Surgeon, Mangat-Holzapfel and Lied)
- Joe Rozzi (Vice President of Sales, Rozzi Famous Fireworks)
- Amy Tobin (Director, The Event Center at New Riff Distillery Event Center)
THE PROS (WITH STAR PAIRING):
- Doreen Beatrice (Independent Dance Instructor) – Rohan Hemani
- Leigh Bradshaw (Cincinnati Ballroom Company) – Mark Heidrich
- Bonita Brockert (Independent Dance Instructor) – Dr. Alvin Crawford
- Desiree Mainous (Arthur Murray Dance Studio – Cincinnati) – Joe Rozzi
- Jeremy Mainous (Arthur Murray Dance Studio – Cincinnati) – Dr. Allison Holzapfel
- Jozsef Parragh (Independent Dance Instructor) – Amy Tobin
- Josh Tilford (Independent Dance Instructor) – Amal Daoud
- Alyenendrov (Lenny) Tsorokean (Phoenix Rising Ballroom) – Robin Creighton
THE HOSTS: Chris O’Brien & Janeen Coyle (“Married With Microphones,” 103.5 WGRR-FM)
THE JUDGES:
- Douglas Beal (Independent Dance Instructor)
- Barbara Hauser (Manager, Ohio Community Relations, Procter & Gamble – Dancing for the Stars 2015 Celebrity participant)
- Jamie Humes (Vice President-Marketing, Traditions Group – Dancing for the Stars 2016 Fundraising Champion)
- John Morris Russell (Conductor, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra)
EVENT COMMITTEE: Terry Foster (co-chair, Dancing for the Stars 2010 Celebrity participant), Joe Rigotti (co-chair, Dancing for the Stars 2012 Celebrity participant), Christina Bolden, Sue Gilkey, Jim Howland, Ginger Loftin, Rosemary Schlachter, Phil Schworer, and Tracey Skale.
EVENT SPONSORS: Arthur Murray – Cincinnati; Cincinnati Ballroom Company; Crest Graphics, Inc.; Pebble Creek Group; Bonita Brockert; Jozsef Parragh; Phoenix Rising Ballroom; Josh Tilford.
TEN YEARS OF DANCING FOR THE STARS WINNERS:
- 2007: Dr. O’dell Owens (former Hamilton County Coroner)
- 2008: Jenell Walton (former WCPO-TV9 Anchor and Reporter)
- 2009: Phil Schworer (past President, Cincinnati Bar Association; Environmental Lawyer, Frost, Brown and Todd)
- 2010: Donna Speigel (Owner, The Snooty Fox)
- 2011: Tracey Skale (Chief Medical Officer, Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services)
- 2012: Regina Russo (former Director of Marketing and Communications, Cincinnati Art Museum)
- 2013: Chris Seelbach (Cincinnati City Councilman)
- 2014: Neal Schulte (Founder & President, Schulte Financial Group, LLC)
- 2015: Johnny Chu (Owner, AmerAsia Kungfood Restaurant)
- 2016: Jay Lame (Financial Analyst, Lenox Wealth Management)
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, nearly 500 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 20th 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 nearly 1.5 million students.
Saturday, February 11, 2017
Last night, Fairfield Summer Theatre “vaguebooked” their upcoming production with this teaser:
THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED) [REVISED]
Behind the Curtain Cincinnati 