SEASON EIGHTEEN
April 25, 2026
Music Hall Ballroom
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 25, 2026, when the Cincinnati Arts Association (CAA) celebrates Season Eighteen of its fundraiser 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 six 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 themed to the 1950s, and each dance pair will have a maximum of three minutes to woo the crowd and the judges.
In addition, Dancing for the Stars will feature:
- Dance music by JD Hughes, guest DJ and 103.5 WGRR-FM on-air personality
- Pre-event reception and whiskey tasting provided by Willow Run Custom Bourbon
- Open dancing before and after the competition
- Lite bites provided by some of Cincinnati’s finest restaurants and caterers
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 sponsorship, or by simply making a donation if they cannot attend the event. These direct donations will help one of the fans’ favorite celebrities win the Dancing for the Stars Fundraising Champion award – which will be announced on the evening of the event – and are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Tickets are currently on sale at the following levels (a portion of the ticket price is tax-deductible):
- $100 – Patron (pre-event reception and two drink tickets)
- $150 – VIP (pre-event reception and open bar)
- $1,000 – Patron Table (ten Patron level tickets)
- $1,500 – VIP Table (ten Premium level tickets)
RESERVATIONS AND INFORMATION
- www.cincinnatiarts.org/dfts2026
- (513) 977-4106
THE STARS:
- Alex Beach (Director, Lifetime Engagements, Fidelity Investments)
- Nicholas Dunigan (Associate Wealth Management Advisor, Fifth Third Bank)
- Dr. Mona Foad (Founder & CEO, Mona Dermatology)
- Felisa Insignares (Owner, Designer Items and More Boutique)
- Meeka Owens (Cincinnati City Councilwoman)
- Robert Warfel (Public Safety and Law Enforcement Executive)
THE PROS (with Star pairing):
- James Branham (Arthur Murray Dance Studio – West Chester) – Felisa Insignares
- Bonita Brockert (Independent Dance Instructor) – Alex Beach
- Desiree Mainous (Owner, Arthur Murray Dance Studio – Montgomery) – Robert Warfel
- Jozsef Parragh (Independent Dance Instructor) – Dr. Mona Foad
- Alyenendrov Tsorokean (Phoenix Rising Ballroom) – Meeka Owens
- Melissa Vaughn – (Arthur Murray Dance Studio – Montgomery) – Nicholas Dunigan
THE HOSTS: Chris O’Brien and Janeen Coyle (Retired radio hosts – 103.5 WGRR-FM, Married with Microphones)
EVENT COMMITTEE: Doreen Beatrice, Douglas Beal, Terry Foster, Alex Johns, Ginger Loftin, Rosemary Schlachter
EVENT SPONSORS: TriHealth – Presenting Sponsor, Accent on Cincinnati, Arthur Murray – Cincinnati, Arthur Murray – Montgomery, Arthur Murray – West Chester, Baru, eat well celebrations and feasts, Mazunte, Prime Cincinnati, Punky’s Pixels, Willow Run Custom Bourbons, Skyline, Vintage on Race
SEVENTEEN 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: Dr. 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)
- 2017: Rohan Hemani (Procter & Gamble Fabric Care Intrapenuer)
- 2018: Dr. Marcia Bowling (Gynecologic Oncology, Oncology Hematology Care, Inc.)
- 2019: Halle Quinn (Community Volunteer)
- 2022: Sebastian Castillo (General Manager, Prime Cincinnati)
- 2023: Britton Spittler as Brock Leah Spears (Project Manager, ADM)
- 2024: Deb Schubert (Health Care Professional Marketing, Procter & Gamble)
- 2025: Erin Mignano (Vice President and General Manager, Turner Construction)
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 eighteen finalists winning a $1,500 scholarship. This year, over 200 students were nominated 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 with an opportunity to share their talents and interests among their peers in a supportive environment outside of their individual schools. Now in its 30th year, The Overture Awards was launched in 1996 by the Cinergy Foundation and Leadership Cincinnati (a Cincinnati Regional Chamber 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 First Financial Bank Broadway in Cincinnati, presented by TriHealth. Since the inception of its acclaimed arts education and community engagement programs in 1995, CAA has reached more than 2.1 million students and adults.
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CALENDAR INFORMATION
WHAT: Dancing for the Stars 2026
A Benefit for Cincinnati Arts Association’s Overture Awards and Arts Education Programs
WHEN: Saturday, April 25, 2026
- 6:30 PM – Dancing, Dinner-by-the-Bite, Open Bar
- 8:00 PM – Celebrity Dance Competition
- 9:30 PM – Dance the Night Away
WHERE: Music Hall Ballroom
PRICES: $100 – Patron Ticket • $150 VIP Ticket • $1,000 – Patron Table • $1,500 – VIP Table
Additional Sponsorship Opportunities available: $2,500 to $10,000. Contact Vice President of Development, Sarah Miller, at Smiller@cincinnatiarts.org or (513) 977-4106 for details.
INFO: Inspired by the hit ABC-TV show Dancing with the Stars, Dancing for the Stars will feature six 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 stars include: Alex Beach (Director, Lifetime Engagements, Fidelity Investments), Nicholas Dunigan (Associate Wealth Management Advisor, Fifth Third Bank), Dr. Mona Foad (Founder & CEO, Mona Dermatology), Felisa Insignares (Owner, Designer Items and More Boutique), Meeka Owens (Cincinnati City Councilwoman), Robert Warfel (Public Safety and Law Enforcement Executive).
RESERVATIONS AND INFORMATION – Tickets on sale now
- www.cincinnatiarts.org/dfts2026
- (513) 977-4106
Behind the Curtain Cincinnati 