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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 22, 2023 when the Cincinnati Arts Association (CAA) celebrates season fifteen of its annual 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 eight Cincinnati celebrities paired with some of the area’s finest professional dancers in a competition program at which the audience will vote for its favorite celebrity dancer. The competitive dance for the evening will be the Disco, and each dance pair will have ninety seconds to woo the crowd and the judges.

In addition, Dancing for the Stars will feature:

• Dance music by guest on-air DJ “JD Hughes” from 103.5 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 their 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 (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 (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:

• www.cincinnatiarts.org/dfts2023
•  (513) 977-4188 

THE STARS:

• David Kapor (Founder & Managing Partner – Kapor, Davis & Associates, LLC)
• Frank Marzullo (Meteorologist – FOX19 NOW)
• Diana Nguyen (Owner – Deluxe Nail Salon & Spa)
• Morgan Owens (Entrepreneur, Author, Consultant, Speaker, and Brand Ambassador)
• Tom Parker (Director of External Communications – Lindner Center of Hope)
• Erin Rolfes (Director of Communication & Media Relations – The Kroger Co.)
• Litsa Spanos (President – ADC Art Design Consultants, Inc.)
• Britton Spitler as Brock Leah Spears (Project Manager – ADM) 

THE PROS (WITH STAR PAIRING):  

• Amanda Barraza (Independent Dance Instructor) – Britton Spitler
• Bonita Brockert (Independent Dance Instructor) – David Kapor
• Alaine Glick (Independent Dance Instructor) – Frank Marzullo
• Jeremy Mainous (Arthur Murray Dance Studio – Cincinnati) – Diana Nguyen
• Andrea Stefano (Independent Dance Instructor) – Litsa Spanos
• Josh Tilford (Independent Dance Instructor) – Morgan Owens
• Rostislav Toporski (Independent Dance Instructor) – Erin Rolfes
• Melissa Vaughn (Arthur Murray Dance Studio – Cincinnati) – Tom Parker 

THE HOSTS:  Chris O’Brien & Janeen Coyle (“Married With Microphones,” 103.5 WGRR-FM) 

EVENT COMMITTEE:  Michael Betz, Amal Daoud, Terry Foster, Jill Jansen, Ginger Loftin, Rosemary Schlachter, Phil Schworer, and Tracey Skale

EVENT SPONSORS:  TriHealth – Presenting Sponsor, Arthur Murray – Cincinnati, Amanda Barraza, Bonita Brockert, Alaine Glick, Andrea Stefano, Josh Tilford, Rostislav Toporski 

FOURTEEN 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 (former 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 (former Intrapenuer – Procter & Gamble Fabric Care)

• 2018:    Dr. Marcia Bowling (Gynecologic Oncology – Oncology Hematology Care, Inc.)
• 2019:    Halle Quinn (Community Volunteer)
• 2022:    Sebastian Castillo (General Manager – Prime Cincinnati)

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 $3,000 scholarship to six area high school students for education and training, with 18 finalists each winning a $1,000 scholarship. Each year, nearly 400 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 twenty-seventh year, The Overture Awards was launched by the Cinergy Foundation and Leadership Cincinnati (a Cincinnati USA 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 Fifth Third Bank Broadway in Cincinnati, presented by TriHealth. Since the inception of its acclaimed arts education programs in 1995, CAA has reached nearly two million students and adults.

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