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Dancing Stars of Central Georgia exhibitions & performances faaaaaaaame!

Dancing Stars of Central Georgia 2014 Recap

Woo! I am still in a daze after last night’s amazing event. We set a new fundraising record of $248,013 of which Dean raised over $70,000! His total made us the People’s Choice award winners!  I am so proud of all his hard work both on and off the dance floor. He and his wife Ashley (Daniel’s partner in 2012 when they won People’s Choice) are a power couple in the best possible way: boundless positive energy, totally down to earth, always ready to “git ‘er dun.” So that’s just what we did! After the jump, a full rundown of the evening’s adventures + some pics!

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Dancing Stars of Central Georgia

#Deanra rehearsal video!

 

Just a week till showtime. It’s not too late to get tickets: hit up dancingstarsofcentralgeorgia.com and click “Tickets.” Be sure to choose Dean Copelan from the “In Support Of” menu. Thanks!

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Dancing Stars of Central Georgia

Who Is Deanra?

Dancing Stars of Central Georgia just posted photos from Thursday’s cast party on their Facebook page. You can look at the whole album (this link will work if I am lucky) but I wanted to post one pic of Dean and me for those who don’t know him:

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Yesterday I had Daniel stand in for Dean so I could start trying out the choreography. Our routine is going to be so much fun! I can’t wait to start rehearsals.

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dancing in the media Dancing Stars of Central Georgia faaaaaaaame!

Introducing Team Deanra

Last night was the cast party for the 2014 edition of Dancing Stars of Central Georgia, the Alzheimer’s Association fundraiser that Daniel and I first participated in back in 2012. This year I was asked to rejoin the cast at the special request of one of the stars. We all convened at the Blacksmith Shop last night to officially meet our partners for the first time. My star is Dean Copelan, a vice-president at SunTrust Bank and the husband of Ashley Copelan with whom Daniel danced in 2012 and won the People’s Choice trophy for top fund-raiser. I am very excited to be partnered with Dean! As soon as I found out he was my star, I knew exactly what I wanted to choreograph for us. He is totally game and up for anything: the ideal partner!

We have already agreed on a no-trash-talking, totally victory-focused approach. Go, Team Deanra!

WGXA is once again serving as a presenting sponsor so we got to appear on their newscast last night:

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Dancing Stars of Central Georgia

Come to the dark side . . . we have cookies!

Terrell Sandefur–social media guru, gallery owner, blogger, man about town and now salsa dancer–wrote this lovely post about his Dancing Stars experience.  It’s fun to read about that rollercoaster ride from somebody on the “stars” side.  We were all beginners once; everything that is now familiar and routine was once strange and uncomfortable (especially those Latin shoes!).  It’s great to know that Terrell plans to keep dancing.  If I had my way, these events would be gateway drugs for all the “stars,” every year.

Recital recap, photos, and video to follow later today.  The show was fantastic!  Lots of energy and so many great performances.

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Dancing Stars of Central Georgia faaaaaaaame!

The gift that keeps on giving

Dancing Stars of Central Georgia is the gift that keeps on giving! Yesterday evening we all got emailed a YouTube link for this “Thank You” ad that WGXA created:

The little clips in the ad look so good that we can’t wait to see the DVDs with the complete video of our performances. We’re supposed to receive those at the cast party the first week of June, so stay tuned!

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Dancing Stars of Central Georgia

Videos of Team Dashley and Team LaJack

Our friend Jamie Wyatt of Dancing on the Journey took videos of our performances on Saturday night.  Hooray!  I think our performances look great (if I do say so myself)–check ’em out, and please visit Jamie’s blog and Pinterest boards.

Ashley & Daniel:

Jack & Laura:

Jamie also got video of our fellow USA Dance members Dianne Kent and Carl Candiano dancing with their “stars” that night.  Thanks, Jamie!

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competitions Dancing Stars of Central Georgia faaaaaaaame!

Dancing Stars of Central Georgia wrapup/recap/victory lap

The first Dancing Stars of Central Georgia was a huge success for the DLDancers team!  We didn’t bring home all the trophies but Team Dashley crushed their fundraising goal and thereby won the People’s Choice award–Ashley raised over $100,000 all by herself, making a huge contribution to the overall total of $205,962!  Everybody was amazed when that final number came up on the screens last night.  The total is incredible in itself, but even more so considering that this is the first time Alzheimer’s Association of Georgia has done a Dancing Stars event in this region.  We are the first in the state to sell out the inaugural event and to exceed our fundraising goal the first year.  Now my only thought is “How are we going to top it next year?”

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Dancing Stars of Central Georgia faaaaaaaame!

I haz famus partner!

Fox24, presenting sponsor for Dancing Stars of Central Georgia, has been doing profiles of the “stars” in Dancing Stars for the past several Fridays. Jack’s turn came yesterday:

We also got this incredibly moving video emailed to us as an important reminder of what this event is really all about:

No matter who wins the trophies tonight, we will all go home knowing we made a difference! The event is sold out and we’ve already raised over $148,000 but it’s not too late to donate. Every dollar is needed and every dollar helps! You can still vote for Jackson and me (support the underdog) or vote for Daniel and Ashley (back a winner)!

Last-minute prep is under way here at DLDancers HQ.  Daniel has gone out to buy a belt; I’m about to fix some loose stitching on my costume and then paint my nails.  We are heading to the City Auditorium at 4:00 for a final practice, then hair & makeup, a quick appearance at the cocktail hour, and SHOWTIME!  Everybody wish us merde!

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Dancing Stars of Central Georgia

Ain’t too proud to beg

Jack and I have been kicking butt with our dance routine, enjoying every minute of our rehearsals, and being really excited to support the Alzheimer’s Association of Georgia.  But he is busy with running a business, shooting approximately 400 movie and TV projects, and hanging out with his gorgeous wife and 4 adorable kids, in addition to working on his mad tango skillz.  Not much time left to shake the money tree!  He was discouraged to find last week that he is in last place in the fundraising for Dancing Stars of Central Georgia.  We want to make sure we hold up our end both on and off the dance floor.  So at the end of rehearsal today we made a little video appeal:

Maybe the reason Jack is last in fundraising is that he can’t get the website URL right?  That’s www.dancingstarsofcentralgeorgia.com, people!  Click on “Vote for Jackson Walker” and donate the amount that’s right for you (as they say on public radio).  How can you say no to those faces?