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Dancing Stars of Central Georgia faaaaaaaame!

I R FAMUS TV PERSONALITY

Check it out, dear readers! Last Friday I was on NewsCentral “Live @ 5” with host Kenny B and fellow guests Karen Kinsler (development director for Alzheimer’s Association of Central Georgia) and Portia Lake (NewsCentral anchor and “star” dancer for Dancing Stars) talking about Dancing Stars of Central Georgia. Be sure to watch all the way to the end when I lay some trash talk on Portia!

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behind the curtain dance events Dancing Stars of Central Georgia

EPDSTDL & EPDSPL

With less than a week to go (eeeeee!), it seems like a good time for Exhaustive Pre-Dancing Stars To-Do List and its little buddy, Exhaustive Pre-Dancing Stars Packing list.  Here goes!

To do before Friday dress rehearsal

  • Book spray-tan
  • Get hair cut & colored
  • Get spray-tanned
  • Do nails
  • Test makeup
  • Rehearse
  • Replace Velcro on dress with hook-and-eye or snap
  • Try shoes with fishnets
  • Buy earrings
  • Pack my stuff
  • Write check to Karen
  • Get flyers copied
  • Get other flyers copied
  • Fix broken strap on dress (argh)

To pack:

  • Performance dress
  • Cocktail dress
  • Performance shoes
  • Evening shoes
  • Earrings for cocktail dress
  • Makeup: foundation, concealer, powder, eyeliner, eyeshadow, shimmer powder/bronzer, blush, eyeshadow, lipstick, lip gloss, eyelashes, mascara
  • Extra eyelashes
  • Fishnets
  • Briefs
  • Camera
  • Hoodie
  • Legwarmers
  • Practice shoes

We are so close now.  I can’t wait for Saturday night!

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Dancing Stars of Central Georgia Friday Night Dance Parties

Win tickets to Dancing Stars of Central Georgia!

Great news, everybody: at our dance this coming Friday we’ll be raffling off a pair of tickets to Dancing Stars of Central Georgia.  Buy a raffle ticket for $1 and be entered to win!  The face value of these tickets is $75 each; your ticket admits you to the cocktail hour (open bar), dinner, the dance competition, and open dancing afterward.

We will donate all the raffle proceeds to the Alzheimer’s Association and each ticket you buy is an additional chance to be the winner!  Details for our dance and the Dancing Stars event are below:

  • Daniel’s Friday Night Dance Party
  • 8:00-10:30 p.m.
  • Howard Community Club, 5645 Forsyth Rd.
  • $5 admission, soft drinks & water available
  • Casual dress
  • Raffle tickets $1 each

 

  • Dancing Stars of Central Georgia
  • Saturday, May 12
  • Macon City Auditorium
  • Cocktail hour (open bar) at 6:00, doors open for dinner at 7:00, dance competition starts at 8:00
  • Cocktail attire

If you don’t win the drawing you can still buy tickets and make donations via www.dancingstarsofcentralgeorgia.com, but don’t wait.  The event organizers are predicting a sell-out by the end of next week!

See you soon on the dance floor!

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dancing in the media Dancing Stars of Central Georgia faaaaaaaame!

We haz famus partners!

Check out NewsCentral’s profile of Ashley Copelan (1/2 of our own Team Dashley) and a member of the competition, Steve Welsh and Pilar Wilder:

Also, in an awesome coincidence, this afternoon we got an email from the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame soliciting extras for a movie about Jackie Robinson that will be shooting in Macon this summer.  It’s called 42, it stars Harrison Ford, and Jackson Walker (1/2 of our own Team LaJack) appears as a reporter named “Jimmy Powers.”  Daniel is already signed up to be an extra!

All this fame comes at a good time; there are only 3 weeks left till the event.  Just enough time to polish our routines, get our costumes together, and most importantly max out the fundraising and awareness.  As Ashley said in our profile, if we sell out the City Auditorium we will beat all the other Georgia Dancing Stars events at fundraising AND be the first event to sell out in its inaugural year.    We are already so close to that sellout that if you still need a ticket, now is the time!  If you can’t attend but you still want to support the cause, kick in with a donation in any amount!

Click here to purchase a ticket and support the star of your choiceClick here to donate to Ashley CopelanClick here to donate to Jackson Walker

Thanks, everybody!

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dancing in the media Dancing Stars of Central Georgia faaaaaaaame!

I R FAMUS PROF

Not really.  Because there is no such thing as a famous English professor.

But the External Affairs department at Macon State was kind enough to put a story about my participation in Dancing Stars of Central Georgia on the College’s homepage today.  Now, in addition to “I saw you on TV!” I am hearing “I saw you on the website!”  My 15 minutes should be over by sunset tonight.

I’m going to ballet tonight, helping Team Dashley in rehearsal tomorrow afternoon (without giving away any Team LaJack trade secrets, of course), and rehearsing with Jack on Saturday.  So goes the life of not-a-professional-dancer.

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behind the curtain Dancing Stars of Central Georgia in other news

One month till showtime

Well, sports fans, it’s spring break at the Madison Studio and my parents are in town this week (Hi, Mom & Dad! See you again in June!), so not much dancing going on here at DLDancers HQ.  Nevertheless, because I am just that kind of hard-working bloggiste, I am bringing you some updates.  With Dancing Stars of Central Georgia just under a month away, preparations are going forward even when rehearsals are not.

First, can I show you Jack’s and my Dancing Stars rehearsal video?

. . . Also starring my Lauren-Bacall-style laryngitis voice.  Until I saw it, I’d forgotten that I was sick the day they recorded it.  The show must go on!

On Wednesday we had a production meeting for Dancing Stars at the show venue, Macon’s City Auditorium.  The City Auditorium is the same lovely neoclassical edifice that hosts the Cherry Blossom Gala each year.  We dancers found out that if we sell it out, we’ll have an audience of about 700.  Glory hounds that we are, we immediately set our sights on a sellout–if we can pull it off we’ll be the first Dancing Stars show to sell out the first year’s event.  This is the part where you go visit Jack’s page on the site and buy your ticket.  It’s okay, I’ll wait.

I took some pics at the City Auditorium during the production meeting:

The organizers are still working on getting the stage floor in dance-worthy condition but I’m sure it will be perfect on May 12.  The more Daniel and I see of the stars and pros in action, the more we realize this is going to be an incredibly exciting show.  Click through from Jack’s video and watch some of the other couples: Karla Redding-Andrews, Portia Lake, Mary Perdue, Steve Welsh, Jim Elliot, Elbert McQueen, Terrell Sandefur, Courtney Swift.  Everyone is pulling out these dynamic, high-level, polished routines.  I can’t wait to see them all on the stage!

I also did the only thing a dancer really can do on days off: stretching & flexibility cardio strength training buying shoes.  Got a new pair of pointe shoes, which are still waiting to be sewn (see 1:50) and my shoes for Dancing Stars which are these.  They look amazing.  Now I am just waiting for my dress to arrive. *taps nails*

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dancing in the media Dancing Stars of Central Georgia faaaaaaaame! Uncategorized

I R FAMUS BALLROOM DANCER

Not really. (Do you see a pattern developing here?)  But it turns out that Team LaJack is prominently (albeit facelessly) featured in the TV ad for Dancing Stars of Central Georgia!  Finally I understand why the DWTS pros go to the trouble of dressing cute and putting makeup on for rehearsals.  Our friend Sheree’ saw the ad Sunday afternoon on Fox during the NASCAR race; then I saw it last night while watching Castle on the DVR.  Then in class today one of my students said “Dr. Thomason, I think I saw you on TV!”  I definitely feel famous . . .

 

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dance events dancing in the media Dancing Stars of Central Georgia exhibitions & performances MSDC Uncategorized

Instrument Petting Zoo!

Daniel and I had to stay busy between meeting our Dancing Stars partners and finding out the dances we’d been assigned, so last Sunday we spent the afternoon at the Macon Museum of Arts and Sciences’ “Instrument Petting Zoo” event.  The event is an annual collaboration between the Museum and the Mercer/Macon Youth Orchestra and it’s designed to introduce young children (preschool/early elementary) to classical music and musical instruments.  This year, small ensembles from the orchestra played some dance selections (a pair of “Renaissance dances,” a waltz, a sarabande, a tango, and a samba) and the manager wanted to showcase some dancing along with the music.  She contacted Ms. Madison who put Daniel and me on the case as well as choreographing a number herself.  We rallied the troops from our group class and from Got Dance? Move It! so there was plenty of participation.

The Madison Studio’s junior performance ensemble performed beautifully to the “Renaissance Dances.”  Daniel and I danced the waltz; then Daniel partnered our student Megan and two of the GDMI dancers joined them for the tango.  Another GDMI member choreographed a gorgeous contemporary piece for the sarabande, and all of us closed out the program with some audience participation to the samba.  We did 3 performances over the course of the afternoon with an almost-full house for every one.  Got effusive compliments from the orchestra manager (Hi Connie!  Thanks!), a few museum higher-ups, and some audience members.  Most of all we were incredibly proud of the GDMI dancers.  They are so game and energetic and up for anything.  We salute them!

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dancing in the media Dancing Stars of Central Georgia

Dancing Stars partnerships revealed!

We are so excited to have met our new partners, Ashley and Jackson!  I’m working on cheesy team names à la DWTS: Team Dashley and Team LaJack?  What do you think?

Click here for the story on NewsCentral Georgia plus video of our appearance on their newscast!

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dancing in the media Dancing Stars of Central Georgia

What are YOU doing on Thursday?

Here’s what we are doing: meeting our partners for Dancing Stars of Central Georgia at a cocktail party that will be covered on the local news!  Turn on NewsCentral (Fox 24/ABC 16, WGXA) at 7:00 on Thursday to see the announcement of the Dancing Stars event!