Oh! What a night! Last Saturday evening after months of preparation, I had the opportunity to participate in the new Plymouth Housing Group fundraiser, Seattle Dances! competition featuring local “celebrity” dancers paired with professional dancers. Though I had said “NO” five times before I finally said “YES”, I have to admit that it was so much fun learning this new dance and getting to know new friends in the local dance world. It turns out that all of the other non-professional dancers had a similar epiphany of realizing how much fun they were having learning a new skill and that we found ourselves devoting more and more time to the pursuit. The other non-professional dancers included Kathy Casey, Joyce Taylor, Steven Goldfarb, Michelle Foreman Barnet, Colette Courtion and Paul Lambros.
My dance partner, Marcelo Garces, is a master choreographer and created and taught me the Bachata, a salsa-style dance that comes from the Dominican Republic. He included many complicated steps and the piece de resistance was the “neck drop” where he would support my weight in a flat back-bend while stepping over me several times before letting me slide down his leg to his calf or ankle. He would then return me upright by using his leg to push me back to a standing position. It was quite a trick to learn and I landed on my behind many times during rehearsals. I found the best thing to do was just trust him to return me to a standing position and close my eyes until he did!
What a wonderful experience it was participating in this creative fundraising event! It was such a high-energy and exciting project. The staff of Plymouth Housing Group was amazing! They were unfazed to deal with multiple table seating changes, counting cyber votes and actual votes, and producing a brand-new event without a roadmap. No matter how many questions, concerns and suggestions we threw their way, everything was handled with aplomb by the staff and board leadership. And of course Hallie Kuperman, owner of Century Ballroom produced the dance portion of the event, selecting professional partners for each of the celebrity dancers and providing rehearsal space.
It is so rewarding to hear that that the goal of $350,000 was exceeded and approximately $410,000 was raised for Plymouth Housing Group. Many people supported the project by voting for the dancers at $25 per vote both before the event and during the event. I am eager to hear the final number results for both the Cyber Choice Award and the People’s Choice Award and get a list of all the donors that voted for me that I will want to thank for their support.
Of course I was thrilled that Marcelo and I won the “Peoples’ Choice” award and the sparkling mirror ball trophy is prominently displayed in my ZINO Society office so that I can brag about it frequently.
I will treasure the memories of the people and the activities associated with this incredible event.
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