Let the Dancing Begin!

Dancing Star Dr. Richard Baxter with his partner
Michelle Badion and Cathi Hatch

Last night Ken and I attended the third annual Seattle Dances at Fremont Studios, a fundraising event to benefit Plymouth Housing Group.  This is an event that is close to our hearts since I danced in the inaugural Seattle Dances two years ago, was one of the three finalists for the Judges Choice Award and received the mirror ball trophy for the Peoples' Choice Award.

Ken Hatch with Alicia & Michael Hatch

This event was the best produced of the three we have attended.  Our only criticism is that the cocktail party is crammed in a space that is much too small since most of the room is taken up with silent auction items and it is nearly impossible to force your way through the crowd to get to the bar or even have a modicum of personal space in which to stand and talk with friends.  Once we were successful in getting to the bar, we enjoyed sipping the signature cocktail of the evening, The Glass Slipper, which was made with Ian MacNeil's new vodka from his recently licensed, Glass Distillery.

Patti Savoy and Sheila Otter

This year, there were eight dancing "stars", many of whom we know so we were pleased to be there to cheer on and support Dr. Richard Baxter, Nancy Pellegrino, John Rubino, Ian MacNeil and Barb Nystrom.  I was also so pleased to see that Olivier Wevers, Artistic Director of Whim W'Him Dance Company was there to serve as one of the Celebrity Judges, since he actually does know what is good dancing.  Hallie Kuperman and her professional dancers of Century Ballroom once again provided astounding choreography and succeeded in teaching the dancing stars how to look fantastic onstage.

Dancing Star John Rubino with Cathi Hatch

Guest Emcee, Patti Payne, did her normal magic of corralling all 475 of the attendees and making the program proceed smoothly and on schedule.  Auctioneer, Kevin Joyce, brought amazing energy to the stage and the live auction was blissfully over by around 8:30 pm when the raison d'etre for the event, the dancing, could begin.

We were so pleased that two of our favorites, Nancy Pellegrino and Richard Baxter won two of the mirror ball trophies; Nancy, the Peoples' Choice Award and Richard the Cyber Choice Award.  I know they will get much pleasure from looking at them as the prisms sparkle around the room and reminiscing about how much fun it was to participate in the dance competition.  Richard also placed in the top three for the Judges' Choice Award.

Line up of Dancing Stars and their Partners

In addition to the dancers, we also enjoyed seeing so many friends supporting the event including a few that we had the opportunity to talk with; Collette Courtion, Sherry & James Raisbeck, Sheila Otter, Patti Savoy, Paul Lambros, Alicia & Michael Hatch, Winnie Baxter, Margo Spellman, Mark Pellegrino, Michele & Dan Heidt, Toni & Rod Hoffman, Robbi Firestone & David Lamb, JJ McKay, Sharon Richardson, Lucien Postelwaite, Carrie & Scott Lee, David Wu, Stacy & Dean Jones, and of course Team Photogenic's Duell Fisher and Connie Blumenthal

Patti Payne, Emcee Extraordinaire 

Michael Hatch, Cathi & Ken Hatch



At the end of the evening, I was so pleased that Ken, who wasn't even being a Curmudgeon, was willing to wait while I had the opportunity to take to the dance floor for a couple of dances and enjoy dancing to the music of friends Shelley & Bob Tomberg's, Shelley and the Curves.