By Monique Holland for the Martinsville Bulletin.
Dancing for the Arts teams raised more than $70,000 for Piedmont Arts with votes in the competition. Tekela Redd and Pres Garrett took the top honors.
By Monique Holland for the Martinsville Bulletin.
Dancing for the Arts teams raised more than $70,000 for Piedmont Arts with votes in the competition. Tekela Redd and Pres Garrett took the top honors.
This will be the sixth season of DFTA with Piedmont Arts. The past five events with 80 dancers have raised almost $300,000.
“These are vital funds so Piedmont Arts can provide impactful visual arts, performing arts and arts education,” Piedmont Arts Executive Director Heidi Pinkston said. “These funds make sure that the galleries are always free and open to the public so we can bring world class performances to our community and take arts into the schools for absolutely no cost to teachers, schools or students.”
“This fundraiser is so much more than raising funds, it is also raising awareness about Piedmont Arts and Martinsville and Henry County,” Pinkston added.
After almost half a year of practicing their dance moves, the DFTA teams finally got to show off their routines at the grand event Saturday afternoon. Each team performed two dances — one that was assigned and one freestyle dance of their choosing.
There are three possible awards in the competition. The Impact Award goes to the team that reached the most people and raised the most awareness, the Judges Award goes to the team that gets the highest scores and the Grand Champion Award goes is awarded for a combination of the most votes and highest judge scores.
After each dance was completed, Devin Pendleton, Sarah Hodges and Pedro Szalay scored each of the dances on a scale from 1 to 10. For this competition, no one scored less than an 8 for any of the dances.
To open up the show, the alumni dance was performed by community members who have participated in the competition in previous years.
Coached by Jane Leizer, Jewell Drewery and Ouss Sahar performed the Rumba to “Feeling Good” and their jitterbug freestyle dance to a “Crazy in Love” remix. They received all nines on their first dance and all tens for their second dance.
Also coached by Leizer, Bonnie Favero and Damian Wainwright danced the tango to “Whatever Lola Wants” and a Broadway-Hip hop dance to “My Family” from the 2019 “Addams Family” movie. They received all nines for their first dance and were scored two nines and a ten for their second dance.
Coached by Janeka Hairston, Spencer Koger and Claudia Graham danced the waltz to “A Million Dreams” from the film “The Greatest Showman” and the salsa to “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi. They received all eights for their first dance and for their second dance they received two 10s and a nine.
Coached by Stacey Davis, Anna Hatchett and Louis Campbell danced the foxtrot to “Almost There” from the movie “Princess and The Frog” and a freestyle dance to “Space Jam” created by Quad City DJ’s for the movie “Space Jam.” They received all nines for their first dance and two 10s and a nine for their second dance.
Also coached by Davis, Jennie Rabon and Bobby LaPrade danced the Cha Cha to “Better When I’m Dancin’” by Meghan Trainor and a freestyle dance to “Can’t Rock My Dream Face” by Umphrey’s McGee. They received one nine and two 10s for their first dance and for their second dance received all nines.
Coached by Catherine Rodenbough, Anna Wheeler and Jacob Frith danced the swing to “Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing)” by Louis Prima and a jazz dance to “Footloose” by Kenny Loggins. They received 10s across the board for both of their dances.
Also coached by Rodenbough, Tekela Redd and Pres Garrett danced the quickstep to “Pencil Full of Lead” by Paolo Nutini and a hip hop dance to “Like That” by Memphis Bleak. They received two 10s and a nine for their first dance and all tens for their second dance.
The Impact Award went to Drewery and Sahar, the Judges Award went to Wheeler and Frith and after four recounts of the votes due to the competition being so close — the Grand Champion Award went to Redd and Garrett.
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