It will be a night of dancing with the stars, local stars that is, as Dance Alive National Ballet (DANB) holds its March 28 annual fundraiser that offers its own take on the network dance show.

Mainstreet got to check out dance rehearsals for the upcoming gala, where the hometown celebrities were getting ready for their performances with their DANB professional partners.

The Dance Alive National Ballet Gala will be held at the Legacy Park Multipurpose Center at 15400 Peggy Rd. in Alachua. There will be a free live stream of the event at 6:30 p.m. To buy tickets to the event, click here.

This year is extra special because the gala is taking place as DANB continues construction of its new 22,000-square-foot facility, which will feature three dance and three music studios, a black box theater, an art gallery and more. The plan is for what will be known as the Khoury Family Center to serve as a cultural arts center for North Central Florida

First-time contestant Jessica Hurov, tourism and economic development director for Alachua County, was rehearsing with her dance partner, Andre Valledon. She has had a long relationship with DANB and its founders, Artistic Director Kim Tuttle and Executive Director Judy Skinner, who are sisters.

She knew them when she worked at the Hippodrome, and when her daughter took dance classes there at the company’s Pofahl Studios as a child. But there’s more.

“When Kim Tuttle asks you to do something, you do not say no,”  Hurov said. “That’s the baseline. But I also see how passionate Kim and Judy are about managing a professional dance company…managing a nonprofit arts organization, and the leadership they’ve shown with their new building and putting all the building blocks in place for the next generation of Dance Alive.”

Tuttle is working non-stop, getting ready for the gala, the company’s major fundraising event this year.

“We have our general programming, which pays dancers and pays for productions. That kind of thing, and then we have this other thing that now is very specific, which is the capital campaign for our new home,” Tuttle said.

Expectations are that the new center will open next year, a facility that Board of Trustees Vice President Star Bradbury calls Gainesville’s own “Miracle on 34^th Street” because of its location at the corner of NW 39^th Avenue and NW 34^th Street.

But right now, there is still work to be done and more practices to get through before the main event on the dance floor for the champagne gala.  Also rehearsing was another first-time dancer, Jorgia Wooten, of Crime Prevention Security Systems, who was dancing with Luan Brito, another member of the DANB company. Wooten’s dad, John Pastore, was a contestant a few years ago.

“I wanted to carry on the family tradition,” Wooten said. “I really wanted to be part of the fundraising efforts to build this amazing performing arts center. And I’m having an absolute blast.”

The family business has offered to donate at cost the security system for the new center.

There is one contestant who does have some dance experience – Justin Clement, the membership development manager for the Gainesville Chamber of Commerce.

“It’s been a long time, but my mother owned a dance studio for close to 30 years, so I kind of grew up in a dance studio,” he said.

Still, this is his first time as a contestant. He is partnering with DANB professional dancer Rosemary Deiorio.

Joaquim “Jay” Nordqvist, a civil engineer at GSE Engineering, is another contestant. He, too, is a first-time dancer.

“Dance Alive is just an incredible community asset, and we need to do everything we possibly can to support the construction as the beginning of an even bigger dream,” said Nordqvist, who is dancing with DANB member Marite Fuentes.

Others in the dance line-up include Kriston Armon dancing with Tenki Nomura, Madison Ashley dancing with Tales Ribeiro, Sheila Blanco dancing with Roberto Vega, Kim-Anne Dodd dancing with Stirling Kolb, Theresa Glaeser dancing with Vic Mancuso, Jenny Hill dancing with José Ramos, and Shasta Schoellhorn dancing with Tucker Gokey.

There’s also Joyner Atiles-Lopez dancing with Beatriz Póvoas, James Blythe dancing with Rachel Ridley, Todd Chase dancing with Emilia León, Jason Diven dancing with Alison Tucker, Andy Staples, dancing with Beatriz Corréa, Stephen L. Walker II dancing with Ashley Brooke Valladon, Zach West dancing with Carla Amâncio, and Axel Giaccone dancing with Marilyn Deiorio.
Judges include writer, dancer, choreographer, actress, and director Niemi Swayze, the widow of actor and dancer Patrick Swayze, who is judging for a second time; Diedre Radler, a national and international award-winning ballroom dancer and equestrian rider, also back again; Susan Scanella, public relations director for DANB and herself a professional dancer; and Larry Wurn, co-founder and director of Clear Passage Physical Therapy who bid for an opportunity to sit at the judge’s table.
D.J. Elio Piedra will be spinning the tunes. He will be joined by sponsors Spurrier’s Gridiron Grille, Garden and Grace Florals, Parris Dance and Philip Marcel Photography.