Who will be voted Cincinnati’s best celebrity dancer?  Which stars have the right moves to rule the dance floor?  Find out on Saturday, April 20, 2024 when the Cincinnati Arts Association (CAA) celebrates season sixteen of its annual fundraiser Dancing for the Stars at the Music Hall Ballroom to benefit CAA’s Overture Awards – the nation’s largest locally run high school arts scholarship competition – and Arts Education Programs.

 

Inspired by the hit ABC-TV show Dancing with the Stars, Dancing for the Stars will feature six Cincinnati celebrities paired with some of the area’s finest professional dancers in a competition program at which the audience will vote for their favorite celebrity dancer. The competitive dance theme will be Broadway and each dance pair will have ninety seconds to woo the crowd and the judges. 

 

In addition, Dancing for the Stars will feature:

·         Dance music by guest on-air DJ “JD Hughes,” 103.5 WGRR-FM

·         Pre-event reception

·         Open dancing before and after the competition

·         Lite bites provided by some of Cincinnati’s finest restaurants and caterers

·         Cash bar

 

In addition to the winner of the dance competition, Dancing for the Stars will crown a Fundraising Champion – the celebrity dancer who raises the most revenue toward the event’s fundraising goal through table/ticket sales and donations. Fans may add a donation under their favorite celebrity’s name at the time of ticket purchase, or simply donate if they cannot attend the event. These direct donations (outside of the event ticket price) will help one of the fans’ favorite celebrities win the Dancing for the Stars Fundraising Champion award (which will be announced the evening of the event) and are 100% tax deductible.

 

Tickets are currently on sale at the following levels (a portion of the ticket price is tax-deductible):

• $150 – Patron (pre-event reception and two drink tickets)
• $200­ – Premium (pre-event reception and open bar)
• $1,500 – Corporate Table (ten Patron level tickets and a half-page program ad)
• $2,000 – Celebrity Circle Table (ten Premium level tickets, full-page program ad, event signage, and seating within the first two rows)

 

Reservations and Information:

• www.cincinnatiarts.org/dfts2024
•  (513) 977-4188

 

THE STARS:

• Scott Allgyer (Owner, Studio 900)
• Alex Johns (Real Estate Agent, Coldwell Banker)
• Dr. Hali Jungers (Veterinarian, Newport Aquarium)
• Dr. Magdalena Kerschner (Board certified Anesthesiologist and Aesthetic Medicine Physician;  Founder, Victory Wellness and Medspa – Cincinnati, OH and Naples, FL)
• Deb Schubert (Health Care Professional Marketing, Procter & Gamble)
• Zack Thornton (Director, Advisory Services, Fidelity Investments)

 

THE PROS (with Star pairing):  

       ·       James Branham (Arthur Murray Dance Studio -- West Chester) – Deb Schubert

       ·       Bonita Brockert (Independent Dance Instructor) – Alex Johns

• Maura Garuccio (Independent Dance Instructor) – Scott Allgyer
• Jeremy Mainous (Arthur Murray Dance Studio – Cincinnati) – Dr. Magdalena Kerschner
• Josh Tilford (Dance Manor) – Dr. Hali Junger
• Melissa Vaughn (Arthur Murray Dance Studio – Cincinnati) – Zack Thornton

 

THE HOSTS:  Chris O’Brien & Janeen Coyle

 

THE JUDGES:   

·       Douglas Beal (Independent Dance Instructor)

·     Sebastian Castillo (General Manager, Prime Cincinnati; Dancing for the Stars 2022 Dance Champion)

• Bret Schneider (Owner, WOW Windowboxes; Dancing for the Stars 2022 Fundraising Champion)
• Britton Spitler as Brock Leah Spears (Project Manager – ADM; Dancing for the Stars 2023 Dance Champion)       

 

EVENT COMMITTEE:  Doreen Beatrice, Michael Betz, Amal Daoud, Terry Foster, Jill Jansen, Ginger Loftin, Rosemary Schlachter, and Dr. Tracey Skale

 

EVENT SPONSORS:  TriHealth (Presenting Sponsor), Arthur Murray – Cincinnati, Arthur Murray – West Chester, Bonita Brockert, Maura Garuccio, Josh Tilford

 

FIFTEEN SEASONS OF DANCING FOR THE STARS WINNERS:

·        2007:    Dr. O’dell Owens (former Hamilton County Coroner)

·        2008:    Jenell Walton (former WCPO-TV9 Anchor and Reporter)

·        2009:    Phil Schworer (past President, Cincinnati Bar Association; Environmental Lawyer, Frost, Brown and Todd)

·        2010:    Donna Speigel (Owner, The Snooty Fox)

• 2011:    Dr. Tracey Skale (Chief Medical Officer, Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services)

• 2012:    Regina Russo (former Director of Marketing and Communications, Cincinnati Art Museum)
• 2013:    Chris Seelbach (Cincinnati City Councilman)

• 2014:    Neal Schulte (Founder & President, Schulte Financial Group, LLC)

·        2015:    Johnny Chu (Owner, AmerAsia Kungfood Restaurant)

• 2016:    Jay Lame (Financial Analyst, Lenox Wealth Management)
• 2017:    Rohan Hemani (Procter & Gamble Fabric Care Intrapenuer)

• 2018:    Dr. Marcia Bowling (Gynecologic Oncology, Oncology Hematology Care, Inc.)
• 2019:    Halle Quinn (Community Volunteer)
• 2022:    Sebastian Castillo (General Manager, Prime Cincinnati)

• 2023:    Britton Spitler as Brock Leah Spears (Project Manager – ADM)

NOTE:  There was no event in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Cincinnati Arts Association’s Arts Education Programs

CAA's Education Department promotes life-long learning through its programs, which are diverse, multidisciplinary, and accessible to all ages and cultural groups. SchoolTime presents a series of programs that feature nationally recognized artists at CAA's two venues (the Aronoff Center and Music Hall), and Artists on Tour brings the finest local artists in the region to Tri-state schools for interactive arts experiences aligned with the curriculum.

 

The Overture Awards Scholarship Competition is the largest locally run arts scholarship competition in the country. The program annually provides a $3,000 scholarship to six area high school students for education and training, with eighteen finalists each winning a $1,000 scholarship. Each year, students from across the Tri-state region are nominated by their schools to compete in one of six artistic disciplines: Creative Writing, Dance, Instrumental Music, Theater, Visual Art, or Vocal Music. There are three levels of competition: Regional, Semi-Finals, and Final.

 

The Overture Awards was developed to recognize, encourage, and reward excellence in the arts among Tri-state students in grades 9-12. It also provides students an opportunity to share their talents and interests among their peers in a supportive environment outside of their individual schools.  Now in its 28^th year, The Overture Awards was launched in 1996 by the Cinergy Foundation and Leadership Cincinnati (a Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce program).

 

Founded in 1992, the Cincinnati Arts Association (CAA) is a not-for-profit organization that oversees the programming and management of two of the Tri-state’s finest performing arts venues – the Aronoff Center for the Arts and Music Hall – and is dedicated to supporting performing and visual arts. Each year, CAA presents a diverse schedule of events; serves more than 600,000 people in its venues; features the work of talented local, regional, and national artists in the Weston Art Gallery (located in the Aronoff Center); and supports the work of more than one dozen resident companies, including Cincinnati Ballet, Cincinnati Opera, Cincinnati Symphony/Pops Orchestras, May Festival, and Fifth Third Bank Broadway in Cincinnati, presented by TriHealth. Since the inception of its acclaimed arts education programs in 1995, CAA has reached more than million students.