Father-daughter dance team finding itself on good footing|McLawhorns will perform at Eagles Wings fundraiser
Published 9:14 am Tuesday, July 28, 2009
By By KEVIN SCOTT CUTLER
Lifestyles & Features Editor
David and Megan McLawhorn are making Dancing With OUR Stars history.
Not only are they the first father-daughter team in the two-year history of the event, theyre also, respectively, the oldest and youngest of this years performers.
The Washington duo will dance to Me and My Baby from the hit musical Chicago during the Aug. 29 performance, a fundraiser for Eagles Wings.
David McLawhorn is president of Beaufort County Community College, a post he has held since July 2001. Known on campus as Dr. Mac, he has been involved in various local organizations, including the Washington Rotary Club, Beaufort County United Way and First Presbyterian Church of Washington.
But Dancing With OUR Stars will be McLawhorns stage debut. McLawhorn said hes depending on his daughter to make him look good.
She can keep the beat, he said. Im used to marching dance is a little different from marching.
Megan said her dad is downplaying his talents.
From what my mom says, he was a really good dancer he used to take shag lessons, she said. Ive danced with him at weddings and stuff, and hes good.
Megan is no slouch on the dance floor herself. A rising freshman at Washington High School, the 14-year-old performed earlier this summer in the role of Alices daughter in East Carolina Universitys Summer Theater production of Big River. The show is a musical based on Mark Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
The rising star began dancing at the age of 4 under the tutelage of Janet Cox; she took a hiatus when she was 8 years old, but she later resumed lessons.
Megan has studied voice and taken piano lessons for several years. She attended music and drama camp at Roanoke Christian Service Camp, which led to an opportunity to appear in Here Comes the Groom, a production that was staged in Florida and Washington-area churches.
More recently, Megan appeared as Miss Teavee in the musical Willy Wonka Junior at P.S. Jones Middle School. She credits teacher Neva Cashion also a Dancing With OUR Stars cast member this year for encouraging her love of the arts.
Shes my role model. She has helped me so much, Megan said. If I hadnt met her, I wouldnt be doing any of this.
Megan said she is looking forward to being involved with the dance and drama programs at Washington High School.
Im really excited, she said.
While the elder McLawhorn may not share his daughters enthusiasm for the spotlight, he is looking forward to appearing in Dancing With OUR Stars.
I have no regrets, he said. I hope I dont make too big a spectacle of myself. I just dont want to drop my cane.
Tickets for Dancing With OUR Stars are on sale; general-admission tickets are $20 each and available by calling Eagles Wings at 252-975-1138. The show will be held in the Washington High School Performing Arts Center.
Eagles Wings is a United Way agency that addresses hunger needs among the impoverished and homeless in Beaufort County.