By By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
Staff Writer
The pirates walked away with the booty, but not before leaving all their material spoils to charity.
The Beaufort County Committee of 100 placed first in Saturday night’s Dancing with OUR Stars fundraising competition at the Washington High School Performing Arts Center.
Members of the nonprofit economic-development group, all attired as daring swashbucklers, pulled together to dance to Ray Stevens’ “The Pirate Song (I Want to Sing and Dance),” drawing laughter and roars of approval from audiences for two shows.
The committee assembled 16 dancers, impressed mostly from the ranks of its board, to do a little step-kicking on the stage.
Choreographer Wanda Thompson deserved a Nobel Peace Prize “for literally herding cats,” joked Tom Richter, mayor of Washington Park and chairman of the Committee of 100.
“Rough duty,” a smiling Richter added in a brief, backstage interview.
Second-place honors were captured by 10 Tulips and a Weed, representing the Pine Needles Garden Club and featuring “special guest star” Keith Hardt, the City of Washington’s electric director.
Choreographed by Janet Cox, Melissa Nelson and Mila Arnold, the garden club’s “Tiptoe Medley” had everything from Tiny Tim’s version of “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” to Hardt entering on a skateboard.
Third place was taken by Fitness Unlimited’s aTONEment squad, with choreography by Melissa Smith and Caroline Phillips.
Tara Carter, dancer and group fitness manager for Fitness Unlimited, indicated she was pleased with the results of the outing.
“I feel great,” Carter said. “I thought we had a great show. I’m thrilled that we got third place.”
The fitness team had an idea of spoofing a “Saturday Night Live” skit, and the choreography evolved from that concept, she pointed out.
“I think it truly bonded us as employees,” said Carter. “I think we had a great time practicing and learning. I think it was a really great experience for us.”
Now in its third year, Dancing with OUR Stars has grown to supply about two-thirds of the annual funding for Eagle’s Wings, a food pantry based in Washington.
The winners place based on how many donations are made on each team’s behalf.
In all, the amount raised by this year’s DWOS exceeded totals for each of the two previous years, shared Shannon Reising, choreographer and former interim executive director of Eagle’s Wings.
Reising was unable to release the net amount raised until after the necessary accounting was done.
She expected to unveil the final numbers by mid-week.
The winners of DWOS will be allowed to keep their trophies for one year and have the names of their groups permanently placed on a plaque at Eagle’s Wings, said Reising.
This year’s cast contained 160 people, three times more than each of the previous year’s casts, she said.
“I honestly cannot believe, one, how much money we raised and, two, how many people were actually in the cast,” Reising commented. “There wasn’t one number that wasn’t entertaining.”
Reising has left her post at Eagle’s Wings to accept a different job, but she stayed on through the end of DWOS to help bring the show to fruition.
“I was amazed, with the size of the cast that we had, that things really clicked right off,” said Cox, director of DWOS and owner of Le Moulin Rouge de Danse, a Washington dance studio where many of the rehearsals were held.
“I thought the audience responded extremely well to every number,” Cox said. “I thought they showed how much they enjoyed it.”
Asked if she had a favorite moment, Cox demurred at first, relating that many moments could be counted as favorites. She did tip her hat to the Committee of 100, which had perhaps the largest aggregation of dancers in the show.
“I think the Committee of 100, just their sheer numbers onstage and their whole appearance,” she said, “I think they just really captured exactly what it was all about.”
This year’s DWOS served up a diverse array of dance styles, Cox pointed out.
“And to think the majority of people that were onstage are not stage performers, and for some of them it was their very first chance of being able to perform onstage,” she said.
Cox and Reising offered their thanks to the community members who contributed to Eagle’s Wings through DWOS, and to the dancers and support crews that made the occasion successful.
“Your show’s only as good as the people who are in it,” Cox said. “And that’s the reason our show was so good, was the people who were in it.”