Dancing for a Dream: ?Fuego en la pista!

IMPERIAL?- “?Fuego en la pista!” roared the crowd of over 600 to introduce each of the six stars onto the stage on Friday, October 20 for the Dancing for a Dream contest. From judges to dancers to those enjoying dinner at Cheval Farms, everyone was there to raise funds for children dealing with cancer.??

“First and foremost, I loved everyone’s outfits,” said Karina Bazarte, San Diego native, weekend anchor and reporter for KYMA and Dancing for a Dream judge, “I loved how it was really energetic. I am a dancer, I used to choreograph my sister’s quinceanera. And I could see the energy, I could see everyone having fun. And that is what it is all about. It is not just a competition. I was just giving them scores on how I felt they felt the music, how they were telling a story, and how they connected with us as judges.”

The venue was lit on all ends with lights, flickering, strobing, and flashing as each star took their place on the stage to begin their dance.?

Once they took the stage the fog machine filled the stage and air and the music began pouring in. The dancers, or stars as they were called that night, danced to a wide range of music, from classic American country music to popular Mexican club music.?

“Our partner Amigos De Alejandro provides us with 6 names, we are not allowed to pick the families, Amigos De Alejandro, a neutral agency, picks because otherwise, it would be a conflict of interest,” said Angie?Pe?a, president, co-founder, and event coordinator of Dancing for a Dream.

“It started with a small group of 5 individuals wanting to help the community, because they themselves had experience with family members dealing with cancer,” said Pe?a.

“The stars get picked around May of every year and they start practicing their dance routine in July,” Pe?a said.

The night was filled with many sparkling dresses and full suits. Backflips, splits, picking up a fellow dancer and carrying them around. Many props and different dance moves were used by the stars to try to captivate the audience’s attention. Having eight judges to impress many of the stars expressed nervousness, but readiness to dance.?

“The auction to become a judge is to raise food vouchers for the families to have, this is where we get the money so the higher the bid the higher the number of vouchers we can give in a year,” Pe?a said.

Felipe Irigoyen was the winner of the impromptu Judge position, placing a winning bid of $1,250 to go directly to feeding the chosen families of children dealing with cancer.

“The Judges are partners of Dancing for a Dream, Sun Community Bank gets a judge, Cheval Farms gets a judge, anyone who teams up with us as a partner backs us up financially, they get a judge,” Pe?a continued.

“Our board is appointed, so depending on the community work an individual does and how active they are in the community, they are referred to the board, and the board votes if they want to keep them.”

“This is my first year as a secretary for Dancing for a Dream,” said Maria Dominguez. “I was invited on the board and look forward to next year. I hope to work with all these programs, and that next year’s event is just as big as this one.”

“Dancing for a Dream has been around for seven years now, we hold these events to help the families of children going through chemotherapy,” Dominguez said. “We had six dancers that represented six children, they worked very hard, and they put in a lot of practice to be as successful as they are today. There was a lot of energy, and it was great.”

The winner of the Dance competition was Melvin representing the Sun Community getting an average score of 10 out of 10 from every judge. As the final judges were writing down their scores, the crowd shouted “10! 10! 10!” and the judges grinned as there were perfect 10s across the board. Melvin was not the only one receiving good scores, ranging from 7.75 on the low end to a perfect 10 that the stars received.

?“Everyone was a 10, but considering it was a competition I knew I shouldn't give out 10s like that.”

“I am going to be completely honest with you, I didn’t know where Imperial County was until I got this job which has allowed me to talk to the community and be a reporter for the community. After my first month, I knew I was already loving this place. Everyone is so nice to me, everyone has been amazing, friendly, and also loving. There are a lot of people that I can call friends from Imperial County. I love the people here; the people here are amazing.” said Bazarte.