District attorney among those to be judged for 'Dancing with the Stars' event

When starting to prepare for Brunswick Community College Foundation’s Dancing With the Stars competition, district attorney Rex Gore set four goals for himself—to have fun, be entertaining, lose weight and not drop dead of a heart attack while in rehearsal.

This week, he added one more goal to the list.

“Our goal is to let the other teams know we’re coming,” he said.

Gore was asked to participate several months ago and didn’t hesitate to say yes.

“It was a particularly stressful time at the office and it sounded like a good break,” Gore said. “Deciding to dance was an easy choice.”

Valerie Taylor, owner and instructor at Brunswick School of Dance, said event organizer Clarice Holden approached her while Taylor was shopping at Holden's store one afternoon.

“I said yes right away,” Taylor said. “It’s such a worthy cause.”

The two will be performing a Viennese waltz to “Chim Chim Cher-ee” from Disney’s “Mary Poppins.”

Gore—whose only dance experience includes winning a twist competition in the eighth grade—chose the Viennese waltz after seeing a waltz scene in a recent movie.

“It was such a beautiful dance,” he said. “I figured that was the Viennese waltz.”

But it wasn’t. The Viennese waltz is performed about three times faster than the traditional waltz.

“I wanted to do something fast, so I was glad he suggested it,” Taylor said.

“She put on this song and I said, ‘What’s that?’” Gore said. “But it was already choreographed and she had done so much work.”

The duo has practiced three to four times a week since the beginning of June with weekends off.

“I take any time off she’ll let me have,” Gore said. “This is hard work.”

Taylor’s biggest challenge has been learning to dance with a partner, as she’s a trained solo dancer, but the transition has gone smoother than she expected.

“He can count music and it’s easy to teach him the steps,” Taylor said. “He has caught on really quickly.”

Gore said he doesn’t see a challenge while learning the dance. He just wants to learn the dance as well as he can and give a good performance.

“We don’t want to embarrass ourselves or our families,” he said.

As the Aug. 1 event is quickly approaching, excitement is building throughout the county. Gore was in the grocery store on Sunday when an employee asked him how his dancing was coming and told him how excited she was to see the show.

“I showed her a couple of steps,” he said of his impromptu in-store performance. “Hopefully all our hard work will translate into lots of dollars for the college. That’s what it’s all about.”

Gore hopes Brunswick Community College Foundation’s Dancing With the Stars will become a “local phenomenon” just like the network sensation.

“I am addicted to watching ‘Dancing With the Stars,’ but I definitely have a newfound appreciation for them,” he said.

Votes can be purchased online at www.brunswickcollegefoundation.com for $10 each. All money raised goes directly toward future student scholarships to attend Brunswick Community College.