Dancing with Show Me Stars: Local instructors give back through dance

Dancing with Show Me Stars benefits the Community Partnership of Southeast Missouri, but it wouldn't happen without the support of local instructors volunteering their time to teach and train the 13 local "stars."

Rachel Cunningham, Dan Beeson and Micheal Curry are three of this year's selected dance instructors.

Cunningham said she fell in love with ballet at the age of 5. "I taught myself as much as I could until I finally convinced my parents to let me take lessons."

After gaining experience with The Aerial Swing Club of Southeast Missouri State University and Cape Ballroom, she landed with On Cue Performing Arts Studio.

Cunningham said she mainly teaches private lessons focused on country swing and ballroom styles.

Dancing With Show Me Stars contestants Layne Burner, background, and Micheal Curry pose for a portrait April 23 at the Southeast Missourian studios in Cape Girardeau.TYLER GRAEF

"Dancing with the Show Me Stars has really gotten me into tango," she said, "so I'm going to be doing that more."

Cunningham said Dan Beeson with Cape Ballroom suggested she participate in the annual event -- and three years later, she still enjoys it.

This year, Cunningham is partnered with Scott Givens, manager of Southeast Healthpoint Fitness in Jackson. She said they've stuck to a schedule of practicing several times a week for nearly two hours a day.

"It's a big time commitment, and obviously I'm trying to schedule my other private lessons around that," Cunningham said.

She said the goal of the duo's choreography is to provide something "the audience could really get into, that they could really feel."

Dancing With Show Me Stars contestants Dan Beeson and Diane Duncan pose for a portrait April 26 at the Southeast Missourian studios in Cape Girardeau.TYLER GRAEF

"We learned a bunch of different moves, and then we pieced them together, Cunningham said. "When we're actually out there, what we try to focus on is listening to the music."

She said if you stop paying attention to the music at any point, you're going to get distracted. Cunningham focuses on highlighting the complexity of the piece.

"It's the most nerve-wracking week of the entire year," she said.

Beeson said he was contacted by Dancing with the Show Me Stars. This marks two years for the studio to be partnered with the event.

"I've been in dance for a number of years," he said. "However, all the stars certainly will be nervous, and teachers, you're always nervous no matter how often you've done something."

This year marks two years for Fingerprint Dance Studio owner Micheal Curry. He said he believes in "giving back through dance."

He and his counterpart, Layne Burner, are set to perform a mixture of hip-hop and jive -- "hip jive." Burner teaches third grade at St. Mary.

Curry also is acting as choreographer for other dancers.

He said Fingerprint loves to be involved in community events raising money for the community. "It's important to give back to the people who give to us."

"We had an introduction event, where we showed what we could do, and Layne walked up to me and asked me if we could team up. She basically asked me if I knew how to do jive, which I do not," Curry said with a laugh.

He said what you'll see Saturday "is what we came up with, and I think it's really good, and I'm very excited about it."

Energetic, fast, powerful and "somewhat acrobatic" is how Curry described the routine.

"We're basically just trying to give back through our time," he said.

Curry said he also is helping out with three other choreographies at this event.

"And that's because we really wanted to be able to work with everybody."

He said the community's energy is needed for Saturday.

"I think it's important for the community to be there to see what these guys have been working on for six months," Curry said. "I really think if we all come together, and put something together to uplift us all, that we'll get further in life."

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