Constable: Pandemic adds a twist for 'Dancing with the Barrington Stars'
Last February's "Dancing with the Barrington Stars" featured professional dancers paired with amateurs competing live before a packed auditorium of 400 people, raising about $200,000 for Bacoa, the Barrington Area Council on Aging.
With pandemic restrictions, there's no crowded fundraiser this year.
"But it couldn't be 'that's it' because it's critical to our funding," says Terri Channer, Bacoa's executive director. Now in its fourth year, the fundraiser that mirrors the "Dancing with the Stars" TV show is Bacoa's biggest fundraiser of the year. By June, the agency had made the decision to do a virtual competition with a twist on the idea of teaming each amateur with a professional dancer from Bataille Academie of the Danse in Barrington.
"Instead of finding five stars of Barrington to partner with professionals, we had to ask our stars to dance with someone from their bubble," says Janine O'Leary, Bacoa's programs coordinator.
The professionals who normally would be dancing are now doing the choreography, Channer says.
Competing couples are Pooja and Raja Chatterji, Kate and Lee Duncan, Judy and Peter Gibbons, Amy and James Kane, and Angela and Reiny Llerena. Instead of performing live before a cheering audience, the five married couples recorded their dance routines last month in the Barrington High School auditorium before a three-person camera crew in full personal protective equipment.
"I actually danced at Bataille studio when I was a young girl," says Judy Gibbons, who grew up in Barrington and performed with the choir and in drama productions as a high school student. An agent with Jameson Sotheby's International Realty, Gibbons says she persuaded Peter, a chemical engineer who grew up playing rugby in Scotland, to join her on the dance floor.
"Say yes to things in life. We laughed a lot," Judy Gibbons says, explaining how their dance routine focuses on rain, with a modern twist provided by Lady Gaga.
Angela Llerena, an exercise physiologist from South Barrington, said her husband, Reiny, talked her into performing with him.
"My husband really wanted to do it, and I was reluctant," she admitted.
Training for an Iron Man Triathlon, she and her husband of 18 years didn't have to get in shape for the rigors of dancing, but appearing on stage with the lights and cameras took a bit of adjustment.
"I was like a deer in headlights, but we just had to go with it. It was fun," says Angela Llerena, who notes their dance ends with her in her husband's arms. "We love that finish."
Having received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccination because of their work at hospitals, the Llerenas are hosting a socially distant watch party for a few friends, many of whom also have been vaccinated.
Bacoa is selling watch parties, with a snack board from Sage & Jim Grazing, wine and swag, for $750 for 10 people, and $450 for six. A single ticket to watch Saturday's 7 p.m. stream of the competition can be purchased for $100. The online event also features a diamond necklace raffle, compliments of Brian Long of Long & Co Jewelers. Barrington High School's female a cappella group, Premium Blend, also performs during the virtual gala. For details and tickets, visit bacoa.org or call (847) 381-5030.
The dance team that raises the most money before the event wins the People's Choice Award. Teachers at the Bataille Academie determine the winner of the Judges' Award. The Champions Award goes to the couple that generates the most donations during the event. But it's not all about the competition.
"Nobody loses in this one," says Kate Duncan, a lawyer and village trustee in Barrington. All the competitors are community-minded people who support local charities, and Duncan says they all hold Bacoa in high regard.
"Bacoa reaches a lot of older adults in our community and they do a lot of meaningful work," she says. In addition to sponsoring a weekly lunch program and caregiver support, Bacoa provides information, advice and support to older people, their families and caregivers.
Learning complicated dance routines isn't easy. Each couple received five in-person rehearsals with the masked instructors, and the couples put in plenty of work on their own.
"It definitely took some practice on our part at home," Duncan says. "But it was fun."