Advertisement “Hopefully, it won’t last,” Cowgill said, a bit sheepish.
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Teaching dance moves to Onalaska dentist Terry Cowgill hasn’t been anything like pulling teeth for Kristina Smaby, but she figured she’d like to turn the tables on Cowgill anyway. The pair are among 10 couples competing in Saturday’s Dancing with the La Crosse Stars, a fundraiser for the Red Cross.
Photo by Randy Erickson |
Then again, if he and his partner, Miss Wisconsin Kristina Smaby, pull off their ambitious dance routine at Saturday’s competition and win, he might be stuck with it.
Cowgill and Smaby — the only dancer this year who is definitely more well known than her “celebrity” partner — have worked out a two-minute version of the climactic dance scene in the movie “Dirty Dancing.” It’s a merengue-style routine with a big overhead lift they’ve been working on perfecting.
To help with their fundraising campaign for the Red Cross, which plays a factor in who wins the dance competition, Smaby and Cowgill created a flyer based on the movie poster for “Dirty Dancing,” replacing Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze’s heads with their own.
Cowgill worked on the lift with his daughters, Grace and Sophie, before trying it for real with Smaby, and with her he used spotters at first. It wouldn’t do, after all, to drop a potential Miss America.
The pairing of Cowgill and Smaby was random, but it worked out well. The two knew each other from when Smaby taught Grace and Sophie at Misty’s Dance Unlimited, a major source of dancers for Dancing With the La Crosse Stars.
Smaby and her partner won the event in its second year. People who want to see her dance this year better already have their tickets. Even with the larger venue (816 seats) at La Crosse Central High School, the event was sold out last week.
Cowgill has a little dancing experience: He performed in a recital at Misty’s as part of the “daddy-daughter dance.”
“This is much harder than that,” he said.
Even if Smaby doesn’t win, she’s not going home empty-handed. She’ll have the custom-made replica of the dress worn by Jennifer Grey in “Dirty Dancing.”
Onalaska Police Chief Jeffrey Trotnic is one of the other nine celebrity dancers taking part this year. He’ll dance to “I Gotta Feeling” with Brie Warden.
Another Onalaska resident, WXOW-TV 19’s Amy Dupont, is in the competition, dancing salsa with Victor Ocaranza. Dupont is a former gymnast who coaches West Salem High School’s successful gymnastics program, but she said her gymnastics background isn’t necessarily an advantage in dancing.
“Gymnasts are tight and don’t move the tush,” Dupont said with a laugh.
Other dancers will include La Crosse Mayor Matt Harter; Lissa Carlson of Coulee Parenting Connection; Pete Eide of Hillview Nursing Home; Pat Clark of WIZM-FM; Paul Borsheim of Borton Construction Co.; Dennis Vogel of Citizens State Bank; and Stephen Woessner, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
In addition to Smaby, other “high-profile” dancers include Miss La Crosse Oktoberfest Raeanna Johnson, who won the event the first year it was held, and former Miss Onalaska Lynzi Zettler.
