Thank you for your interest in being a celebrity dancer for our exciting new major Charity Fundraiser for Charities in Arlington hosted by the Rotary Club of Arlington!

 

In our inaugural year we made a net profit for our community charities of $ 306,000, but we have even bigger plans for 2025 and beyond! This begins our process for our 2nd Annual DWTAS!! While we had great success this year and built a strong foundation for the future, we want this to become the largest single fundraiser for Arlington in the future, so while we will continue with our “entrepreneurial spirit” to work towards our goals we also are implementing some processes to better operate our fundraising efforts. Among these enhanced processes is this Dancer application.

 

Our primary focus is on raising huge amounts for charities (while also having a GREAT time)! So, while we will certainly want to maintain and enhance our entertainment quality, we also need celebrity dancers who have a passion (and the connections and will make the time) to raise a lot of money! Every cent raised beyond event expenses goes back to our community! We also have the great benefit of having created a TON of women and men who want to dance to raise money for charity, hence this application process. We do not want it to be cumbersome, whatsoever, but we learned from our inaugural year that we need more information to improve, so here it is!

 

To be totally transparent, if chosen, you will be expected to raise money! Lots of money, all for our community! Together the 10 women and men (5 of each) will be able to not only support your charity of choice (if approved by the Rotary fund development committee to be an eligible charity), but by our unique structure together we will raise $$$’s for up to 15 + local charities that will receive $$$’s in 2025! Where else can you do that?!? Impactful!

 

Here is how it works. For every sponsorship, ticket sale or “vote” you get (which are donations- $1 per vote) your approved Charity will receive at least 20% of what you raise. Probably much more than 20% like we distributed this year! Other funds go to event costs (food, dancing classes, production costs, etc.). This first year our dancer’s designated charities received $206,000! Believe me, that was way more than 20% the dancers raised! Only $30,000 went to local Rotary support, primarily to our adopted Title 1 school, Webb Elementary. Our Rotary Grant committee allocates net profits. This year we held back another $100,000 for charities in Arlington to apply for specific projects grants, for which we are taking applications through 8/31. Those grants will be reviewed by our Grant committee and after Board approval will be disbursed October 2024.

 

So, what is expected besides raising money and what will you receive in terms of support from Rotary?

• Professional dance instruction lessons (8 if paired with professional, 10 if dancing with own partner) beginning mid-October provided by United Performing Arts Company (UPAC) dance professionals. You have to commit the time to show up for your practices. Additional practices can be booked with UPAC approval and paid for by you

• UPAC professionals will choose your genre, choreograph your dance, match with your music, assist with costume selections and pair you with a professional dancer (there is a limited number of non-professional partners that will be considered, see application)

• Professionally prepared email and hard copy brochures with sponsor levels

• If you have a big donor, Chad will personally assist you in presenting/closing them

• We will (at the request of large donors) be getting commitments from large sponsors before we open up your fundraising efforts which will be credited equally to all 10 charities represented by celebrity dancers

• Initial meeting to discuss best fund-raising practices (from our most successful past celebrity dancers), answer any questions, overview of production, etc.

• Lunch and dinner will be provided day of the event (mandatory dress rehearsal is day of at Texas Live!, beginning in the morning)

• A luxurious King size room at Loews Hotel with valet parking will be provided the day of and night of the event at no cost to you Professional hair and makeup artists will make you glow the day and night of the event at no cost to you

• Prepare for true “Celebrity Status”! A TON of exposure for you personally and professionally

• You will be spotlighted on social media and the night of the event along with your charity- and a personal brief interview shown on the big screen during the VIP Reception. After that you and your peers will be secluded backstage with open bar, food and closed caption TV of performances culminating in your curtain call

• You will be videotaped during one or more of your practices for a video to be played the night of the event just before you perform

• You will be highlighted on our DWTAS website

• Chance to bond with all the other celebrity dancers, DWTAS team, and professionals

• Up to 4 tickets for family members only, free of charge

 

The event is January 27th, 2025 with a backup inclement weather date February 3 (Monday nights). Please either submit your application below or email your application to dancingwiththearlingtonstars@gmail.com and our DWTAS committee will review and pick our 2025 Celebrity Dancers!! If you are not chosen, please do not take it personally and apply again next year! Part of what our team will be doing is to create a balance of personalities, appearances, etc. to maximize entertainment value! We appreciate you volunteering!!!