From a marketing company founder to Bollywood performer, from a real estate agency administrator to contemporary new age interpreter, 12 Newcastle workers are being transformed into dancing queens and kings for Cancer Council NSW’s major fundraiser, “Stars of Newcastle”.
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The fleet-footed dozen will each be training with a professional instructor from Newcastle Dance Academy for a few months, before performing at a gala concert on June 15.
Along the way, each “star” will raise funds for Cancer Council NSW’s education and support programs in the Newcastle area.
Kirsten Lyndon, from Cancer Council NSW, said this was the fifth “Stars of Newcastle”, and the goal for this year was to raise $200,000.
“We’re 97 per cent community funded,” she said of the event’s importance.
But the first step was for the “stars” to find out what dance style they would be performing. At a launch at the Junction Hotel, Emma Black, from Harcourts real estate, opened her envelope to discover she would be dancing "contemporary new age".
“Whatever that means,” she said later.
With family members having confronted cancer, Emma Black said she couldn’t say “no” when asked to participate: “It’s such a beautiful cause.”
Dave Eddy, the founder of Vicinity Marketing, drew Bollywood as his style. That suited him, he told the crowd, because he had been to India and enjoyed eating butter chicken.
Herald journalist and author Scott Bevan is also dancing. The 54-year-old will be returning to his youth - sort of - by dusting off his disco moves.
