MISSOULA — Dancing with the Stars is a national TV show, but this weekend, a similar show will be presented in Missoula.
Dancing with Arts Missoula Stars is a competition event involving eight dancing duos, each composed of a professional dancer and a well-known member of the community.
The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Wilma on Saturday, March 30.
Arts Missoula is a non-profit organization that hosts various events, including Germanfest, New Zealand Days and Missoula on Main.
They offer various grants for local artists who live and work in Missoula, and they advocate for the arts in education and legislation.
“So we do a lot of things — education, advocacy and celebration,” Heather Adams, executive director of Arts Missoula says. “You know, the arts are a really tremendous way to bring everyone to the table.”
A Missoula edition of Dancing with the Stars has been a long-standing event in the community. It has previously been put on by the Downtown Dance Collective, an organization Adams used to lead.
This year, however, is the first time Dancing with the Stars in Missoula has been used as a fundraising event for Arts Missoula.
Gary Bowman worked at Morgenroth Music on Sussex Ave for over three decades and owned the business for many years. He retired in June of 2023 but is still known by many in Missoula.
He agreed to participate in Dancing with Arts Missoula Stars in order to support the organization.
“At some point in everybody's life, they are touched by art of some form,” he says. “And Missoula is an arts community, an unbelievable arts community, and this organization does so much and helps so many people. So you want to really support that because it's, it's great.”
His partner is professional tango dancer, Lori Chase, who has been dancing for eight years. Their routine is Bowman’s first time learning Tango.
“It's just being together and learning something new, you know,” he says. “It's challenging but it makes me, it makes me smile and as the deadline grows closer, you kind of live and breathe this tango.”
While Chase has many years of experience with Tango, she has respect for Bowman’s positive attitude as he struggles to learn the moves.
“We had sort of a complicated sequence to memorize and then put into place and things that he had never done before,” she says. “And for me, it was memorizing the sequence, but I knew the moves because I'd done them, so it's easier. For him, it was just all brand new.”
The proceeds from ticket sales go back to Arts Missoula, and attendees can donate specifically to their favorite team. Tickets and information on donations can be found on the Arts Missoula website.
