The second annual “Stars Dance for the Arts” is set for Jan. 11 in downtown Kinston.
The Community Council for the Arts is hosting the event, which mirrors the popular ABC reality show “Dancing with the Stars.”
Eight local couples will vie for the title while promoting the art of ballroom dance. All proceeds will be used to support a variety of community programs and activities sponsored by the local arts council.
Voting is available now on the website www.dancekcca.com and at the Arts Center for $10 per vote. You may vote for your favorite couple as often as you like. Online voting will end at midnight, Jan. 10. Voting online also allows you to monitor the votes for each couple and access to the latest breaking news leading up to the final event.
Tickets are available for purchase at the Arts Council. Each ticket is $50 and includes event entry, heavy hors d’oeuvres, and one voting ballot the night of the event. Various levels of sponsorships are available that include a range of amenities at each level. Contact the Arts Center at 252-527-2517 for more information.
Local “stars” participating this year include Bill Connoly and Kelly Taylor, Michael McNulty and Ashley Anderson, Brantley Briley and Sarah Crowe, Rick Vernon and Vickie Robinson, Tony Sears and Kim Manning, Drew Barker and Lindsay King, Steve Jefferson and Cherita Lytle and Carl Younger and Anna Whitlow.
More profiles from the other dancers will be featured in The Free Press in the month before the competition.
Vickie Robinson, a second-year participate, is native of Duplin County, a graduate of East Duplin High School and Mount Olive College where she earned a bachelor’s degree in English communications. She was employed at Mount Olive College for 17 years where she was director of young alumni relations before transitioning to bookkeeper of the family business and devoting more time to her family.
Married to husband Michael Dean Robinson, owner of M.D. Robinson Farms, they have two daughters, Ansley Elizabeth, 6, and Ashlynn Sophia, 2. Residing in Kinston with the family basset hound, Sadie, the family attends Pleasant Hill Christian Church. A busy mom, Robinson is passionate about her family and savors quality time with Mike, the girls, her extended family and her many friends.
Active in her church and community, Robinson has spent eleven years on the board of directors of the Community Council for the Arts where she currently serves as board chairman. She is past president and member-at-large for the Duplin County Partnership for Career Planning. Among her hobbies and interests are spending time at the beach with her family, boating and Bunco.
Vickie loves all kinds of dance and had 12 years of dance training as a child. She will be dancing the jitterbug with partner Rick Vernon.
Rick Vernon, a retired minister, is a native of Kinston and a 1971 graduate of Kinston High School. He attended Barton College and worked with Kraft Foods for 16 years before studying for the ministry. He completed studies at Lexington Theological Seminary in 2005.
Rick is married to wife Jane with whom he has two sons, Ryan and Will. Together they have three grandchildren. Rick is a member of 902 Church where son Ryan serves as pastor. Rick is a past master Mason with the Richard Caswell Lodge and was previously a member of the local Kinston Rotary and Ruritan clubs.
Among his hobbies, Rick enjoys singing and entertaining. For 16 years, he has been host of Down East Today, a morning TV show with Tutt Media Group. He states that is he “passionate” about bringing joy to others. His greatest joy in life is his “relationship with God, his wife and family.”
Cherita Lytle is a native of Morganton who now lives in Greenville. She graduated from East Carolina University in 2002 with a bachelor of fine arts degree in dance education. Dancing since age 3, she began to seriously train in ballet, jazz and tap dance during her middle school years. While at ECU, she performed with the ECU dance team serving as its coach in 2003-2004. Following graduation, she was a remedial and substitute teacher with the Pitt County Schools.
Lytle has performed for 11 years with the Eastern North Carolina Dance Foundation’s pre-professional dance company, the Dance Collective. She currently serves as studio manager and instructor at Greenville Civic Ballet and as a dance instructor at The Oakwood School in Greenville. She continues to develop her dancing skills by attending conferences and classes throughout the country. Those include the Dance Teacher’s Web Conference and Expo, the Boardway Dance Center (New York), Gus Giordano Summer Workshops (New York), the Boulder Jazz Dance Conference (Colorado), and UNC School of the Arts Dance Festival (Winston Salem). She has choreographed and judged various competitions and pageants throughout eastern North Carolina.
When not involved with dancing, Lytle enjoys “hanging out” with her five-year old daughter, Elise Noel, her “greatest joy in life.” She also enjoys traveling and watching reality television.
Dancing with partner Steve Jefferson, they will perform the Paso Doble to “Espana Cani.”
Steve Jefferson, a native of Kinston, graduated from Grainger High School before earning a bachelor of science degree from North Carolina State University in 1965. He was previously employed in textile sales with Jefferson Marketing Company in Pennsylvania and New York. Following retirement, he returned to Kinston in 2004 where he now resides with wife Mary Jo. Together they have three children and six grandchildren. The couple are members of First Presbyterian Church.
Jefferson considers himself to be a “professional volunteer.” Since relocating to Kinston, he has emerged himself into the local community through his involvement with numerous organizations. He served as chairman and campaign chair of the Lenoir-Greene United Way, president of the Kinston Rotary Club, treasurer of the Community Council for the Arts and president of the Grainger-Hill Performing Arts Center. He also serves as a board member for the Salvation Army and The Gate. In his spare time, he enjoys reading and playing golf.
Jefferson says his greatest joys in life are his wife and family and he is “passionate” about the Wolfpack and Kinston.