Philadelphia

Dirty Dancing With Seth Williams and A Proposal on Stage at Dirty Dancing

March 30, 2015 by HughE Dillon

Happy 3700 post to me today:
The Crystal Tea Room was hot, hot, hot this month with so many events including the Independence Mission Schools Dancing for Our Future Stars. Twelve of Philly’s biggest stars teamed up with some of the area’s finest dance professionals to take a bigger shot at glory, all to benefit Independence Mission Schools. (This is not to be confused with Dancing With The Philadelphia Stars for Sickle Cell which seems to have skipped a year.)

 I was kinda late getting there because I had a few other things to shoot ie LLS Gala and well that big crane that had me fascinated last week; I thought the dancing part of the evening would be last, but it was first. Opps. And sorry this is tardy as I was waiting for the video, which I just got Thursday. It was worth the wait, it’s the Seth Williams dance, and it’s at the bottom. The stars told me they put in a lot of hours to participate in the first year of this dancing competition.

  • John Baron – Winning Captain for Mummer Parade Hegeman String Band and Head Basketball Coach for Gwynedd Mercy University, dancing with Pro Deirdre Finnegan, Philly stage star and director.
  • Katelyn McCabe – Associate Producer at QVC, dancing with Pro off-Broadway actor Michael Scibilia, star of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar.’
  • Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleader Malia Makaila – dancing with Pro Hector Serrano, owner and director of Fuego Dance Studio, Philly.
  • Bob Shannon – President, Philadelphia New Years Shooters and Mummers Association, dancing with Pro Renee Chambers-Liciaga, a Philly native who has worked with Andrew Lloyd Webber and Michael Jackson.
  • Javier Suarez – Executive Producer of the Hispanic Choice Awards, dancing with Pro Camille Moten, director of enrollment at IMS The DePaul Catholic School, who has degree in dance from Temple University and is former dancer for Ashle Dawson’s Latin Fusion Dance Company.
Melissa Magee – Meteorologist for 6 ABC and Co-host of FYI Philly, dancing with Pro Roger Lee, Adjunct Professor of Dance at Temple University.
Roger Lee, Wendy 6ABC Producer, Annie McCormack, Melissa, Guest, Alicia Vitarelli and Justin Pizzi
 

 Joey “Joltin” DeMalavez – Golden Glove Boxer to the Stars, dancing with Pro Christine DiFilippis, creator of the Red Hot Dance Fitness program.
  • Seth Williams –Philadelphia District Attorney, with Pro dancer Katie Miccarelli, Director of Dance at Renaissance Academy Charter School as well as founder of CoEXISTdance, Inc.
 
 Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleader Malia Makaila – dancing with Pro Hector Serrano, owner and director of Fuego Dance Studio, Philly.
 Congressman Chaka Fattah, Nino Tinari and Carol Tinari
 Heather Baumgartner and Michelle Miller

  

 The gala night will featured a VIP cocktail party with the stars and judges, hors d’oeuvres and dinner, the dance competition, and presentation of the trophy to the winning couple. 
Awards will be given for both the most votes received, and the most money raised. The evening continued with dancing for all to the sounds of the fabulous Philly Party Band.Then it was time to calculate the votes, and tally up the money raised for each candidate!!

 The winner:
  • Nino Tinari – Criminal Defense Lawyer, dancing with  Renee DeJohn Renzi
    Renee DeJohn Renzi and Nino Tinari
2nd Place:

 Winner of most money raised: Mary Lou Quinlan – Award-winning Women’s Marketing Expert, New York Times Bestselling Author, Off-Broadway Performer, dancing with Pro Kosta Trifunovic, an American Open Professional National Nine Dance Finalist.

One of the highlights of the night had to be when  Seth Williams –Philadelphia District Attorney, with Pro dancer Katie Miccarelli, Director of Dance at Renaissance Academy Charter School as well as founder of CoEXISTdance, Inc.
they danced the mambo to “I had the Time of My Life” from Dirty Dancing, which reminds me

Malik Murray propose to Alissa Chase at the finale of
Dirty Dancing Thursday night at the Academy of Music (It’s playing there thru April 5).

Malik arranged it all from LA, where he
lives. (Malik was hiding backstage during the performance)

He and
Alissa met 15 years ago at Penn State, then 3 years ago reconnected and
began their long distance relationship. He has family in this area so
he would fly home often.

Dirty Dancing is Alissa Chase’s
favorite movie, and when Malik heard it was in town secured tickets for
her to go. He arranged with the Kimmel Center ahead
of time to appear on stage and call her up, where he proposed to her.
She said YES!!