By Barbara Scott
Staff Writer
Next year when you read about the event Dancing Like A Star being held at the Caribou Performing Arts Center, make sure you don’t miss it. Just ask anyone who attended this year’s show on Jan. 8 and they’ll tell you what a purely entertaining evening it was.
With CPAC two-thirds or more filled by a very generous audience, CHS students, paired up with community members that included parents, coaches, teachers, local business owners and even a middle school principal, and showed off their dancing moves striving to become the winner of the fourth annual Dancing Like A Star competition.
Audience members were thoroughly entertained not only by the dynamic dancing divas but by Katherine Keaton and Kjetil Rossignol, emcees for the evening affair, who not only introduced the 12 acts but kept everyone laughing via some pretty lame jokes delivered to precision. Through Keaton’s deadpan words and Rossignol’s pure energy and cutting remarks and the description of some of the dancing individuals (namely Mark Rossignol, Kjetil’s dad) the evening was fast paced, filled with good music, lots of laughter and some pretty amazing dance footwork..
The event, sponsored by the Caribou High School Class of 2012, raised $4,881.10, courtesy of admission cost and audience voting for their preferred prancing performers.
In the end the father and daughter team of Danny and Demarre Doody Corriveau earned the most votes dancing to the music, “Footloose,” and captured the honor of having their named etched onto the Dancing Like a Star trophy.
As voting dollars (one dollar equaled one vote) were counted the audience wasn’t left to themselves as the very talented Rossignol very confidently not only played a little tune on the accordion, but wandered over to the piano at center stage and effortlessly broke into “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” changing into a few other selections and finally caving to the encouragement from the audience, he played, “He’s a Pirate.” Of course, staying with the humorous side of the evening, as Rossignol played, the audience’s attention was captured by the occasional random classmate, walking across the stage, trying to distract the pianist. Keaton also played the piano as the votes were being counted and of course the two emcees carried on with their banter until they received the word that a winner had been decided.
Participating in the extraordinary all out perfect fund-raising event were the following:
CHS teacher Evan Graves and Chaya Karunasira; County Physical Therapy founder Mark Rossignol and Delaney Williams; father and daughter, Danny Corriveau and Demarre Corriveau; mother and daughter, Tina Duplissie and Emma Duplissie-Cyr; teacher Amy Hunter and Annie Collins; teacher Dan Williams and Emma Jandreau; music teacher Vicki King and Sabrina Haney; Physician’s Assistant Scott Walton and Haley Hunter; CMS Principal Susan White and Meredith Sleeper; teacher Shelley Richardson and Sammy Camy; teacher/coach Chris Casavant and Paige Small; and teacher Cherie Black and Regan Buck.
