On Wednesday, April 22, 2015 Eleanor Roosevelt High School debuted its third annual Dancing with the Stars event.

The event as a whole originally started as a fundraiser. This year’s event, hosted by assistant principal Mr. Clinton Shands and senior Jasmin Bailey, began with the ERHS Dance Company shimmying to a series of songs. Unlike other performances by Dance Co., this performance featured the moves of math teacher Ms. Kelly Coons.

The first group of dancers to step foot on stage were the teacher-student pairs. Junior Asia Allen and T.V. Production’s teacher Ms. Allison White competed alongside senior Terrell Anderson and Ms. Myra Martin to a choreographed dance. Each pair then danced separately to their own personalized dance. White and Allen came out as the victorious student-teacher pair. The judges loved their explosive energy and unique steps. Allen, who teaches and hopes for a career in dance, created the choreography and said he was excited about the win. “I put a lot of hard work into this, so it feels good” he said.

Ms. White, who is new to both ERHS and to Dancing with the Stars, described the event as having been “really fun,” but “nerveracking.” She was enthusiastic to learn the choreography as she recalled telling Allen that “anything he could do, [she] wanted to learn to do.” She says she feels “really good to win” and she is “humbled by the experience.”

The student-student pairs were up next, but rather than two pairs there were three. Robin Lee was paired with Kristoffer Reyes, Bethel Babayemi with Anthony Matthews, and Maria Costa with Justin Gant. All battled one another for the trophy and title. Following all of the student-student individual pair dances, judges acknowledged all pairs for their hard-work, but said that Robin Lee and Kristoffer Reyes performed with a power and style that none of the other candidates had.

Lee also dances outside of school and performed in Dancing with the Stars last year. Lee unexpectedly found herself participating, taking the place of one of her friends, but is glad she did. At the conclusion of the event, Mr.Shands said he was “extremely happy” and amazed with the results. He says that “it is very important to have people surrounding me that can assist in every aspect to make Dancing with the Stars a complete program without any flaws because bringing it to Roosevelt has always been a challenge.”

“The students are the main part of Dancing with the Stars behind the scenes, they are the true stars,” he continued.

When asked if there were any last thoughts or hopes for the progress and future of Dancing with the Stars, Shands added, “I’m blessed to have an opportunity to bring Dancing with the Stars here, and I want to make sure that when these students leave school and move on to whatever they decide to do that they’ll always have a piece of Dancing with the Stars within them.”