DanceWorks hosts first-ever DanceWorks with the Stars

From never taking a dance class to earning a perfect score, Syracuse University students delighted the crowd at DanceWorks’ first-ever DanceWorks with the Stars event this past Saturday afternoon.

DanceWorks with the Stars is a campus spin-off of the iconic TV show, Dancing with the Stars. In the TV show, celebrities team up with professional ballroom dancers to compete for the mirrorball trophy. SU’s version brings that same competitive spirit to campus organizations.

At SU, students represented their campus organizations and were paired with DanceWorks “pros” to learn, rehearse and ultimately compete for prize money on behalf of their teams.

“We’ve been planning this since really early in the summer,” said DanceWorks Executive Director Revati Mahurkar. “People have always requested an event that involves people who are not dancers, so with the rise in popularity of Dancing with the Stars, we thought we could do something similar and also collaborate more with other organizations.”

Twenty teams took the stage, each representing a different campus organization from the Otto Tunes to the Ski Club. The panel of judges scored each routine out of 40 points and each team was also scored by the audience votes, which took place both before and after the performances.

“There was a combination of pre-voting, in-show voting and then the judges’ scores combined,” said DanceWorks Co-Producer Lexi Blank. “Each score had a different percentage to make it fair for people who might have gotten more pre-show votes or fewer pre-show votes, so that the majority of the votes were based on the in-show voting and the judges’ scores.”

After combining audience votes and judges’ scores, the winners were announced:

• First Place: First Year Players — Mario Esteb and Zoe Abrams
• Second Place: Survivor Syracuse — Colin Harkins and Hayley Shukiar
• Third Place: CitrusTV — Luke Welch and Sophia McVige

“We think it went above and beyond our expectations,” Mahurkar said. “We were really nervous that people wouldn’t want to participate or wouldn’t want to attend the show but we sold out our tickets in less than 30 minutes when they opened. We had so many people watching the live stream, lots of family supporting and I think everyone had a lot of fun.”

Beyond the competition, the event fostered new friendships. Students who had never danced before learned from DanceWorks “pros,” and the experience of preparing for the show strengthened bonds across campus organizations. 

Before performing their first-place routine, Zoe Abrams told her partner Mario Esteb, “I feel like this is a reflection of the friendship we have. I’m really sad for this to be over, but I love you so much and I’m so proud of you.”

DanceWorks typically hosts one major event each year, their spring semester showcase, which draws large audiences. The organization also wanted to create a second event to involve more students and campus organizations. That idea not only came to life with DanceWorks with the Stars, but also exceeded expectations by bringing the Syracuse community together for a night of talent, energy and collaboration.

Blank said that the success of the event is just the beginning, “To be able to share this organization with them really is special and we’d love to continue doing it in future years.”