For the 13th year in a row participants in the Dancing with the Rexburg Stars event will entertain and heat up the community with their high energy and dance moves. The Madison Education Foundation is excited to once again team up with the Idaho Ballroom Academy and host the event at Madison High School inside the main gym. There will be eight notable stars who work in the Rexburg community. They’ll team up with dancing pros from the IBA.
One of the Rexburg stars will be BYU-Idaho’s Education Department faculty member Mark Nance. In a BYU-Idaho Radio interview, Nance said he initially heard about the Dancing with the Rexburg Stars event a year ago but was uncertain how he was selected to participate in this year's competition.
“Last year my wife and I attended with our family because our daughter was in like the little kid ballroom dance club at her elementary school and they were performing there. So we went to kind of support her and had a chance to see the different stars dance with the high school IBA team. And it was so much fun. To be honest, I have no idea how I got nominated to participate, but in all honesty, it has been just as much fun participating as it was watching last year.”
Nance will partner up with IBA dancer Ella Erickson who says as a newcomer to learning dance, Nance has impressed her with his progression.
“Mark is just like naturally really amazing because I worked with a lot of beginners before and he just has a natural ability to lead and I think one of the biggest things too is that he likes practices outside of dance, which is really rare for beginners.”
Carolyn Broadbent, an organizer for the event, said the Dancing with the Stars event was created to provide funds for a much-needed lighting upgrade at the Madison Performing Arts Center, but since then it has helped raise money for grants.
“And then each year from then, they have just turned it into a way to benefit the school district through the Education Foundation. Currently those funds go towards funding teacher grants which help immensely, especially right now with the cost of things being so expensive.”
The Dancing with the Rexburg Stars event will start at 7:00 p.m. on Nov. 4 at Madison High School inside the main gym. Tickets can be purchased online at www.tickettailor.com.