Dancing With the Tahoe Stars ends in a tie; McDaniel wins People's Choice

The 3rd annual Dancing With the Tahoe Stars is quickly becoming a community favorite. A capacity crowd filled MontBleu Casino Resort to watch ten local celebrities paired with professional dancers vie for the mirror ball trophy.

South Lake Tahoe teacher Lisa McDaniel and Lake Tahoe Unified School Board Member Ginger Nicolay-Davis each ended up with the top honors in the first ever tie. The tiebreaker combined judge's scores, ticket donations and crowd noise.

Two perfect scores of 40 were landed by both Nicolay-Davis and her partner, professional dancer Dino Elias (who danced Broadway style), and by McDaniel who had STHS graduate and New York dancer Sebastiani "Bubba" Romagnolo as her partner (they did the Jive).

Tahoe Arts Project's major fundraiser of the year brought out the people as well as the checkbooks Saturday evening.

The People's Choice Award went to the celebrity who brought in the most donations through both an on line campaign held for the past few weeks as well as at the event. Lisa McDaniel more than doubled the contributions of her nearest competitor with $4,913 raised. Comedian Howie Nave came in second with almost $2,000 earned.

Local lawyer Joe Laub and his professional partner, and STHS teacher Robyn Lindner came in third. They danced the Mambo.

The other competitors for the night were Nave with his partner Michelle Langlois who danced country, Weidinger Account Exectuive Jenn Boyd and her partner Josh Comprendio danced hip hop; Paul Bruso, owner of Ernie's, danced the Night Club Two Step with Catheine Arens; Barton Health Administrative Director Jason Collins danced the tango with partner Rhonda Keen; Lake Valley Firefighter Martin Golberg and his partner Sarah Guzman danced the Cha Cha; Hard Rock Casino Director of non-gaming operations Corrina Osborne danced the waltz with Adam Hopkins; and Pediatrician Dr. Rita Wang who danced the Merengue with Jorge Orozco.

Judges for the evening were Marcia Sarosik, owner of Marcia Sarosik Dance, Paul Middlebrook of KRLT and owner of Middlebrook Media, Don Bosson, South Lake Tahoe realtor and entertainer and Joan Elias, co-owner of Forever Dance.

Besides the adult dancers, performers from Marcia Sarosik Dance, South Tahoe High Theater and Dance Team as well as Forever Dance entertained the audience.