Dancing With the Tahoe Stars crowns new champion

A packed house at MontBleu Resort on Saturday night was on hand to see Blue Angel Cafe owner, and Lake Tahoe Community College Board Trustee Jeff Cowen win the mirror ball trophy for the 5th annual Tahoe Arts Project's Dancing with the Tahoe Stars.

Cowen, and his professional partner Rhonda Keen performed a Bollywood number that brought down the house.

The event pairs local celebrities with a professional dancer, and they spend a few weeks practicing their assigned dance to perform on stage. The celebrity judges (Marcia Sarosik, Paul Middlebrook and Don Bosson) award points that are combined with text voting from the audience and financial donations gathered online and at the event. From those votes, the top vote recipient and top donation recipient are awarded top prizes.

The People's Choice award winner was local realtor Brooke Hernandez and her partner Alex Kaskie. Hernandez, who was raised in South Lake Tahoe, performed the Hip Hop. Cowen and Keen came in second.

The Dancing With the Tahoe Stars champions Cowen and Keen were joined on the podium with Hernandez and Kaskie, and Bijou Elementary School Principal Cindy Martinez and her partner Spencer Spanton. They performed the Bachata.

Other participants in the dancing event:

Marimille Dacia (MontBleu Marketing Director) with Gerzon Chaves – Salsa
Betsy Bellotti (Brand Marketing with Blue Shield) with Rainer Herm – West Coast Swing
Alison Ganong (Barton Health physician) with Bob Truesdale – Country Swing
Austin Sass (South Lake Tahoe Mayor) with Catherine Arens – Samba
Chuck Malone (Lake Valley Fire Captain) with Angela Smith – Jazz
Matt Levitt (Owner, Tahoe Blue Vodka) with Robyn Lindner- Paso Doble
John Friedrich (Climate change and clean energy advocacy) with Jodi Patton – Jive

Dancing With the Tahoe Stars is produced by Dreu Murin who also served as Master of Ceremonies. During the evening he was joined by Councilmember Jason Collin on stage in a performance. Collin rolled in on a wheelchair with crutches at his side as he is recovering from injuries received in a deadly car crash in September. He got out of the wheelchair and tossed the crutches to dance with Murin to show his recovery.

All money raised during the evening will go to support Tahoe Arts Project's efforts in bringing cultural enrichment to the community, particularly to local youth.