A month or so ago I was approached by a young dancer named Caroline who was looking for sponsorship in some upcoming competitions. I was familiar with her as a contributor to Pure Derek Hough; she had met both Derek Hough and Mark Ballas through her dance studio which is a Fred Astaire Studio owned and operated by Fabian Sanchez, a former professional on Dancing with the Stars.  As a result, she had a lot of great pictures of Derek that she contributed to the site, in addition to writing a blog about meeting the guys.  So, through Pure Derek Hough, Caroline and I got to be friends and I wanted to help her out, as much as I could.

As you might imagine, dance instruction and competition is often prohibitively expensive. As a result, many young people with talent don’t ever get a chance to develop and nuture that talent, let alone compete in ballroom competitions.  Instruction alone is more than a dollar per minute, in many cases.  At a local level, competition can be more than $45 per dance – if you advance, it can get up into the hundreds of dollars per competition. And you’ve seen the costuming!  As a result, John and I have come up with a plan – we’re going to continue sponsoring Caroline and we’re going to do it in conjunction with Pure DWTS.  One of the first things cut in any school or community are the arts – we think that is a huge shame and a great loss to the community and the people who live in it.

You will see a logo on the upper right hand side of the page that says “Pure DWTS Merchandise” or you can click over to our Pure DWTS Store.  At this store you can buy Pure DWTS related merchandise at surprisingly low prices. Here’s an example of one of the t-shirts:

DWTS Nerd by Pure DWTS

We’re going to donate a percentage of proceeds from sales at the store, in addition to a certain amount of our personal income from the site as necessary, in order to sponsor Caroline – and possibly other young dancers, if the program is successful. Consider this a trial balloon to see if we can get a dancing sponsorship going here – we don’t have much money, but we want to help, so your participation will mean we can help more dancers.

The great news is that Caroline had some success recently in competition – she won the junior division of  Birmingham Ballroom Challenge held by Kasia Kozak and this past May she won the Magic City Invitational. I’ve included some pictures, with her permission, below:

make custom gifts at Zazzle

The 2008 Dancing with the Stars Tour dates and locations have been announced. You can purchase tickets to the show on Ticketmaster.

The following Dancers and professionals are planning to be on tour: Lance Bass, Toni Braxton, Maurice Greene, Marlee Matlin, Mark Ballas, Cheryl Burke, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Derek Hough, Kym Johnson, Alec Mazo, Fabian Sanchez, Lacey Schwimmer, Edyta Sliwinska, and Karina Smirnoff.

December 2008
17 – San Diego, CA – San Diego Sports Arena – Buy Tickets Online
18 – Ontario, CA – Citizens Business Bank Arena – Buy Tickets Online
19 – San Jose, CA – HP Pavilion – Buy Tickets Online
21 – Reno, NV – Reno Events Center – Buy Tickets Online
22 – Sacramento, CA – ARCO Arena – Buy Tickets Online
27 – Los Angeles, CA – Staples Center – Buy Tickets Online
28 – Glendale, AZ – Jobing.com Arena – Buy Tickets Online
29 – Las Vegas, NV – Orleans Arena – Buy Tickets Online
30 – Salt Lake City, UT – E Center – Buy Tickets Online

January 2009
2 – Tulsa, OK – BOK Center – Buy Tickets Online
4 – Dallas, TX – American Airlines Center – Buy Tickets Online
5 – San Antonio, TX AT&T Center – Buy Tickets Online
7 – Kansas City, MO – Sprint Center – Buy Tickets Online
8 – Moline, IL – i wireless Center – Buy Tickets Online
9 – Rosemont, IL – Allstate Arena – Buy Tickets Online
11 – Detroit, MI – Joe Louis Arena – Buy Tickets Online
12 – Toronto, Ontario – Air Canada Centre – Buy Tickets Online
13 – Cleveland, OH – Wolstein Center – Buy Tickets Online
15 – Indianapolis, IN – Conseco Fieldhouse – Buy Tickets Online
16 – St. Louis, MO – Scottrade Center – Buy Tickets Online
17 – Cincinnati, OH – US Bank Arena – Buy Tickets Online
18 – Columbus, OH – Nationwide Arena – Buy Tickets Online
20 – Nashville, TN – Sommet Center – Buy Tickets Online
22 – Tampa, FL – St. Pete Times Forum – Buy Tickets Online
23 – Sunrise, FL – BankAtlantic Center – Buy Tickets Online
24 – Orlando, FL – Amway Arena – Buy Tickets Online
25 – Atlanta, GA – Gwinnett Center – Buy Tickets Online
27 – Greensboro, NC – Greensboro Coliseum – Buy Tickets Online
28 – Raleigh, NC – RBC Center – Buy Tickets Online
29 – Washington, DC – Verizon Center – Buy Tickets Online
30, 31 – Uncasville, CT – Mohegan Sun Arena – Buy Tickets Online

February 2009
2 – Providence, RI – Dunkin Donuts Center – Buy Tickets Online
3 – Wilkes Barre, PA – Wachovia Arena – Buy Tickets Online
4 – Uniondale, NY – Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum – Buy Tickets Online
6 – Newark, NJ – Prudential Center – Buy Tickets Online
7 – Atlantic City, NJ – Boardwalk Hall – Buy Tickets Online
8 – Philadelphia, PA – Wachovia Center – Buy Tickets Online

If you are planning to attend the Dancing with the Stars tour, let us know in the comments. We’d love to have you post your experience going to the tour and any pictures you might take from the tour.

UPDATE: ABC has announced the official Dancing with the Stars Season 8 Cast.

Dancing with the Stars Season 7 hasn’t even started yet, and some of the Dancing with the Stars fans are already starting to predict who the Dancing with the Stars Season 8 couples will be. While I think it’s a bit early for these predictions, I also think that it’s a ton of fun to think about various stars being on the show.

Take a look at one person’s Dancing with the Stars Season 8 predictions:

Tim Allen with Kym Johnson
Cher with Maksim Chmerkovskiy
Nicolas Cage with Karina Smirnoff
Hayden Christensen with Julianne Hough
Jesse Draper with Mark Ballas
Dale Earnhardt Jr with Cheryl Burke
Brett Favre with Edyta Sliwinska
Wynonna Judd with Jonathan Roberts
Ty Murray with Anna Trebunskaya
Christina Ricci with Derek Hough
Brooke Shields with Fabian Sanchez
Shania Twain with Louis Van Amstel

My favorites on the list were Tim Allen and Brett Favre. I think they’d be really entertaining to watch. However, I would really really enjoy seeing Shania Twain on the show. A bit like Sarah Evans before, but even more beautiful (if that’s possible).