Eight teams competing in the Dancing With Our Stars fundraiser brought a packed house of fans to their feet, cheering and pumping their fists, Saturday night at the Alhambra Theatre.
Dancing partners Mary Anne Garnett and Caleb Lancaster took home two of the competition’s three trophies, winning online fan favorite and overall champion.
If a prize had been awarded for most exuberant dancer, it surely would have gone to Lancaster. He and Garnett danced to the Blues Brothers’ “Soul Man.”
Joe and Tierra Leavell received the judge’s choice award. Joe, who is a Baptist preacher, nearly brought the house down when he sprang several feet into the air and sailed over his wife as she kneeled on the stage.
Throughout the evening, dancers seemed to defy expectations (their own and of the audience) as they flipped, twirled, leaped and even moon-walked.
Emcee Russ Guffey and judges Francene Gilmer, Cody Noffsinger, Alissa Keller and Carter Hendricks lauded them with praise and big scores.
Kate Russell, who danced with her Hopkinsville Brewing Co. co-owner Joey Medeiros, joked she didn’t think she was much of a dancer and wouldn’t be giving up her day job as a brewer. She added it was the last time anyone would see her in sequins and false eyelashes.