Dancing for the Stars at Cincinnati Music Hall

The ninth annual Dancing for the Stars event was held April 11th at Cincinnati Music Hall. Pairing eight Cincinnati celebrities with some of the area’s finest professional dancers to raise funds for Cincinnati Arts Association’s Overture Awards and Arts Education Programs. I took more than 200 photographs, as the freelance photographer for Cincinnati Refined. After taking some posed shots of people at the event, I found a spot on the dance floor hugging the sideline, and the dancing began. First up, the professional dancers tangoed and fox trotted their way around the floor, entertaining guests with dramatic swings and finales!

The settings on my Nikon D5100 were ISO 3200, Shutter 125 and Aper 5.6. I knew a shutter speed of 125 can help stop action, and because I didn’t want to use flash, I knew I would need to have a high ISO speed and sacrifice some resolution of the photos.

Anyway, next up were the local celebrities: Contestant Diana Maria Lara (left/ corporate director of media & public relations, UC Health) & partner. It was an emotional night for her, as she was dancing in honor of her recently deceased father. She came in 2nd place!

Contestant George Foster (business owner, former member of the Cincinnati Reds’ “Big Red Machine”) & partner.

Contestant Johnny Chu (owner, AmerAsia Kungfood Restaurant) & partner. He came in 1st place!

There were four Judges, with Drew Lachey being the most well-known…

Luckily I wore some stretchy pants, because I had to sit on the hard wooden dance floor for two hours, changing positions, so my bottom wouldn’t go numb!