WCC's Dancing with The Stars

Woman's City Club (WCC) continue their tradition of helping out the community of Laredo Texas, and contributing to non-profit organizations by holding their charity events.  The organization will be celebrating their event "Dancing with the Stars" dance contest on Sept.29, 2012, at the Laredo Country Club.

WCC is a civic organization comprised of a group of women from the city of Laredo. The organization includes members such as, Nancy de Anda, an independent businesswoman who  owns Juvencio's Men's wear and Gateway cleaners. The WCC takes part in fundraisers throughout the year, which seek to help and give back to the community. The organization holds events such as golf tournaments, and in this case a dance contest where they charge the public a fee,  the funds are directed to select non-profit organizations like the Sacred Heart Children's Home, an orphanage, and local school districts.

Dancing with the Stars is a charity dance contest that is open to the community and anyone who likes to dance. The event takes place at the Laredo Country Club where a person can donate $75 that includes a dinner, or they can choose to reserve a table approximately from $1,000.  Those participants who choose to enter the event may do so with a couple and with a dance style of their choice such as Salsa, Hip-Hop, Jazz. Each of the couples are responsible for their own choreography or may hire a choreographer if they wish.The participants dance numbers are reviewed by the public who attends, and then the public is in charge of nominating the top five couples of the night. Thereafter, the top five will dance for a second time for a chance of being adjudicated by a panel of three to five visiting judges from outside the city.

Department Chair for The Fine and Performing Arts Bede Leyendecker, at Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) will be helping out the organization once again with dance choreography as she has done for the past four consecutive years. Leyendecker choreographs a final dance such as a Waltz (ballroom dances in triple time in which couples spin around) where the top five couples dance together. She inspects all of the participating couples, polishing and giving the dancers pointers for to the choreographies and checking for costume appropriateness.  Leyendecker also designs the program and decides which order the dance numbers will be showcased.  When asked about the experience she gets from collaborating with this organization, Leyendecker expressed her excitement to help out organizations such as the WCC, "It's actually quite a bit of fun, we have gotten to meet the leaders in our community which networking in a career is always very important, you never know when somebody in another field might be able to help you out."

Just as she helps out the organization, WWC helps Leyendecker by sponsoring the Encanto Espanolreception, which is an all Flamenco dance concert accompanied by a Spanish food reception that costs about $3,000. to sponsor. This dance concert takes place at TAMIU and is performed by the university dance students. Leyendecker extended her appreciation to the WCC by stating, " [I am] very grateful to the women of Women's City Club for always supporting our endeavors."

Neguif Angeles may be reached at neguif.angeles@dusty.tamiu.edu