SAUGERTIES >> Try for a minute to envision the usually serious-minded, erudite Holley Carnright cutting loose and kicking up some saw dust.
Add a cowboy hat and pointed boots to the mental picture and then imagine the Ulster County district attorney doing the Texas Two-Step with his wife, Denise Dourdeville.
By now, you’ve got a pretty good idea of what’s about to break loose this Friday night at the Diamond Mills ballroom at 25 South Partition St. in Saugerties.
The three-hour fundraiser for the United Way of Ulster County is called “Dancing With the Stars Ulster Style!” – and by no means is it small potatoes.
This is a real competition pitting seven well-known, amateur couples against each other in one division and four prominent Ulster County residents paired with professional dancers squaring off in another.
Altogether, it should be a night of nonstop “showmanship,” entertainment and a few incongruities like the county’s chief prosecutor bearing that buckaroo image.
“Oh, gosh, can you believe it?” Carnright said of the event he’s been roped into. “I don’t even own cowboy boots, so we went online and bought a pair.”
Actually, the district attorney is gung ho about flaunting them and participating in the April 24 dance contest, which begins at 7 p.m.
All the contestants, including Carnright and his wife, have been taking lessons from professional Hudson Valley dance instructors who have donated their time for the cause.
In almost all of them, Carnright says he’s simply worn his “flippers.”
“I’ve tried to stick my feet into the boots. I can probably get them on [the night of the performance], but I may not be able to get them off, so I’m at Denise’s mercy. If she can’t do that, I may have to go to bed with them on.”
Carnright and Dourdeville will be going against MAC Fitness owners Lyle Schuler and Holly Snow, who will be dancing jive; Hudson Valley Mall Manager Terry Parisian and his wife JoAnne dancing the merengue; Kentucky Fried Chicken owner Darlene Pfeiffer and financial planner Paul Delisio dancing the foxtrot; Home Plate Deli owner Alex Stier and his wife, Denise, dancing salsa; Timely Signs Co-owner Paul Beichert and his wife, Jen, dancing East Coast swing; and Kingston attorney Maureen Keegan and Ulster Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley Vice President Kevin Quilty performing a combination salsa-meringue-Irish step.
In the other category, HITS President and CEO Tom Struzzieri has been paired with professional dancer Maia Martinez. The two will perform the Argentine tango.
Other couples in the amateur-professional division will include John A. Coleman High School music teacher and theater director Lise Landis Hopson dancing milonga with David Salvatierra; Gwen McCann, executive director of The Children’s Home of Kingston, performing swing-jitterbug with Chester Freeman; and insurance executive DianaLou Danger-Wolff dancing hip-hop with Lisa Brown.
Also making headlines at “Dancing With the Stars Ulster Style!” is the panel of judges, consisting of Ulster County Comptroller Elliott Auerbach, Ulster County Clerk Nina Postupack, Rondout Savings Bank Chief Operating Officer Cheryl Bowers; and Norman Staffing Services Owner Tony Marmo.
The head judge will be Linda Freeman, an internationally known dance instructor who runs Got2Lindy Dance Studios with her husband, Chester, in Marlboro.
Those behind the event say it’s been a thrill working with all the area professionals who were willing to be part of the fundraiser.
“I have to say in 21 years-more than that-I have never had more fun organizing an event,” said Stacey Rein, the president of the United Way of Ulster County.
She said the idea had been brewing in her head for years, and once she bounced it around and began collaborating with Bryant “Drew” Andrews, the artistic director at the Center For Creative Education in Kingston, the ball really got moving.
“The most difficult part was finding the dance instructors, but Drew is in that world,” said Rein, who will be emceeing the contest.
“I asked if he would take on the role of finding dance instructors, and I’d find the dancers. He started doing his thing. I started doing mine, and it kept moving.”
Rein hopes to pack the house Friday and raise $20,000-a figure she believes is reachable, given the personalities involved.
“The thing that’s most important is that literally every dime we raise is going back out in the community to those in a position of need, and it’s to make up for these [financial] losses that we’ve experienced over the past 10 years. We’ve lost hundreds of thousands of dollars,” she said.
Stuzzieri, a longtime United Way supporter, believes people will come out to support the event, and he’s wasting no time hamming it up with “trash talk.”
“I think everybody realizes that Maia and I are going to win, and it’s commendable that they’ve all stayed in [the contest],” he said. “I think they should all be happy to win second place. For them, it will be very satisfying to come in behind me.”
Carnright is being slightly more humble in his assessment.
“We’re going to try and dance, but if people are expecting to see something like the TV show, ‘Dancing With the Stars,’ that’s not us.
“If they go with a light heart and fun in mind, I think this will be a good event, and it should be good for a laugh.”
It’s also been good for the married couples participating, according to Carnright, who’s known Dourdeville since they met in law school 41 years ago.
In addition to their eight hours of instruction by Sherrill Silver and Barry Koffler, the pair has gone over and above, often dancing the country swing in their living room.
“This has given me an opportunity to be in my wife’s arms more than we normally are, so that’s been pretty cool,” the 63-year-old Carnright said.
None of it has been lost on judges like Auerbach, a man who has slightly higher expectations than most. While he doesn’t dance, the county comptroller did marry a woman who studied ballet at the Julliard School.
Overall, he said he’s anticipating one heck of a night.
“We have a criminal prosecutor that can two-step, a physical fitness impresario who can jive, a philanthropist who can foxtrot and a defense attorney who can salsa,” Auerbach said.
“They all will dance their way into the hearts of hundreds and help an organization that has the best interest of Ulster at heart.”
IF YOU GO:
What: “Dancing With the Stars Ulster Style!”
When: April 24 at 7 p.m.
Where: Diamond Mills Hotel and Tavern, 25 South Partitioin St., Saugerties
How much: $50 in advance; $60 at the door
Contact: visit ulsterunitedway.org or call (845) 331-4199
Editor’s note: This story was amended on April 23, 2015 at 8:01 a.m. to fix the headline and to correct Kevin Quilty’s title.
