Where the stars are only outshone by the sequins

Asheville’s biggest celebrity magnet may not be the film festival or Bele Chere, but a lesser-known attraction that has more or less waltzed under the radar for the past two decades.

That is, unless you’re a ballroom-dance fanatic – in which case, you’re probably all too aware of the Heritage Classic Dancesport Championships, held annually at the Grove Park Inn.

“We’re pretty much at our ceiling now,” reports event coordinator Colin Hillary. “We just can’t get any more people in.”

Hillary, who created the dance weekend some 20 years ago as part of the Grove Park Inn’s winter offerings, is rightly proud. The Heritage Classic is now the country’s second-biggest dance event. It receives 10,000 entries, just behind America’s Ballroom Challenge—the Ohio-based competition shown on PBS.

Big names, big ticket sales

“The Heritage is one of the nicest competitions in the country,” says Asheville Ballroom and Dance Centre instructor Kem Overby. “The caliber of dancing is incredible.”

In fact, the event draws not only top performers but also celebrity dancers like Tony Dovolani—who paired with Stacy Keibler on season two of Dancing with the Stars, and is the American Rhythm Champion of this year’s American Ballroom Challenge—and Mary Murphy, the So You Think You Can Dance judge known for her ear-piercing shrieks.

Hillary attributes the star power at least in part to the success of the Heritage Classic. “Last year, Dancing with the Stars finished on the Sunday night before our week [in Asheville] started,” he says. The Florida-based Hillary and his wife orchestrate the event remotely and make the annual commute north for the competition. “That was the show with Drew Lachey and Jerry Rice,” he reminds Xpress.

“By the following Monday, all the remaining tickets [to the Heritage Classic] had sold out.”

Now entering its fourth season, Dancing pairs celebrities with professional competitive ballroom dancers to mesmerizing effect. The B- and C-list “stars”—ranging from former boy-band singers and football heroes to country crooners and newscasters—must master a challenging new dance each week. The winner is largely decided by viewer-call-in voting, but a panel of experts does weigh in. To win means a fresh 15 minutes of fame for the celebrities—but for the professional dancers turned coaches and choreographers, the career boost can be even more lucrative.

“What Dancing with the Stars has done,” says Overby, “is shown real people learning to dance. When they showed Jerry Springer out there trying to do a samba, [viewers] thought, ‘What the heck? I’ll give it a try.’”

“With this thing on the television week after week, people get talking about it,” Hillary confirms. “One thing leads to another and someone says, ‘Oh, did you see Dancing with the Stars last night?’—and anyone who’s ever been to the Heritage [Classic] would probably say at some point, ‘Yeah, we go and watch it live.’

“So instead of one couple coming [to the event], their friends say, ‘We want to go, too.’ And instead of two tickets, we sell four or six.”

The heat is on

The Heritage Classic got its start two decades ago when now-Grove Park Inn President and CEO Craig Madison decided to host special-event weekends during the Inn’s slower winter months. The resort used to be open only during the fair-weather season, but the addition of the large, modern Vanderbilt wing meant more rooms to be filled.

At the time, pianist Lajos Pagony was working as musical director, and recommended his friend and colleague Colin Hillary.

“He called me and said, ‘Now we can have a dance championship,’” Hillary remembers. “But 20 years ago there were no direct flights to Asheville. People were still saying, ‘Do you mean Nashville?’ It was a bit risky.”

The first year, the event was held in the Grove Park’s smaller Heritage Ballroom and drew a crowd of a couple hundred.

Today, the event sells out the Inn’s Grand Ballroom—and all of its guest rooms.

“We’ll probably have about 1,000 heats,” Hillary notes. (A heat is about 1-1/4 minutes of music, to which dancers compete in a chosen style; eight couples take the floor at any given time.)

“That,” he says, “is a record.”

The only way to complete all the heats is to start at 8 a.m., he continues. “Nobody wants to do it, but we have to.” In fact, some women dancers are “going to the hairdresser at 4 or 5 in the morning,” he reveals.

It’s a lot to boast about, but Hillary can’t help coming back to the stars. After all, Elena Grinenko, Dovolani’s professional partner, will be there, too. And Charlotte Jorgensen (who partnered with John O’Hurley during the first season of Stars) is often a judge.

“Charlotte is one of the top coaches for females in the world,” he points out—a fact possibly lost on Stars viewers who often see the male celebrity dancers out-compete their female counterparts. “That doesn’t usually happen in amateur competition,” Hillary notes.

But can all the wow factor of the Heritage Classic intimidate a new ballroom dancer? Overby doesn’t think so. “They have beginner categories,” he offers. “Watch the ‘real people’ dance.”

And if you can’t get a ticket to the sold-out event, there are other opportunities to see professional dancing locally. “We’ll be having a one-day competition at the Asheville Ballroom and Dance Centre on the first weekend in May,” he promises.