Mainstream dance competitions typically don’t open their doors to same-sex couples, but next month, Philadelphia will host LGBTs from around the world to celebrate the talents of same-sex dance partners and raise funds for a local LGBT nonprofit.
The annual Philadelphia Liberty Dance Challenge will be held March 27 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Although this marks the PLDC’s fifth year, it’s the first time the event will serve as the championship competition of the North American Same-Sex Partner Dance Association.
B and L Dance Productions has staged the PLDC since before NASSPDA was created, and event co-organizer Gene LaPierre said he and business partner Nancy Brown launched the competition to provide a much-needed outlet for LGBT dancers.
“In mainstream ballroom dancing, they usually don’t recognize same-sex dancing at their events, so we thought we would just start our own that would,” LaPierre said. “You don’t have to be gay to dance at this event, but you do have to be dancing with a same-sex partner.”
The competition will include contests for an array of traditional ballroom dances like the waltz, tango and foxtrot, and will also allow dancers to take the floor for Latin, country-western and several other genres.
“It’s a wide range of styles,” LaPierre said. “A lot of times people hear ballroom dancing and they’re not sure what it is, but it’s anything that’s partner dancing, so we’ll have a lot of options.”
The dancers, who hail from North America as well as England, Germany and other European locales, will have the option to enter different competitions, according to their skill level. Four levels — A through D — will provide opportunities to entrants with entensive to novice training.
“We have a couple that have only been taking lessons for three months,” LaPierre said. “You only have to do three dances, and it’s not how many steps you know, it’s how well you’re doing the steps that you do know. You could do one step around the floor and if you’re doing it really well, you’d be fine.”
The contests will begin at 9 a.m. and continue until 5 p.m. An all-day ticket for spectators is $15.
The Grand Ball and Show, from 7-11 p.m., will feature the finals of the A-level contests, as well as several showcase numbers organized by dance teams. During the show, attendees will have the chance to peruse a silent auction, proceeds from which will be donated to LGBT grantmaking organization Sapphire Fund.
Sapphire Fund will also be in the spotlight during the Grand Ball for an innovative fundraiser that has become a PLDC tradition.
Three board members of the organization will be selected to participate in a dance competition and given one to two hours to team up with a professional dancer and learn the moves for two dances. After each couple dances, they’ll go through the audience collecting donations; each dollar they bring in counts as a vote for the couple.
After the votes are tallied and announced for the first round, spectators will be encouraged to dig deeper into their pockets to support their favorite couple, and LaPierre said the contest usually raises about $2,000 for Sapphire Fund as well as engages the audience in the competition.
“It’s a really nice change of pace. People get to see that anybody can do this,” he said. “The board members aren’t professionally trained but they can get up there and learn the dance and just have fun with it.”
Tickets to the Grand Ball are $40. Contestants will receive free admission to all of the day’s events.
The $75 early-bird registration special — which includes the registration fee and unlimited registration for each of the competitions — will be open until March 1. Registration will close March 15.
For more information, visit www.philadelphialibertydancechallenge.com.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].