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<p>WILKES-BARRE TWP. &#8212; Retired hockey player Dennis Bonvie &#8212; perhaps best known locally for his role as the &#8220;enforcer&#8221; with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins &#8212; and dance instructor Lyndsey Cronauer aren&#8217;t shy at all about explaining the dance they&#8217;ll perform on Saturday in the Dancing Stars of Wilkes-Barre competition.</p><p>He&#8217;ll portray a hockey player involved in a scuffle on the ice. She&#8217;ll be the ref who sends him to the penalty box. And they&#8217;ll dance a &#8220;Latin mix&#8221; to a song that underscores the ref&#8217;s tough stance: &#8220;Hit the road, Jack.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Would you give me a 10?&#8221; Bonvie asked with a grin after he and Cronauer practiced their routine, complete with an exciting lift, earlier this week at KISS Theatre.</p><p>Last year, the inaugural Dancing Stars of Wilkes-Barre competition raised $20,000 for KISS (Kids Innovating Sight and Sound) Theatre. This year, artistic director Jessica Suda said, organizers hope to raise even more for the theater, which is devoted to providing arts education to local children.</p><p>The competition is modeled after ABC&#8217;s &#8220;Dancing With the Stars&#8221; program, with expert dancers choreographing routines for their celebrity partners &#8212; a &#8220;10&#8221; being the top score a judge can award &#8212; and lucky winners taking home mirror ball trophies.</p><p>The Judges&#8217; Trophy will be awarded to the couple whose dancing most impresses the four judges, and the People&#8217;s Choice trophy goes to the team that garners the most votes from their fans, at $1 per vote.</p><p>You can vote online already, at dancingstarsofwilkesbarre.com, and you can keep voting until 15 minutes after the dancing ends on Saturday evening. The event begins at 8 p.m. in the KISS Theatre, 400 East End Centre, and tickets are $35, $25, $15.</p><p>When a reporter asked celebrity Dave Reynolds, who is an associate professor of theater at King&#8217;s College, which trophy he and his dance partner, Marikate Sullivan, would rather win, Reynolds boldly proclaimed &#8220;We&#8217;d like to win both.&#8221;</p><p>And soon he was hamming it up, playfully pretending to wrestle Bonvie for a mirror ball trophy in a tug of war.</p><p>But he and Sullivan didn&#8217;t want to reveal too many details about their dance number, &#8220;Honeybun,&#8221; other than to say Reynolds will portray &#8220;a flamboyant sailor.&#8221;</p><p>If you know that song comes from the musical &#8220;South Pacific,&#8221; you might suspect that the costumes could have a certain tropical island flair. But all Reynolds wanted to say about musicals was that, whenever he has been cast in one, he has been &#8220;assigned to the back row.&#8221;</p><p>Bonvie too is modest about his dancing, admitting he &#8220;probably stepped on her toes&#8221; when he and his wife, Kelly, waltzed at their wedding.</p><p>But their pro partners say the celebrities have made great strides over the past weeks of rehearsals.</p><p>&#8220;He is 100 percent into learning,&#8221; Cronauer said of Bonvie.</p><p>&#8220;He really did pick it up,&#8221; Sullivan said of Reynolds.</p><p>The eight teams who will compete include:</p><p>&#8226; Dennis Bonvie, retired Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins hockey player, with Lindsey Cronauer from David Blight School of Dance.</p><p>&#8226; State Representative Aaron Kaufer with Beth Connor from Perfect Harmony Center for the Arts.</p><p>&#8226; Jessica Suda, KISS artistic director, with local performer and choreographer Sean Bromiley.</p><p>&#8226; Ruth Corcoran, owner of Corcoran Communications, with Dan Pittman, owner of Act Out Theatre.</p><p>&#8226; Tyler Ryan, executive assistant to Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tony George, with Patrick Munley from Ballroom One.</p><p>&#8226; Geisinger cardiologist Dr. Hishore Harjai with Tina Evans from Ballroom One.</p><p>&#8226; Assistant Luzerne County District Attorney Angela Sperazza with Andrew Stewart, theater performer.</p><p>&#8226; Dave Reynolds, associate professor at King&#8217;s College, with Marikate Sullivan from Live, Love, Dance.</p><p>Last year&#8217;s winner, Wilkes-Barre City Councilman Tony Brooks, will host the evening with Sharla McBride from WNEP-TV.</p><p>The four judges are attorney Michael Cefalo, who is an avid ballroom dancer; tango specialist Catherine Julius; WNEP-TV reporter Carolyn Blackburn; and Mary Siejak, who teaches at Wilkes Conservatory of Dance and also won last year&#8217;s competition with Brooks.</p><p>As a judge this year, Siejak said she&#8217;ll be looking for how the couples connect with each other and how they portray the character of their dances.</p><p>Looking back at last year&#8217;s inaugural event, she recalled a moment before the competition started, before the audience arrived, and before she and Brooks wowed the judges with an opposites-attract kind of dance to Billy Joel&#8217;s &#8220;You May Be Right.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll always remember this moment,&#8221; she said. &#8220;They were doing sound checks and playing Frank Sinatra&#8217;s &#8216;Strangers in the Night,&#8217; and Tony and I just started dancing, just the two of us. It was so cool, and it reminded me why I got into this in the first place. It&#8217;s an escape from the day-to-day, a little bit of magic.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Dave Reynolds and Marikate Sullivan rehearse their dance routine named 'Honey Bun' at the KISS Theatre Company in Wilkes-Barre Twp., on Monday, October 17.  10/16/17. Sean McKeag | Times Leader</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/web1_TTL101817dancingstars1CUTOUT.jpg</photo0><caption0>Dave Reynolds and Marikate Sullivan rehearse their dance routine named 'Honey Bun' at the KISS Theatre Company in Wilkes-Barre Twp., on Monday, October 17.  10/16/17. Sean McKeag | Times Leader</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/web1_TTL101817dancingstars1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Dave Reynolds, an associate professor of theater at King&#8217;s College, admits that whenever he has been cast in musicals, he was &#8216;assigned to the back row.&#8217; His dance instructor, Marikate Sullivan, is pleased with his progress as they rehearse their dance routine for Saturday&#8217;s Dancing Stars of Wilkes-Barre competition. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/web1_TTL101817dancingstars1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Dave Reynolds, an associate professor of theater at King&#8217;s College, admits that whenever he has been cast in musicals, he was &#8216;assigned to the back row.&#8217; His dance instructor, Marikate Sullivan, is pleased with his progress as they rehearse their dance routine for Saturday&#8217;s Dancing Stars of Wilkes-Barre competition. </caption1><photoCredit1>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/web1_TTL101817dancingstars2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">&#8216;Usually, when he was this close to someone, he was throwing punches,&#8217; dance instructor Lindsey Cronauer said of retired hockey player Dennis Bonvie, who has been practicing for the competition. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/web1_TTL101817dancingstars2.jpg</photo2><caption2>&#8216;Usually, when he was this close to someone, he was throwing punches,&#8217; dance instructor Lindsey Cronauer said of retired hockey player Dennis Bonvie, who has been practicing for the competition. </caption2><photoCredit2>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/web1_TTL101817dancingstars4.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Lindsey Cronauer and Dennis Bonvie rehearse their dance number &#8216;Hit the Road Jack.&#8217; </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/web1_TTL101817dancingstars4.jpg</photo3><caption3>Lindsey Cronauer and Dennis Bonvie rehearse their dance number &#8216;Hit the Road Jack.&#8217; </caption3><photoCredit3>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit3></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/web1_TTL101817dancingstars3.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Dave Reynolds and Marikate Sullivan are one of eight teams in the competition. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo4>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/web1_TTL101817dancingstars3.jpg</photo4><caption4>Dave Reynolds and Marikate Sullivan are one of eight teams in the competition. </caption4><photoCredit4>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit4></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Local celebrities include King&#8217;s professor, retired Penguin</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p><strong>By Mary Therese Biebel</strong></p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>IF YOU GO</strong></p><p><strong>What:</strong> Dancing Stars of Wilkes-Barre</p><p><strong>When: </strong>8 p.m. Oct. 21. Doors open at 7 p.m.</p><p><strong>Where:</strong> 400 East End Centre, Wilkes-Barre Township</p><p><strong>Admission:</strong> Tickets are $35, $25 and $15</p><p><strong>Reservations: </strong>Seating is limited to 330 people. Tickets may be purchased at dancingstarsofwilkesbarre.com</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Dancing Stars of Wilkes-Barre competition to raise money for KISS Theatre