For the second time in its short history, one of the community’s best known fundraising events has been canceled.
Wendy Murphy, president of the Belmont Woman’s Club, said the club is “devastated” the Dancing with the Belmont Stars had to be canceled, though declined to elaborate on a reason for the cancellation.
“We are grateful for the enormous efforts of so many wonderful people in town,” she wrote in a statement. “The dancers put a lot of time and hard work into their routines. It is heartbreaking but we had no other choice.”
Todos Dance and Fitness Studio owner Ronen Zinshtein, who was teaching the dancers, was unavailable for comment.
The fundraiser was scheduled to take place March 28.
The first Dancing with the Belmont Stars event occurred in 2019, inspired by a similar event in Watertown. That year, the event raised $12,000 to benefit the 1853 William Flagg Homer House restoration at 661 Pleasant St. The COVID-19 pandemic, then, put the event on hold from 2020 to 2023. Last year, the event returned, once again welcoming 10 notable town figures to the stage, paired with professional dancers from Fred Astaire Belmont.
The club raised more than $25,000 to support the ongoing restoration work.
Joanna Tzouvelis, co-chair of the event, said she understood the disappointment of the dancers in this year’s lineup.
“I was in the lineup of dancers for the 2020 Dancing with the Belmont Stars when the event was canceled due to COVID,” she said in a statement. “I was really looking forward to it, having taken many lessons in preparation.”
Tzouvelis eventually got the chance to compete when the event was rescheduled four years later in 2024.
“While helping with publicity for this year’s event, I had the chance to watch many of the dancers during their lessons, and I was incredibly impressed,” she said. “It would have been an amazing show and a great fundraiser for the club. Before we could finish the fundraising, we had already secured a substantial sum and sold more than half the tickets.”