TRAVERSE CITY -- Bill Marsh Jr. pressed a button on his purple boombox and hurried into place opposite dance teacher Jennifer Howard, a look of fierce concentration on his face.
As the first strains of "Somebody to Love" reverberated in The Dance Center's Studio D, the couple bowed to each other and stepped into a Viennese waltz to the tune made famous by Queen.
Co-owner of the Bill Marsh Automotive Group, Marsh is boss to most of the people in his showroom. But these days they're simply calling him "Twinkle Toes" or "Fred Astaire Jr."
"In the car business, I have a lot of macho male salesmen that love to rib me," said Marsh, one of six local celebrities taking part in a new dance competition called "SwingShift and the Stars."
Created by longtime area performer Judy Harrison, the "Dancing with the Stars"-like dance-off pairs prominent locals with professional dance partners to raise money for area charities. Dancers compete in five events over five months, culminating in a grand finale on New Year's Eve.
Live audiences vote for their favorites with a minimum $1 donation toward any of the couples' designated charities. But none of the dancers is booted off in disgrace. Instead, the winners -- determined by the cumulative audience vote, combined with judges scores -- are announced at the finale event Dec. 31.
The competition kicks off Saturday at Leelanau Sands Casino Showroom, with emcees Jennifer Allen and Trey Wright standing in for Samantha Harris and Tom Bergeron. Besides Marsh and Howard, dancers and their professional partners include Brenda Beiderman and Tom Morrell, Marilyn Taylor and Philip Leete, Mike Anton and Liz Reincke, and Miriam Pico and Jody Brown.
As of press time, professional Kat Brown -- left partnerless after the pull-out of pastor Nick Twomey to an injury -- was waiting for a new partner.
For Beiderman, who has never danced except at the occasional social outing with her husband, the ecstasy of raising money for the Traverse Health Coalition and Clinic is worth the possible agony of defeat.
"I know I can get my friends to support me. I have friends who will write checks," said Beiderman, a philanthropist and nonprofit event planner whose supporters -- including her 86-year-old mother and 95-year-old mother-in-law -- have already reserved several tables for the event. "And that's what I'm doing it for. If I humiliate myself, it's no big deal."
Still, the bubbly Beiderman -- as the grandmother of five, the oldest contestant -- trembles when she thinks of dancing before an audience.
"I'm scared to death," she said. "I can speak in front of people with no trepidation whatever. I can't imagine what it's going to be like to dance in front of somebody. Just to walk across the floor without tripping would be a biggie."
Beiderman will have stiff competition from the other dancers, including Marsh, a competitive runner. Between dance sessions with Howard, head of The Dance Center programs at the Kaliseum in Kalkaska, Marsh has been rehearsing on his back deck with 13-year-old daughter and fellow dancer, Nicole.
"She thinks it's cool that I'm here and into dance," said Marsh, who is performing for House of Hope, where he's a board member. "Dance has played a big role in our family."
Each couple will perform a minute-and-a-half dance -- from the Viennese waltz, the foxtrot, the West Coast swing, the cha cha, the rumba and the quickstep -- to live music by Harrison and her 15-month-old big band, SwingShift. Dances -- including plenty of lifts, spins and dips -- are choreographed by the professional partners.
"You have to do fairly simple steps because all the people involved in this are non-dancers," said Ballet Etc. founder Morrrell, who brushed up on his social dance technique at Kalamazoo dance studios in preparation for the event. "What changes it is the way you present it. The trick is making it simple, but putting enough of a flair or variety in it so that the audience is not watching a social dance."
Learning the foxtrot Morrell choreographed was so hard at times that she was nearly in tears, Beiderman said. "The by-product is I'm shaping up more than anything you can imagine," she added. "I work out every day but I never sweat like I sweat when I work out with him."
Commercial real estate investor Mike Anton's first dance will be the West Coast swing to "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)." While he's not exactly a Jerry Springer, he's not an Emmitt Smith either, observed wife Jill Anton.
"I think this is really going to help him and I'm kind of excited about it," she said. "I think he's a great sport for doing it. He was real reluctant at first but now he's kind of into it."
Anton wasn't the only participant Harrison, who has been planning the event for six months, had to coerce.
"Some people said, 'No way; you couldn't pay me to do it,'" she said. "But now even the shy people we have, they've really stepped out of their comfort zone."
Like the TV show, SwingShift and the Stars will have plenty of glitz and glamour, including classy costumes and Traverse City's own version of the mirror ball trophy.
Beiderman plans to spend up to $200 apiece on ball gowns purchased from a Hong Kong Web site and custom fitted by friend Kathy Verstraete, an Old Town Playhouse costumer.
"She's very enthusiastic. She wants this bad," Morrell said. "When we first met in July she said, 'I don't want to make a showing, I want to win.'"
But the real winners are local charities, which get to keep all the proceeds from audience voting. Harrison said she has no idea how much money will be raised from the event, but that whatever it is will be more than the organizations have now.
"We're hoping each of the charities is pleased and that it makes an impact," she said.
Craig Bultsma, director of Bethany Christian Services of Traverse City, said his organization will direct donations from the competition to its foster care program, the second largest in the area.
"It's a neat concept and we feel so blessed to be chosen by (local voice-over specialist) Marilyn Taylor," said Bultsma, whose charity also focuses on adoptions, a favorite cause of Taylor, an adoptive mother.
Doors open Saturday at 6:30 p.m., with audience dance lessons with Traci LeBlanc, ballroom teacher at The Dance Center, beginning at 7 p.m. Dancing and competition take place from 8-10:30 p.m.
General admission is $17 and table seating is $25. For tickets or more information, visit www.swingshiftandthestars.com.
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