By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
Dr. Andrea Mata and Dom Glover are donning punked-up outfits and stepping out in their Converse sneakers to a dance-pop beat this week in the “Thriving Like a Star” fundraiser.
Mata, a Bowling Green clinical psychologist, was paired with Glover, a professional dancer, for the second annual event to raise funds for the Stroke Life Center, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting stroke survivors and their caregivers in northwest Ohio.
Paula Birney, owner and administrator of Arista Home Care Solutions, asked Mata to be one of the celebrity dancers for the fundraiser. According to Mata, they knew one another from attending many networking events. “I told her I wasn’t a celebrity, but her response was, ‘Well, you’re a celebrity to me.’”
The definition of celebrity is a person who is widely known and admired for their work and expertise. Mata fits the definition.
Her wheelhouse is teaching individual coping, relationship, and parenting skills through her BrightSpot Families practice. She wrote “The No. 2 Parenting Book,” a parenting primer; presented a BGSU TEDx talk; was quoted in national press, including Forbes and Wall Street Journal; and been a guest parenting expert on The Tamron Hall Show, and local TV newscasts and podcasts.
She is also a long-time athlete who continues to work with area athletes and teams. However, Mata admitted dancing is not exactly her forte. “I was never a dancer or took dance lessons.”
Dom, on the other hand, became a professional dancer a little later in life. A native Toledoan, he was a track and football athlete at Scott High School. He broke his leg during his senior year, resulting in two surgeries and ending his football career.
He attended Morehouse College in Atlanta and earned a degree in mathematics. While at Morehouse, he joined a dance troupe. He had always been interested in dancing, and the dance troupe kept him active and in shape.
His first dance instructor at Spelman College told him, “You’ve got something in you.” He wasn’t wrong. Glover went on to dance in performances and solos, and by the time he graduated, he was hooked.
He has performed with the Toledo Ballet and other dance companies across the country, taught dance at several area dance studios, and began choreographing dances about a decade ago for various productions.
Glover is a well-known talent in the Toledo area. He has been a professional dancer in several local Dancing with the Stars-like charity events, but this is the first time he has competed in Thriving Like a Star. He is not trained in ballroom dance, unlike many professionals in similar dance events, but he brings a more modern style to the competition.
Glover was the right fit for Mata’s dance partner, in part because he’s not a ballroom dancer, and also because they both have full-time jobs; he is a high school math teacher. Scheduling their practices depended on their work schedules.
“When we first met, he asked what we wanted to do. I wanted it to be fun and upbeat, not stuffy,” Mata said.
“Tell me about yourself, how you live, and what you like to do? What do you have in mind?” Glover asked her. “She said she was a Pink fan. I loved that!”
He found Pink’s “Feel Good Time” as a possibility. They watched a “So You Think You Can Dance” clip that had a punk and mischievous feel. “This is the song and vibe we’re going for,” he said.
The song was on Pink’s third album, “Try Me,” and it was the lead single for the soundtrack of the 2003 film “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.”
In preparation for the Thriving Like a Star fundraising event at 6 p.m. on Nov. 6 at the Hilton Garden Inn-Levis Commons, Mata and Glover practiced on Wednesday evenings and Sunday afternoons at the DanceFam Ballroom and Latin Dance Studio in Monclova.
Their costumes for the competition will be “pink and super punk,” Mata said, including for her, a leotard, pink mesh shirt, mesh gloves, and Converse tennis shoes.
The winners will be selected based on the amount of money raised for the Stroke Life Center. There will also be live audience voting during the event as the dance teams take center stage under the spotlight.
Mata and Glover are happy to be involved in the fundraiser, and in their competitive spirit, hope to raise enough money to win. To support the Mata-Glover dance team and boost them into the top spot, click here.
For this dance event, Glover is “dancing for a purpose.”
He had a “light bulb moment when I thought about a friend of mine who suffered a stroke about a year and a half ago when he was just 38 years old,” he said. “So now I’m dancing, trying to raise awareness about strokes and how you can have a stroke even at a young age.”
Other celebrities and their partners include Dr. Tomas Calderon, a Mercy Health neurologist, and partner Iuliia Leuck; Dr. Matthew Hutcherson, a Mercy Health physical medicine and rehabilitation physician, and partner Shana Pisle; Claire Mitchell, a BGSU alumna and weekday morning anchor for 13ABC, and partner Slava Polubnev; Amanda Held, founder and executive director of H.O.O.V.E.S. (Healing of Our Veterans through Equine Assisted Services), and partner Dave Ludlow; Kalie Marantette, a WTOL11 anchor, and partner Michael Bulger; and Ben Palicki, a Realtor with Re/Max Preferred Associates, and partner Jordan Fiedler.
