Six Portland personalities are trading their day jobs for sequins and salsa steps tonight, as Dancing with the Rose City Stars brings a charity-focused dance competition to the Alberta Rose Theatre. Doors open at 6 p.m. with the show starting at 7 p.m., and instead of competing for a Mirrorball Trophy, the celebrity contestants are dancing to win real donations for nonprofits they each personally chose.
The made-for-Portland spinoff of the TV dance competition pairs each local celebrity with a professional partner for a specially choreographed routine, according to KATU. Contestants include Blue Star Donuts CEO and co-founder Katie Poppe dancing for The Dougy Center, dentist Alyse D'Ambrosia representing Ukandu, fitness instructor Ace Cauthen dancing for Oregon Dog Rescue, physical therapist Foster King paired with ALS Northwest, Portland Pickles player Tate Harpster dancing for Pink Lemonade Project, and influencer Michele Venlee representing Oregon Humane Society, per Willamette Week. Judges' scores combine with real-time audience voting to determine how much money each nonprofit ultimately takes home, with viewers able to donate to their favorite contestant's cause and vote remotely, KATU reports.
A Decade of Coaching Leads to a Portland Milestone
Tickets for the 300-seat show were down to just a few remaining as of the event, KATU reports, with admission priced at $40. Producer and choreographer Haley Wayt organized the event and will herself dance with Harpster, handling coaching and choreography duties for the full cast of performers, according to the same report.
For Wayt, tonight's show marks new territory. She has spent a decade producing Dancing with the Stars-style charity shows in retirement communities, but the September 30 performance is her first solo production and her first show staged in Portland, Willamette Week reports. Wayt recruited her non-dancer cast based on personality rather than prior dance experience, drawing participants from different Portland studios, businesses, and community groups, KATU notes. She's described expecting an amazing show to come together with this mix of small business owners and entrepreneurs learning new routines.
Deep Roots in Competitive Ballroom
Wayt's own dance background stretches back to age 13, when she started dancing in Portland as part of a school project, according to her bio on Shawn Gardner Dancing. She went on to win first place in every Youth Latin event she entered at the 2010 World Pro/Am Championships before serving as artistic director for the Utah Ballroom Dance Company, the same source notes. That competitive pedigree now anchors an evening built around amateurs in costume, performing for local judges and a live voting audience.
The night's entertainment doesn't stop with the celebrity competition. A second-half showcase features professional performers from Shall We Dance alongside student dancers, ballroom performers, and Latin dance teachers, according to the Alberta Rose Theatre. Fired Up Dance Academy is providing the student dancers, while Vega Dance Lab contributes burlesque and heels performers rounding out the bill.
Inside the Historic Venue
The Alberta Rose Theatre itself carries its own local history. The Concordia neighborhood venue first opened in 1927 as the Alameda Cinema motion picture house before reopening in 2010 as a 300-seat Spanish Revival-style performing arts space, according to the theatre's own account. Its fixed seating sits within a Spanish-Colonial courtyard-style interior, a detail that gives tonight's fundraiser a distinctly old-Portland backdrop.
Several of the represented charities carry decades of local history of their own. Ukandu, the pediatric cancer nonprofit paired with contestant D'Ambrosia, has run summer camp programs for nearly 40 years and just expanded in 2026 to open a downtown Portland facility called The Loft, according to Ukandu. The organization provides year-round support to families affected by pediatric cancer entirely free of charge.
The Pink Lemonade Project, backed by Pickles player Harpster, was founded in 2010 by two physicians and now provides non-medical emotional support, mentorship, and financial assistance to breast cancer patients across all 36 Oregon counties and six Southwest Washington counties, per OPB. The group expanded its geographic reach after the local Susan G. Komen affiliate closed in 2021. ALS Northwest, paired with physical therapist contestant Foster King, was established in 2002 to deliver free hands-on care, support groups, and research funding for families affected by ALS across Oregon and Southwest Washington, and was formerly known as the ALS Association Oregon & SW Washington Chapter.
Blue Star Donuts, the business behind contestant Poppe, was co-founded in Portland in 2012 and built its reputation on French brioche-based pastries before growing to seven locations across Portland and Los Angeles by late 2023, according to Oregon Business. The brand has since expanded into PDX airport, adding to a local footprint that dates back to its early days as a Portland breakfast fixture. Fellow contestant Harpster plays for the Portland Pickles, the minor league baseball team Hoodline has covered before for its willingness to try unconventional promotions.
Whatever the judges decide, the structure of tonight's competition means the real winners are the six nonprofits themselves, their payouts shaped as much by audience generosity as by footwork. For a producer staging her first independent Portland show after ten years coaching similar events elsewhere, the sold-down house at the Alberta Rose Theatre suggests the format has found an audience.
