Six fathers of young dancers took their turn in the spotlight on March 1 in a first-of-its-kind fundraiser for Petersburg’s Mitkof Dance Troupe.
The dance dads competed for the crown and title of Mr. MDT in a pageant where they were judged on an interview, a talent show, and a highly anticipated group dance routine.
Preparing to perform
The stage was uncharted territory for the men, so they practiced weeks in advance for their performance. Some hadn’t known each other before the first rehearsal, and the one thing they all had in common was that they’re all fathers of students at the dance studio.
Well, that, and they now own matching iridescent disco shirts.
“I’m feeling very middle-aged in my sparkly shirt. But I mean, that’s part of the fun of it,” contestant Matt Pawuk said. “I don’t think we’re supposed to look really good up there.”
Pawuk and the other five dance dads were practicing at the event venue the night before the pageant. They had mixed expectations.
“I’m gonna feel like a penguin in the water,” said Pawuk of performing in the pageant. “I’m gonna be in my element.”
“This is not something I’m comfortable doing at all,” Karsten Wood said. “It’s hard to say how this is going to go for me.”
Dustin Crump said he was “just gonna try not to get hurt.”
Crump, a former college cheerleader, moved to Petersburg a few years ago and teaches Spanish at the local high school. Although he can still do gymnastics, Crump said he’d never done dance until this pageant. The three-minute Mr. MDT routine —akin to what students of the studio learn— took him by surprise.
While some of the men said they kept the group dance routine top-secret, Crump confessed he had help practicing at home.
“My daughters perfected all of my moves. And they told me, like, how bad I was and they fixed my arms and all of these things,” said Crump. “They did a great job helping me out with the little tweaks.”
The studio’s event coordinators recruited the dance dads on the down-low, formally inviting each of them to the first rehearsal by letter.
Crump said his wife gave him the letter, but he forgot about it until the day of the RSVP deadline.
“I was like … I can’t do this,” he recalled. “My wife and daughters [told] me … ‘We get on the stage all the time, you have to do this.’ And it’s like, okay, sounds good.”
But it took a bit more strategy to get the other dads on stage.
“I never actually agreed to it,” Wood said, immediately prompting laughter from the other five dads. “I was told by my daughter that ‘Kelsey texted me and told me to tell you, you have dance practice at six o’clock’ … so I pretty much got peer pressured into it.”
Tyler Thain said he “was voluntold” by his wife.
Jamie Cabral recalled picking up a sports team at the airport, where he was tailed by the pageant’s organizer: “She said, ‘I saw you, and I chased you down, and here’s your letter,’ and I read it, and I said, ‘Sure, that sounds great.’”
“Kelsey works at my son’s pre-K, and so she cornered me there,” Logan Stolpe related.
Again, the dads laughed.
Kelsey Lambe is a teacher at MDT, and the mastermind behind the pageant.
She says of the 10 different dads invited to participate, just six went for it.
“And it’s been the best thing ever, because they like mesh really well together,” said Lambe. “They’re all very … committed … it worked out exactly how it was supposed to.”
Lambe said the Mr. MDT pageant was originally meant to happen a few years ago — but then the pandemic broke out and the event was canceled.
“It’s impressive how quick they learned,” she said. “And how well they’re doing.”
The Big Night
The event was sold out. Golden garden lights strung across the ceiling illuminated the Elks Lodge ballroom. Over a hundred attendees wearing cocktail attire sat at round tables. At the front of the room, black curtains hung around taxidermy game mounts.
“It’s Raining Men” by The Weather Girls blared from the speakers. High school dancers in Southeast Dance Force were the opening act. But once they heard their queue, the dads made their debut — prancing in from the back of the room.
Clad in suites, the six contestants struck poses in the center aisle as the song faded behind roaring applause. The competition had begun.
After a Mrs. Congeniality-style interview questioning their dance knowledge, each dad performed a solo talent act that reflected their personality.
Wood said he was there “to entertain” and started strong with a roster of dad jokes.
Stolpe sang and played guitar as Cabral held the microphone for him. Then Stolpe held the mic as Cabral played the ukulele.
Thain read a poem he wrote about the dance studio.
“There are not enough words to express how I feel. But my love for MDT is surely real,” he said.
Pawuk did a few tricks for his magic-circus act — most notably juggling organic brown eggs. He bounced one off his face, and it splattered on the floor.
Audience members muttered about how expensive that trick cost Pawuk in the end as he cleaned the broken egg off the ballroom floor.
The dads worked together to lay out gym mats for the final act: Crump, doing gymnastics. After a few warm-up somersaults, Crump got in the zone: first a backhandspring, then a backflip.
Then it was time for the group dance.
Wearing their matching disco shirts with two predetermined buttons undone, the dads performed their three-minute dance routine. The music started with “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor, then transitioned to ABBA and later to “SexyBack” by Justin Timberlake, to name a few. Lambe said she looked up “songs about men” for ideas when creating the mix.
The dads leapt and touched their toes — moves Lambe said were a “technique skill.” Crump flipped and Thain did the splits. When the dads struck their final pose, the audience roared.
The town’s mayor led a standing ovation. Pleas for an encore turned into hollering in the final act of the night: the bucket hustle.
Still in their disco shirts, the contestants ran around with bedazzled buckets to collect cash donations from the rowdy crowd. Any cash the dads garnered translated into points toward their rank.
Crowning Mr. MDT
After one last intermission to check out the silent auction, the judges tallied up their points. The mayor said it “was really close.”
With the dads lined up on stage, the audience gave a drumroll of stomps that quickly became roaring applause when Lambe crowned Crump as the first Mr. MDT.
Cheering drowned out Crump’s theme song, “Teach Me How to Dougie” by Cali Swag District, as he donned his gold sash.
Crump hadn’t prepared an acceptance speech, but standing in front of the entire room, he said he was grateful — especially for the studio and what the dance program has done for his two young daughters.
“I’m just so stoked to be able to be a part of this and hopefully keep this going, so that the Mitkof Dance Troupe can just continue to be incredible,” said Crump. “I really appreciate it.”
Being much newer to Petersburg’s community than the other dance dads, Crump said he was surprised that he won.
“We were all in it together, you know, we were all very out of our comfort zones doing this,” he explained. “But it was a blast — I had so much fun.”
Crump said the crown was a tight fit, but felt good to wear.
“And I’m excited to wear it in my Spanish classes while I’m teaching on Monday. It’ll be pretty fun to teach in,” he said with a laugh.
A man of his word: Crump did, in fact, wear the crown and sash to school. Adding some integrity to the name of Mr. MDT.
Lambe said the pageant “surpassed all of our expectations…”
“We were all very happy with how it went!”
