Natalie Beese hasn’t danced formally since her father taught her moves like the rumba and fox trot as a child, but the Owings Mills resident will soon be a “dancing star” for a good cause.

She is one of eight Baltimore-area residents and couples who signed on to compete in the third annual Memory Ball to benefit the greater Maryland chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association.

Based on the popular TV show “Dancing With the Stars,” participants will compete in the April 18 event at the Hilton Baltimore Hotel, which costs $300 per person to attend.

Each team gets sponsors to raise money for their performance, and two trophies are given out for both the best dancers and those who raised the most money.

Last year, the event raised $230,000 and drew 580 people, said Amanda Sciukas, special events manager for the Alzheimer’s Association local chapter.

For many participants, though, it is about more than dancing. Beese, who was anticipating getting involved with a charity after the death of her husband, heard about the event from a friend. She said she and her husband had co-chaired the Johns Hopkins Children Center Corporate Board.

“More than 85,000 families in Maryland are affected by (Alzheimer’s). I know three families who were personally affected by it and it is just tragic,” she said.

Beese has gotten a crash course in the tango and rumba over the past two weeks with a professional dancer, Genya Bartashevich, whose team also won the competition last year.

“It has taken definitely a lot of time. I am excited, but I am also definitely very nervous. I think it will a fun event,” she said.

Pikesville resident Mindy Brandt, executive director of Brightwood retirement community in Brooklandville, will also be competing with her husband, Jason Brandt, a clinical and research neuropsychologist who works at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

“I think a lot of folks, especially that are my age, have parents who have been affected and are concerned about seeing a whole generation of folks affected, and I think they hope to do something before it affects the next generation,” Mindy Brandt said.

The Brandts have been rehearsing for a couple of months and are not revealing the dance they have chosen.

“We wanted it to be a surprise,” she said. Dancing together “has been fun and challenging. I am sure there are people who paid to see us humiliate ourselves a little bit.”   

One set of participants will have a leg up on the other dancers. Lee and Christine Gedansky, who own Beginning Ballroom, in Baltimore, are getting back into competition mode after teaching social dancing for the past six years.

Christine Gedansky said many might think she and her husband are shoo-ins for the competition, but that’s not necessarily the case. She said they may be rusty since their last competition was 12 years ago. Christine Gedansky teaches swing, salsa and ballroom dance at the Owings Mills Jewish Community Center, Towson YMCA and Roland Park Country School.

The couple will perform a waltz.

“We picked something that had a lot of strength to it, that we could really get into and emote to,” Lee Gredansky said.

Despite their being a seasoned dance team, other participants nevertheless have an advantage in that they will be dancing with professional partners, he said.

“Nobody is going to eliminate a ballroom instructor as a ringer,” he said.

The Gedanskys have been personally affected by Alzheimer’s, as Lee lost both his grandfather and great-aunt to the disease, and now suspects his mother has symptoms of it as well.

“It’s something that is very close to home for him,” Christine Gedansky said.

The event also fits right into the couple’s ambitions of using dance to do physical therapy, a program they are hoping to start soon.

“We are transitioning into the use of ballroom dance for therapeutic purposes and treating ailments,” Lee Gedansky said.

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