Ballarat Health chief medical officer Rosemary Aldrich is quick to admit that dancing in front of a crowd is well beyond her comfort zone.
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More comfortable bustling about the wards and corridors of a hospital, Associate Professor Aldrich dismissed her lack of dancing experience to sign up to support the Ballarat Foundation's Dancing With Our Stars.
"I was in pretty much straight away. I thought it would be a hoot, and the other thing is I'm new to Ballarat, I only moved here in 2017 for my job as chief medical officer, and to be included in something so fundamental to the city is a real honour," she said.
"I have zero dance experience. The closest I came to dance was when my children did a year of ballet as toddlers," she laughed.
But with the expert coaching of her dance partner Scott Cornwill and four hours a week of dance lessons over the past few months, she's feeling confident of putting on a good show at the dance off.
The Ballarat Foundation is aiming to raise $100,000 through its biggest community fundraising effort yet - Dancing With Our Stars.
Ten well-known Ballarat identities are busy in lessons with The Dance Studio to prepare for the gala evening of glamour and ballroom glitz on June 22 at Civic Hall, where each star will perform a routine with their experienced dance partner.
Community members can get behind their favourite 'star' by voting online. A $1 donation is one vote and the dancer who collects the highest number of votes will be announced as the winner of the 2019 Ballarat Foundation Dancing With Our Stars.
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"I feel none of us really knew what we were signing up for, but we are all enthusiastic to support a good cause. It's a lot of fun and taken us all beyond our own comfort zones and expectations," Assoc Prof Aldrich said.
The challenge of wearing high heels to dance is something she has had to overcome.
"We've all looked at Dancing With the Stars and been amazed how people can dance in heels. As a busy doctor I'm not someone who normally wears a lot of heels in my role, but it's amazing how natural it feels to have a ballroom dance shoe."
Part of the dance role is fundraising, and Assoc Prof Aldrich has a team behind her and generous donors who are helping her total.
"I have wonderful friends in Ballarat, all of whom are enthusiastically following me every step of the way, including the convenor of my Team Rosemary Facebook page, colleagues at work and other friends outside of work.
"Most people when I start telling them politely what I'm doing have to contain their laughter. They know me and my role professionally is very different than dancing in front of 700 people and being an exhibitionist," she said.
Regent Cinemas, Wilson Fruit and Veg, the Pub With Two Names, The Foundry, Websters Cafe have all donated prizes for her raffle, and the first community event of the Ballarat Innovation and Research Collaboration for Health, a discussion about screen time from British expert Baroness Susan Greenfield, will collect gold coin donations for Team Rosemary in DWOS.
Visit ballaratfoundation.org/dwos/ for more information and to vote.
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