he stakes are high for this strength and conditioning coach as he becomes a trainee and takes to the stage.
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RAD Center director Chris Radford has spent the past two months training the samba for the Ballarat Foundation's Dancing with our Stars event.
It is expected to be one of the high-energy pieces on the night - it's the same style that won Buxton's Fhil Vella the judges choice last year.
While Radford has the physical part of the challenge down, he said his coordination skills had been put to the test.
He is one of 10 stars participating in the foundation's event for 2023.
There are three weeks until the stars take to the stage and collectively they are about $1000 shy of the $100,000 goal.
Radford said he was enjoying the challenge - learning new things both from the dancing sessions and fundraising efforts.
"I am having lots of fun learning some new skills; [it's] very much out of my comfort zone," he said.
"I haven't done fundraising before, but I am also enjoying learning that process as well."
Radford said he wasn't aware of how much the foundation did in the community before coming on board.
"I've heard of them and heard little bits and pieces," he said.
"To be able to then play a role in helping support that is really cool."
Money raised for the foundation supports programs like L2P driving and the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.
Each star is instructed by Dance Studio owner Shelley Ross.
Ms Ross said the samba was known as the "Rio party dance" and typically involved lots of hips.
Radford said this was something he was working on.
"That's my room for improvement at the moment," he said.
"Certainly not a natural pattern for me, but I'm slowly learning."
In the last push until the big night, Radford said he was working on keeping his eyes up and focusing on what his fingers were looking like.
The group is now coming together to rehearse its final group performance which will end the gala evening.
Radford said it had been great catching up with the other stars and seeing how they were progressing.
You can contribute to Radford's fundraising efforts by visiting the Ballarat Foundation's website.
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