Third time’s the charm for Dancing with the Chamber

The Brookfield Chamber of Commerce’s third Dancing with the Chamber event, held Saturday, March 21, was a smashing success.

Linda Dumas, representing the Share Food Share Love food pantry as its operations manager, took home the trophy after kicking and twirling during her performance of the jitterbug to “Bandstand Boogie” by Barry Manilow.

“I was very touched,” Dumas said of her reaction to being called as the winner. “I was surprised because, having seen everybody and how hard they worked and how well their dances came together, I had no idea who was going to win. You always hope it’s going to be you, but I really didn’t have any idea.”

Dumas beat out nine other members of the Chamber of Commerce who represented various businesses and organizations in Brookfield in front of an audience of hundreds, who filled most of the seats inside the Riverside Brookfield High School auditorium. Like previous iterations, attendees waved cardboard cutouts of the competitors’ faces to signal their support.

Aside from Dumas, the other competitors included Steven Langworthy, a financial advisor at Edward Jones; Chris Camacho, a co-owner of Four Star Coffee Company; Jim Franko, a counselor at RB; Gina Sharenow, the director of the Brookfield Farmers Market; Barb Garvey, a volunteer with the Village of Brookfield; John Bihun, an employee of Brookfield Zoo Chicago and representative of the Strand Theater; Anthony Martinez, a co-owner of The Social Play; Peter Janunas, the owner of Gears2You; and Anne Clark, an administrator at the Chamber of Commerce.

The fierce competition was judged by Brookfield resident and head choreographer Teresa Swanson, who owns and operates Sway Dance Chicago, with locations in Brookfield and the city’s Irving Park Neighborhood; Héctor Freytas, the principal of RB who made his dancing debut in 2022; and Nicole Gilhooley, a village trustee who took home the gold in 2024.

Brian Sharenow, the Chamber’s president, emceed the event, announcing its first ever 50/50 raffle and delivering quips and quotes from the contestants between their performances.

The competitors were joined by an array of professional dance partners who work as instructors at Sway, including Alejandro Cruz, Sophia Papadopoulos and Aynsley Parker.

For the first time this year, Dancing with the Chamber’s organizers took applications from interested participants rather than inviting Chamber members directly, Swanson told the Landmark in July.

“So many people are interested, which is so great,” she said at the time. “At the beginning, we had to go and explain it to people, talk them into it and tell them the vision because they weren’t sure what it was going to be.”

Dumas said she became interested in participating after watching the 2024 iteration of Dancing with the Chamber.

“I said, ‘Oh my God, that looks like it would be so much fun,’” she said.

The dancers began preparations in October, with a total of about six hours of dance lessons each, split into half-hour chunks.

“I have had so much fun getting to know other business owners in Brookfield. It’s made me feel so connected to them, and this really brings out different parts of them that I think the community doesn’t get to often see,” Swanson said in July.

Dumas said the preparations were more difficult than she expected, but she lauded Swanson and Cruz, her dance partner, for their supportive efforts.

“When we first started out, Teresa asked if there was a particular dance I’d like to do. I had always watched my parents jitterbug and never learned how to do it, and I thought that would be fun. I had no idea jitterbugging was so exhausting,” she said. “Each time, we had a rehearsal, we learned another little part of it before we put it all together.”