Fine Arts Guild set to host Dancing for Diabetes event

By Emily Hoover | ehoover@flagler.edu
Photo courtesy of Dancing for Diabetes Facebook page

For junior Kristen Matulewicz, becoming the president of the new Fine Arts Guild means bringing a little of her home to Flagler College.

Matulewicz, who was raised in Oviedo, Fla., said she has been involved with Seminole County’s Dancing for Diabetes for six years as a performer. She said she looks forward to bringing the event to Flagler’s auditorium on Sunday, Feb. 12.

“The show has been prosperous in Seminole County,” Matulewicz, who is pursuing a double major in fine arts and art history, said. “There will be all types of performers; a lot of different dance forms. It should be really entertaining.”

According to Dancing for Diabetes’ website, creator Elizabeth Stein was diagnosed with type one diabetes in 1999 at the age of 10. She pledged to keep dancing, despite her illness. After holding her first dance show at Millennium Middle School, Stein’s plan received its name in 2003. Dancing for Diabetes has continued ever since as an organization, the website said.

Matulewicz, 20, said the Fine-Arts-Guild-sponsored event will be the first “on-the-road” show.

“If this [event] picks up, it’ll become a bi-annual event,” she said. “It’s all within St. Augustine, as far as performers go.”

Stein is set to speak at Feb. 12 event and all the proceeds — the event is free for performers and $5 for everyone else — will go to the American Diabetes Association, Matulewicz said.

Matulewicz, who specializes in modern and high-kick dancing forms, said members of the Flagler dance team and glee club are set to perform various solos and duets, both vocally and in dance. She said members of the St. Augustine Dancers Guild will be performing a number as well.

As a new club approved last fall — the guild currently has 12 members — Matulewicz said the Fine Arts Guild experienced a “whole chaotic mess” in setting up the event. But she said she looks forward to performing for a worthy cause.

“I tend to do a solo or duet in these shows,” she said. “I used to be a dancer for 18 years, but I suffered a back injury. Now, I dance in these shows and choreograph children’s musicals.”