This story by Briana Brady was first published by the Shelburne News on Sept. 14.
Town managers have a lot of skills when it comes to dealing with town budgets or supporting the selectboard — financial acuity, communication, fluency in local and state laws and, often, patience.
On Saturday, Sept. 13, Shelburne’s town manager, Matt Lawless, got up on stage at the Flynn Theater in Burlington to display a different kind of skill: a willingness to boogie.
Lawless was one of six “local celebrities” in Dancing with the Burlington Stars, an annual fundraiser for the Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired. The event pairs each local star with a professional, mostly instructors at local dance schools, to put together a routine and compete in front of a panel of judges.
This year, along with Lawless, the local celebrities included a local pediatrician, an elementary school principal and a TV meteorologist. Spoiler alert: Lawless didn’t end up winning —the title went to Dr. Becca Bell — but he did have a lot of fun.
“It’s nice to be in public in a different kind of way. There’s aspects of performance to being in public service, but you only ever see certain parts of people. It’s a nice reminder that people are complicated and have lots of different interests. I’m happy to show a different side of myself,” Lawless said.
Lawless, who has a background in theater, recalled one memorable community theater role in which he played Satan’s jester, a large cat, gamely hissing on stage and climbing up the walls.
He was paired at the Saturday event with Elizabeth Seyler, also known as Dr. Tango, a dance scholar and instructor who specializes in the Argentine tango. He said the two of them spent a lot of time just listening to music and talking about what kind of story they wanted to tell.
The piece Lawless and Seyler performed was equally theatrical, with Lawless playing a bumbling sous chef to Seyler’s exacting chef de cuisine. The two chased each other around the stage, at one point enacting a kind of swordfight using a rolling pin and a wooden spoon. Eventually, they made up, learning to dance together.
The performances from the rest of the celebrities were equally full of joy. It was easy to see why the fundraising has grown. This year, the Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired sold over 800 tickets, with the proceeds going to support its programs.
Lawless said it reminded him how much he loved that kind of creative expression. He plans on finding more ways to dance, maybe with a dance improv group or one of Vermont’s social swing clubs. He might even get back into community theater.
“It’s a really fun, creative way to express yourself and think differently, move differently, that I had been missing,” he said.
