For many years, Dr. Justin Smith of Physical Therapy Services has shown many talents in putting on the moves it takes to dance between taking care of injured high school athletes to those who are recovering from surgery in getting them back on their feet.

Smith soon will be dancing to a different tune as he will be joining nine other contestants in the 11th annual Dancing with the Tri-Cities Stars on June 8 at the Meadowview Marriott in Kingsport.

Smith will be looking to follow in the footsteps of Elizabethton High School football coach Shawn Witten and former Carter County Sheriff Chris Mathes, who both won the competition in past years.

It took quite the prodding to get Smith to initially agree to do the event but looking back Smith is elated that he accepted the challenge.

“I had a former patient’s mother come in and asked me in front of the entire office if I would do it,” Smith said about how his journey started.

“They kind of almost guilted me into doing it but in the back of my mind I had went and saw the ninth season where Shawn Witten had won and I was like that if I ever got the opportunity, I would love to do this.

“So, you have to be careful what you wish for,” continued Smith. “I got presented the opportunity and in the back of my mind I was thinking here is your chance to give this a try and see what happens.”

While the event does feature dancing much like the popular television show “Dancing with the Stars,” the local event is more about raising money to help charities in Northeast Tennessee.

“The big thing and what this is really all about is a fundraiser for the Jeremiah School and 10 other charities so a total of 11 local charities are benefited from this,” Smith said. “I could pick a charity of my choice and basically raising money for these charities is the big thing.

“It’s a lot of time and a lot of energy — both physically and mentally.”

Smith admitted that the open door was leading to something that he had always wanted to do and although apprehensive at first, it was something that was fulfilling one of the activities in his bucket list.

“I am so far out of my element it is not even funny,” Smith said with a big chuckle. “I wanted to start out a hashtag called #strugglebus because that’s what I feel that it is like but it has been so much fun.

“It’s been fun for a couple of reasons — one, I have always wanted to learn how to dance but I would just never do it on my own and this has given the chance to do so.

“And number two, it is a mental and physical challenge because as you get older, you get in a rut and this has definitely gotten me out of a rut to find out there is something new that I really enjoy doing whether I am good at it or not I don’t know but I have had so much fun doing this.”

Accepting the invitation to participate was the easy part of Smith’s endeavor. The hardest part is fitting all the pieces of a 24-hour day together where every part works together to fulfill all of Smith’s commitments.

“It’s time management between trying to run this practice and two offices and then be able to balance work life, home life, and family life with my loving wife and two kids, Sabrah and Holsten, who are so understanding of what I have going on,” Smith stated.

“And then to have time for myself and time for this has been very, very difficult but I will go dancing at 6 a.m. in the morning and sometimes I will go at 9 p.m. at night — it just depends.

“The two people that run it, Mike and Kim Adler, the ones who started this whole thing, have been phenomenal to work with because if you want to come at 5 a.m., they will be there, if you want to come at midnight they will be there,” continued Smith.

“Whatever they need to do to get you in their studio to learn your routine they have been there for us to help us all dance.”

The competition itself does not pair two of the local dance stars together. Rather, the dancers perform their routines with the Adlers, who get a thorough workout dancing two routines apiece with each of the contestants for a total of 20 dances altogether.

“It’s dancing with them,” Smith said about how the competition is set up. “There are 10 contestants — five men and five women.

“The five men dance with Kim, who is a professional dancer, and then the five women dance with Mike, who also is a professional dancer, so we are not paired with a random person. We are actually training with the person we are going to dance with.”

Smith said that he often catches himself working on his moves no matter where he is. The dance training has not only helped Smith learn something that he has always wanted to do but he has been able to incorporate the steps into helping his patients at his practice.

“I find myself doing the moves here in the office, doing it at home — any time I get a chance to work on some of the foot work and some of the moves,” Smith stated.

“I have actually used the two dances that I am doing which are the East Coast Swing and the Cha-cha and I have actually implemented those moves with patients that have balance problems and mobility problems.

“Because not only is it working on balance, control, and coordination but it also works on the mental aspect they have got to have to be able to know that I’m doing step A, then B, and then C, and then D and it has been hugely beneficial for my patients as well.”

Training is something that doesn’t occur overnight either as Smith said by the time the dance actually takes place there will be about six months of time invested.

“We get our choreography about three months out and here we are inside of 28 days until we dance in the competition,” Smith added. “We have been going to classes since January.

“January to March was basically here are the different moves in each dance and here is the footwork to teach you the foundation and then in March, on the foundation you have learned, they start to build that into your choreography so this is when you say these are my two dances and these are my two songs.

“I am looking forward to June 8th when we do have the contest.”

The Adlers have been fantastic to work with according to Smith and have worked with the dancers to whatever level of commitment that they want to invest in their chance to showcase their dance moves.

“I don’t want to brag and then fall on my face, but I have always been a hands-on learner so doing this hands on dance has been not as difficult for me to pick up as I thought it would but the thing is that if you spend a lot of time in their studio, the beauty of it is they are going to push you and critique you as far as they can,” Smith said.

“And if you don’t want to spend a lot of time in the studio then they aren’t going to push you or critique. For me, I am trying to get over there as much as possible because face it, I am getting free dance lessons so I think it’s wonderful and I am trying to be as good as I can be.”

Smith would be the first to say that dancing in front of a large crowd of people is a nerve-wrecking experience especially with professional and celebrity judges watching every move.

“I have had a couple of nightmares where I have screwed up royally and one nightmare where I didn’t know my second dance until the day of and they said just deal with it that I would be fine,” laughed Smith.

“That was part of the nightmare,” continued Smith. “The more you practice the more it becomes muscle memory and the other contestants that I have talked to that have danced before me, the one thing that everyone has said is to just enjoy it.

“The hard part is over with as soon as you get out there and dance in front of everybody and now it’s time just to show what you have learned.”

The Dancing with the Tri-Cities Stars annual event has continued to grow each and every year of its 11 years of existence.

What started out as a small seed planted by Mike Adler has exploded as he and his wife have stepped back to see the event grow beyond their wildest expectations.

“It’s been sold out — it’s not a cheap ticket,” said Smith. “I think it’s like $125 just for a ticket but the money goes to a good cause. There is a silent auction and a live auction.

“The first few years they had it at the Johnson City Country Club and outgrew that venue and that’s why they moved it to Meadowview.

It’s a big event,” continued Smith. “They have a lot of people come to see people dance and to give back to the community. You get a nice night of food, drink, and entertainment so where else can you get that in East Tennessee.”

Smith couldn’t help but revisit the main reason for the dance competition and that being the money raised to benefit all the charities that will be represented.

“There is one main charity which is the Jeremiah School in Johnson City that is a school for autistic kids. They get half of the proceeds and the other half is split between the remaining 10 charities,” Smith stated.

“The charity that I am dancing for is the Isaiah 1:17 House that is close to home which is nice. The other charities are CASA of Northeast Tennessee, FCA, Coalition for Kids, Journey’s Journey Foundation, Appalachian Service Project, St. Jude’s and Johnson City Community Theater.

“They’ve changed it this year,” Smith went on to say. “All the money at one time use to go to just one charity and now they have changed how they are doing it. They made a lot of money over the years and they want to give to more people.

“It started out very small but over the years it has grown every year attendance wise so basically, they are raising more and more money to disperse to more people.”

Smith has always been competitive and knowing there have been two previous winners from Carter County has raised the playing field competition-wise for the Elizabethton dancer.

“There have been two winners from Carter County — Shawn Witten and Chris Mathes so Carter County has been well represented,” Smith added. “I have some pretty big shoes to fill and apparently talking to Mike and Kim they said that Shawn was quite the dancer.

“Shawn was very talented. A lot of this stuff is knowing where to be and foot work as well as repetition, repetition, repetition.”

When asked if participating in the dancing competition would allow for his wife to expect more dancing date nights, Smith said it would be something that he would more than enthusiastically enjoy.

“I think that would be awesome,” said Smith with a wide grin. “I think it’s going to be hugely beneficial for the marriage and the family.

“My wife has always enjoyed dancing and my daughter, Sabrah, is seven and loves to dance and now it’s given me the opportunity to connect with them on a different level.

“There is yet to be anything negative about participating in this dance competition.”