Two to tango: Franklin colleagues team up for Dancing with the Stars

Two Franklin College employees are competing in Dancing with the Athens Stars to benefit one of Athens' most venerable social service organizations. Fuad Elhage, a Lecturer of Spanish and French Languages, and Stephanie Lynn, a Senior IT Manager on the Franklin College Web Services team, will compete as Team 10 in the benefit for Project Safe. Tickets are on sale for the 2022 event, which will be held March 19, 2022 at 7:30 pm in the Classic Center Auditorium.  

Lynn and Elhage began preparations in 2020 for what became a two-year timeline for this year's event, thanks to the pandemic that also allowed them to exceed their original $10k fundraising goal. But the collaboration has flourished far beyond the parquet for these two committed UGA and Athens community members, who credit their work together creating choreography as the source of a lifelong friendship as well as a thread into the broader community fabric.

“This event really connects people in unexpected ways through the celebration of dance as an expression of emotion and art," said Lynn, who joined Elhage as an assistant Tango instructor for his UGA Tango Club which is offered to UGA students, faculty and staff, and community members. "We work together on many new initiatives now because we have become be such good friends."

The pair also developed and began hosting a bi-annual cultural Latin dance event supported by Athens Clarke County and UGA called Milonga Tropical.

"Dance has always been a major part of Fuad’s life," Lynn said, "but now I have turned my two left feet into competent dancing instruments!”

Best of luck to these inspiring colleagues.

Image: Elhage, left, and Lynn.