Lynchburg native proving on TV that she can dance

It wasn’t as though Carol Uphoff, who grew up in Lynchburg, set out to be on TV.

It wasn’t as though her son, Erick, ever imagined he would be on TV with his mom.

They have been, though, on Lifetime’s “Your Mama Don’t Dance.” The reality show is a competition among pairs of young women dancers, who dance with their dads, and young men dancers, who dance with their moms.

So far, the Uphoffs have been cleaning up, getting the highest scores for the episodes they’ve been on. Their next episode is slated to air at 9 p.m. tonight.
Carol’s parents and Erick’s grandparents are the Rev. Nathan and Brenda Brooks of Lynchburg.

It all began last fall when Erick, a 20-year-old professional dancer who lives in North Hollywood, went to an audition.

“I knew it was a reality TV show, and I knew it was a competition of some kind,” but that was it, Erick said in a telephone interview.

Not long after, Lifetime called Carol and her husband, Kurt, who live in Chapel Hill, N.C., and told them their son had been chosen for a TV dance competition show. Lifetime said it wanted to film pieces about the contestants’ lives as a surprise and wanted to interview the couple about their son.

During taping, the Lifetime folks asked Carol and Kurt to dance. The request came out of the blue, but Carol and Kurt obliged.

“Turns out, that was my casting audition, but I didn’t know that,” Carol said.

Then late last year, the Uphoffs got another call. That was when Carol learned Lifetime wanted her to be her son’s dance partner on TV.

“Which I asked them to repeat a couple of times,” she said.

The 1980 E.C. Glass graduate sang in the high school show choir and performed in some theater productions. She had a small part in the “The Nutcracker” production put on by Erick’s dancing school when he was a kid. That was about the sum total of her time under the lights.

“I never in a million years thought I would come to Hollywood and be on TV,” said Carol, a Meredith College alumna who tutors kids and teaches water aerobics.
For a while, it was hush-hush. The parent-as-partner aspect was kept secret from the contestants until the big reveal in January when they learned who their dance partners would be: their parents.

“I was definitely not expecting it to be this,” Erick said. “Which is awesome now that it has unfolded.”

Erick began dancing at age 9. He danced competitively in high school, then went to California to make a living at it. He has danced in music videos and in a tribute show to Smokey Robinson (he got to be on stage with Stevie Wonder).

Other than “The Nutcracker,” Carol hadn’t really danced since taking lessons back in Lynchburg.

Erick said he felt “blessed” to have his mom as a partner.

“She is so coordinated,” he said. “She is so physically fit.”

He credited the water aerobics.

Carol said, “It’s great fun, hard work. The expectations are pretty high for the parents.”

Erick said, “She’s doing an amazing job.”

The two have been working together for six weeks. Lifetime houses them and other contestants in an apartment complex and escorts them most places, Carol and Erick said.

Being so sheltered, the two had few experiences of new stardom, other than fans trying to get in touch with Erick online.

Then while Carol and Erick were standing on a corner Sunday, a minivan went by and some girls hung out the windows to try to get a picture of Erick.
“That’s definitely a whole new experience,” Erick said.

Win or lose, Carol said she has gotten “a rare and wonderful opportunity to spend this much time with my son in his world.”