CATSKILL - Jamie Story's dance moves have gone national as she is looking to advance to the next stage of the "Live with Kelly and Ryan" Trivia Dancers contest, with voting ending Sunday night.
A Catskill native and director of the Robert C. Antonelli Senior Center in Catskill, Story is known for her viral videos dancing with center regular Garry Holmes, but she put her dance moves to the test when she recently submitted a video of her dancing solo to enter and make the first cut in the Trivia Dancers contest featured on the morning television show "Live with Kelly and Ryan" on ABC.
Each week the show's producers pick four videos out of a pool of entries and the contestants get to be a trivia dancer that week. Their videos play while show hosts Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest ask trivia questions about the show to a fan that has entered the separate contest.
While Story was one of four dance videos featured on the show, the next round of online voting is being held this weekend and ends Sunday at 9 p.m. To vote, click here.
Although Story watches "Live with Kelly and Ryan," she did not know about the contest right away.
“I’m a fan of the show, but one of my really good friends told me about the contest because he saw it on their website,” Story said.
Story's video made it on the show after she submitted it, but she wasn't contacted by the show that she would appear on it. Fortunately, some of the members at the senior center saw the episode.
“The ladies from the senior center just happened to be watching it and saw me," Story said. "And they (the show) didn’t even tell me I got picked."
Unfortunately, Story did not get to see her debut live on “Kelly and Ryan Live”, but a few of her friends and patrons of the senior center showed her the video of her debut on the show on their phones or they recorded the episode on their televisions.
“If you know me, you know that this is something that I do with the seniors every day, so that’s why my friends suggested it," Story added. "I think it’s just great that they picked me as a trivia dancer - that, alone, is good enough already.”
Story coordinates videos for the center’s TikTok and Facebook pages with its members of the community as one of the activities for the seniors. Her work has paid off as the center's TikTok page boasts over 140,000 followers, a number that is growing more by the day.
“Pretty much every day we do some sort of video at the Catskill Senior Center,” Story said. “I started doing the videos to actually get people to realize what the center actually is. It's for people 55 and over to come and socialize and just hang out because it's very important for older generations to have some place to go and just be social with each other.”
The center features a series of videos with Holmes they named "A Daily Dose of Garry," which raised over $2,000 for the senior center through a T-shirt fundraiser.
Fans that wish to show off their moves can find the "Live with Kelly and Ryan" contest rules and submission page on their website kellyandryan.com to enter with a chance to win a variety of prizes.
You can follow Jamie on TikTok at @yesihave4andmore, which she uses personally and for the videos from the Catskill Senior Center.