Dancing with the King finds new voice in festival's 6th year

TUPELO, Miss. (AP) — A local festival that honors the music and impact of Elvis Presley is stretching its legs.

Dancing with the King, now in its sixth year of service to Northeast Mississippi, raising money for dance education scholarships, is adding a singing element to its lineup.

"I want us to continue to find new ways to honor Elvis' legacy," said Rubye Del Harden, one of the festival's organizers. "Not only did he change music in the U.S. and in the world, he started a completely new trend which led to new opportunities for people in music and in dance. We didn't really have swing dancing until we had rock 'n' roll. He started so much. It's very good for Tupelo to find more and more ways to celebrate him."

With that, Harden and her twinkle-toe cohorts have been focused on the multi-faceted event to introduce younger ages to the King of Rock 'n' Roll and the arts in general.

"We want to expose younger people to Elvis' music," she said. "These young folks, very often, have not really listened to Elvis. The variety and library of his tunes is amazing. So by participating, the young folks have the opportunity to explore his legacy and his music."

Contestants on the dance side of the festival choose an Elvis song to perform to while those on the vocal part of the competition choose an Elvis song — one of more than 700 he recorded — to perform.

"We want to give the young people the opportunity to experience a dance weekend that is full of everything that ballroom dance has to offer," Harden said. "We have show dance competitions, we have ballroom dance competitions. They get to see professional dancers perform, they get to dance themselves and compete, or just watch and enjoy.

"What a lot of people probably don't know is that ballroom dancing competitions are...