{"id":3833,"date":"2019-10-22T13:54:49","date_gmt":"2019-10-22T17:54:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/54.235.7.55\/?post_type=news-items&#038;p=3833"},"modified":"2022-11-05T13:55:02","modified_gmt":"2022-11-05T17:55:02","slug":"meet-the-dancers-rami-essak","status":"publish","type":"news-items","link":"https:\/\/lighthousemi.org\/news-items\/meet-the-dancers-rami-essak\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Dancers: Rami Essak"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"modal-ready\"><p><strong>Dancing With the Detroit Stars Contestant, Rami Essak, Is In It To Win It<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>By his own admission, Rami Essak isn\u2019t short on confidence. That\u2019s probably helpful for a guy who oversees a growing network of cosmetic dental practices, with plans to expand internationally.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m a go big or go home kind of guy,\u201d Essak says. \u201cSome people just say it, but I really go for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019ll need that confidence when he takes to the ballroom floor Saturday, Nov. 16 as a contestant in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/my.lighthousemi.org\/dancing\">Dancing with the Detroit Stars<\/a>\u00a0at the Townsend Hotel in Birmingham.<\/p>\n<p>Essak, 30, is the founder of Farmington Hills Family Dentistry and Troy Smiles, both opened since his return to Michigan nearly three years ago. A third location is planned to open soon in Livonia, and Essak has designs on locations in Los Angeles, Montreal and Dubai.<\/p>\n<p>Now living in Keego Harbor, Essak originally hails from Cairo, Egypt. He came to the United States with his parents to flee religious persecution when he was just 5 years old.<\/p>\n<p>His family arrived with nothing, he says. His father was a mechanical engineer. His mother, who speaks five languages, works for a software developer.<\/p>\n<p>Essak graduated from Sterling Heights Stevenson High School and earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in biology from the University of Detroit-Mercy. He attended dental school at Temple University in Philadelphia and did a dual implant and cosmetic residency at the VA Hospital of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He then moved to L.A., but returned home when his mother got sick.<\/p>\n<p>It was at a party where he ran into fellow DWDS contestant Jennifer Granger, whom he had previously met at another social charity gathering. She asked whether he\u2019d be interested in donning dancing shoes to help raise money for Lighthouse, and he said, \u201cyes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Has he ever done anything like this before?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh hell no. Don\u2019t get me wrong. I have rhythm and I can dance,\u201d he says. \u201cBut, doing this in front of a crowd for competition is another thing. It\u2019s been fun, but it\u2019s definitely more challenging and the choreography is way more challenging than you would think.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Essak describes himself as \u201csuper OCD\u201d in his professional life as a cosmetic dentist and business owner. Taking dancing lessons from an instructor flips that script.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m in her world now. I have to learn to let go and trust her,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Essak will be dancing to the \u201890s hit \u201cLivin\u2019 La Vida Loca\u201d by Ricky Martin, in a style that he describes as an upbeat mash-up of salsa, hip-hop and dance moves from the song\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=p47fEXGabaY\">official music video<\/a>\u00a0itself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHonestly, dancing with somebody is one of the more challenging things I\u2019ve done,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of those things where you don\u2019t realize how hard it is until you have to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But, he adds, \u201cI\u2019m a pretty confident guy, I\u2019m not gonna lie. I think we\u2019re gonna end up winning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Join us at Dancing With the Detroit Stars Nov. 16 at the Townsend Hotel in Birmingham. For tickets and more information, visit\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/my.lighthousemi.org\/dancing\">https:\/\/my.lighthousemi.org\/dancing<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"featured_media":3834,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"xn-wppe-expiration":[],"xn-wppe-expiration-action":[],"xn-wppe-expiration-prefix":[],"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news_categories":[121],"class_list":["post-3833","news-items","type-news-items","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news_categories-events"],"acf":{"photo_gallery":{"gallery":[[]]}},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Meet the Dancers: Rami Essak - Lighthouse<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/lighthousemi.org\/news-items\/meet-the-dancers-rami-essak\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meet the Dancers: Rami Essak - Lighthouse\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dancing With the Detroit Stars Contestant, Rami Essak, Is In It To Win It By his own admission, Rami Essak isn\u2019t short on confidence. That\u2019s probably helpful for a guy who oversees a growing network of cosmetic dental practices, with plans to expand internationally. \u201cI\u2019m a go big or go home kind of guy,\u201d Essak [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/lighthousemi.org\/news-items\/meet-the-dancers-rami-essak\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lighthouse\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-05T17:55:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.lighthousemi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/05135441\/rami-400x400-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lighthousemi.org\/news-items\/meet-the-dancers-rami-essak\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/lighthousemi.org\/news-items\/meet-the-dancers-rami-essak\/\",\"name\":\"Meet the Dancers: Rami Essak - Lighthouse\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lighthousemi.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lighthousemi.org\/news-items\/meet-the-dancers-rami-essak\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lighthousemi.org\/news-items\/meet-the-dancers-rami-essak\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/cdn.lighthousemi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/05135441\/rami-400x400-1.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-10-22T17:54:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-05T17:55:02+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lighthousemi.org\/news-items\/meet-the-dancers-rami-essak\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/lighthousemi.org\/news-items\/meet-the-dancers-rami-essak\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lighthousemi.org\/news-items\/meet-the-dancers-rami-essak\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cdn.lighthousemi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/05135441\/rami-400x400-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cdn.lighthousemi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/05135441\/rami-400x400-1.png\",\"width\":400,\"height\":400},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lighthousemi.org\/news-items\/meet-the-dancers-rami-essak\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/lighthousemi.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"News Items\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/lighthousemi.org\/news-archive\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Meet the Dancers: Rami Essak\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lighthousemi.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/lighthousemi.org\/\",\"name\":\"Lighthouse\",\"description\":\"A community action agency building equitable communities that alleviate poverty in partnership with and in service to individuals, families, and organizations.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lighthousemi.org\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/lighthousemi.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lighthousemi.org\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Lighthouse\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/lighthousemi.org\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lighthousemi.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cdn.lighthousemi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/17151455\/LH_Logo_RGB-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cdn.lighthousemi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/17151455\/LH_Logo_RGB-1.png\",\"width\":321,\"height\":81,\"caption\":\"Lighthouse\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lighthousemi.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Meet the Dancers: Rami Essak - Lighthouse","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/lighthousemi.org\/news-items\/meet-the-dancers-rami-essak\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Meet the Dancers: Rami Essak - Lighthouse","og_description":"Dancing With the Detroit Stars Contestant, Rami Essak, Is In It To Win It By his own admission, Rami Essak isn\u2019t short on confidence. 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