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Last Halloween I was invited to a party with a very clever premise: Come as your alter ego.

Often we equate alter ego with a secret identity such as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in Robert Louis Stevenson's famous thriller. Superheroes also are well-known for their alter egos — think of Clark Kent and Superman.

I went to the Halloween party as Amelia Earhart. I've been fascinated with her since I was a young girl and would always choose her whenever we had to do a school report on a famous person. I've also always wanted to wear a pilot's white scarf.

However, if I had really been true to my alter ego, I would have gone to the party as a Rockette. That's right. Radio City Music Hall, Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, precision dance company Rockette.

Yes, my alter ego is a dancer. Yes, I have two left feet. But as Vice President Cheney might say, "So?"

Actually this is my roundabout way of revealing my guilty pleasure of the past three years: "Dancing With the Stars." The funny thing is that I have always loathed reality shows. I usually find them to be mean-spirited and a banal waste of time. Then came "Dancing With the Stars."

The first time I watched the show, it was like coming out of the closet for my alter ego. How comforting it was to see on national television that lots of other folks shared my longing to trip the light fantastic on a ballroom dance floor. One episode and I was hooked.

For the uninformed, "Dancing With the Stars" pairs a celebrity, usually a C-lister such as Steve Guttenberg , with a professional ballroom dancer. The professional teaches the celebrity specific dances to be performed on live TV in front of a panel of professional judges. The audience gets to vote, too, and each week a couple is eliminated from the competition.

The rest, as they say, is entertainment, although some of the early rounds of the competition can be painful to watch. Tennis great Monica Seles was the first woman eliminated this season after a couple of very awkward performances. Let's just say that clay and parquet are two very different surfaces.

Seles looked fabulous in her costumes and seemed to have a good time. She wiped back a few tears at her elimination and encouraged nondancers like herself to just get out there and keep dancing.

Other athletes are faring better this season. Figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi and NFL star Jason Taylor are early favorites to win.

I'm cheering for actress Marlee Matlin this season. Matlin is, in her own words, "profoundly deaf." Without hearing aids she hears absolutely nothing. I've admired Matlin since her powerful Oscar-winning performance in "Children of a Lesser God." And for the past two seasons, she has appeared as Jodi Lerner, a gay sculptor, in the Showtime series, "The L Word."

I can barely pronounce pasodoble — now imagine dancing one without hearing any music.

But that's what Matlin is doing every week, dancing a new dance to music she cannot hear. She counts her steps and relies on her partner, Fabian Sanchez, to express the music to her.

Her performances in the first few episodes of the show have been remarkable and joyful. She has tremendous energy and a wonderful sense of humor. When asked constantly how she does it — dance without hearing the music, that is — she smiles and says, "Read my hips."

I doubt if Matlin and her partner take home the cheesy little disco ball that is the prize that goes to the winning couple, but she has certainly sent a loud message about overcoming challenges. She says, "We're all challenged in some way; the only thing I can't do is hear."

I know I've been inspired, and quite frankly, I feel like I have a leg up on the Halloween party this year.

Addison Ore is the executive director of the Triad Health Project and a local freelance writer whose monthly column, A Broad View, focuses on issues facing the Triad's LGBT community. Contact her at vaore@aol.com.