Dublin Principal Shows Off Dance Moves On National TV

DUBLIN, CA — "You owe me," Amador Elementary School Principal Michael D'Ambrosio mouthed to his wife as he began to dance wildly on national TV.

Yet D'Ambrosio was actually dancing to thank his wife, who had arranged a trip to New York City so that he could be there when his beloved Knicks raised the banner to celebrate their first title in 53 years. Somewhere along the way, he ended up on ABC's "Live With Kelly ad Mark."

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D'Ambrosio decided to take a rare personal day to celebrate a victory he never thought he'd live to see. His wife, who helped organize the trip, loves the show "Live with Kelly and Mark," a nationally-syndicated morning show starring Kelly Ripa and her husband Mark Consuelos.

D'Ambrosio decided to attend a taping of the show to thank her. As they were standing in the crowd, producers asked for volunteers to dance in the lead-up to the show's "Trivia Dancer" segment.

"And [my wife] was like, 'Just raise your hand. They'll probably not call on you anyways,'" D'Ambrosio said. "And I was just like, 'Babe, I really don't want to.' But then the husband in me, I'm like, here's this woman who is this amazing wife who is helping my dream come true to go see the Knicks raise the banner. I at least could raise my hand. I'm probably not gonna get chosen. So I raised my hand, and of course I was the only guy."

Producers brought down a group of around seven or eight people to audition to dance on the live show. Whoever the crowd cheered for most would be chosen.

"If you know anything about me, I'm all in. If I'm doing something, I'm all in. If I'm not all in, then I'm not doing it," D'Ambrosio said. "And so after it was done, they did a little, like, another ask of the crowd, of the 160, 180 people in the crowd, who they wanted to see, by cheer…and the crowd chose me."

D'Ambrosio said that he has no problem speaking to large crowds at school, and doesn't mind dressing up in costumes during school celebrations. But he also dislikes being the center of attention. He kept mouthing, "You owe me," to his wife, then began to freestyle dance.

"And then I was like, but I knew I had to tame it down a little bit because I was gonna be on national TV. I'm a principal," he said. To Mark and Kelly's bemused faces, he mimed playing the guitar, and even twerked a little bit.

"That was incredible," Kelly said. "You have no idea what you did out there."

"I should be at work right now," he replied.

"I loved every second of it," Kelly said, before transitioning into the next trivia question.

The Dublin community agreed with Kelly Ripa. D'Ambrosio said he didn't expect too much attention, but an Instagram post from DUSD highlighting the dance garnered 824 likes. "Never a dull moment with Mr. D!" one commenter wrote.

D'Ambrosio said that he's received a fair amount of ribbing since returning from his trip Thursday.

"A lot of, you know, it was more like, 'How was your trip to New York?'" he said. "I was like, 'It was great.' They're like, "Been to any shows lately?'"

Despite the newfound stardom, D'Ambrosio said that seeing the Knicks raise their banner was still his favorite part of the trip.

"We were all looking at ourselves thinking, 'Am I really about to witness this?'" he said. "That was just amazing. By far the coolest fan experience I've had. By far."

To see the clip, watch "Live with Kelly and Mark" Season 5, Episode 29 on Disney+. D'Ambrosio begins dancing at the 17:45 mark.