‘Dance Your Ass Off’ winner now healthy, loving exercise and getting noticed

Supposedly he danced it off, but Ruben Permel's rear is on full display during one of his new rituals: the morning jog with his two dogs, Charlie and Oliver.

"I do notice people checking me out more," the 44-year-old Las Vegas resident says, "but I think it's just because I was on the show."

Permel won the first season of "Dance Your Ass Off," best described as a cross between "Dancing with the Stars" and "The Biggest Loser." On the Oxygen network reality show, contestants received scores for both dancing and dieting.

Not only did Permel win the $100,000 grand prize, he lost 74 pounds, which he says cured him of Type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea and bad knees.

"I did in 10 weeks what I couldn't do in the past 10 years," he says.

Seven months ago, Permel was the 314-pound head of wardrobe for "Ka." By that point, out of guilt, he had stopped granting interviews to promote the Cirque du Soleil show.

"Here I was, this 300-pound guy standing talking about all these athletes with these amazing bodies," he says. "I would let my assistant do it, or someone in the shop."

Permel has battled the bulge since his early days in Norfolk, Va., reaching 300 pounds in high school.

"I didn't tend to look at the mirror a lot," he says.

He lost about 100 pounds twice before, once long enough to launch a career as a dancer for regional theater.

"But I'd gain it back," he says.

The reasons: inactivity combined with fried chicken, pasta and the rice his mom used to prepare in traditional Filipino recipes.

"It's like crack cocaine," he says. "I just can't sit down and eat a little bit of those foods."

Permel's love of the theater led him to a job behind the scenes at Cirque du Soleil's "Alegria" production at the Beau Rivage in Mississippi. He relocated to Vegas in 2004 for the inception of "Ka," for which he oversees all costuming, makeup and hair. (In July, he was reassigned to Cirque's upcoming Elvis Presley show at City Center.)

"Dance Your Ass Off" entered Permel's life via an online advertisement seeking overweight people "light on their feet." He initially wasn't interested, but his company manager insisted. She grabbed a camera, put some music on and recorded him dancing in one of their costume closets.

The producers summoned Permel and 24 others to Los Angeles for an audition and medical testing by Dr. Rob Huizenga, the weight-loss expert featured in "The Biggest Loser." (Most of the testing was cardio related, to screen out obvious heart-attack candidates.)

For what he described as a "10-week bubble" in which he was allowed no outside contact or food, Permel endured 10 hours of enforced daily treadmill -- four at dawn, six at bedtime -- on top of two rigorous hours of dance practice. By the show's end, he deflated to 240 pounds (losing an additional 15 since). He became a show favorite, with his climactic paso doble routine and the ongoing drama of his partner of 17 years, John, who is battling colon cancer. (Some of his $100,000 grand prize that doesn't go to Uncle Sam will help pay for John's recovery.)

More than 1.2 million viewed the show's finale on Oxygen, and Permel has been interviewed by People magazine. Last week, he overheard his name mentioned on a cell phone call placed by the woman in front of him on a food court line.

"Thank God it was at a Subway!" he said. "They're gonna catch you."

But nothing, he says, matches the "shock" he experienced the day after winning the competition, on the Southwest flight home.

"I fit in a window seat," he says. "That was such an exciting feeling. Usually, I'd be hoping to get an end seat so my arm could just hang over."

Since getting back, he enrolled at the Las Vegas Athletic Club, where he spins every day, and at Dance Charisma, where he takes ballroom dance classes. (Permel also stars in a workout DVD, called "Dance Your Ass Off," which was released Tuesday.)

"I don't know that it's going to work permanently," he says. "All I can do is live for today and know that I really like what's happening to me now."

He rubs Charlie's belly.

"Oh, look," he says. "He's a little overweight himself. I just noticed that."

Contact reporter Corey Levitan at clevitan@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0456.