“Lucky for me, Cole gave me a second chance,” Mr. Dicke said.
Mr. Dicke, 32, is a dancer and choreographer who graduated magna cum laude from Oklahoma City University with a bachelor’s degree in dance performance. In January 2020, he and Mr. Burden founded Simplify NYC, a company focused on decluttering, organizing, and simple staging. He was raised on a dairy farm in Xenia, Ohio.
Mr. Burden, 41, grew up in Rome, Ga. He is an actor and singer and has a bachelor’s degree in musical theater from Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, Ohio. In addition to running Simplify NYC, Mr. Burden is also a real estate agent associated with Bond New York.
In August 2020, the couple moved in together in Harlem, where they still live. And just over a year later, on Nov. 23, 2021, they were engaged.
It was opening night of the Metropolitan Opera’s production of “Eurydice,” in which Mr. Dicke was a featured dancer. When the two met for photos at the fountain at Lincoln Center before the show, Mr. Burden got down on one knee and proposed with a gold band. He got a matching one for himself that he put on then as well.
For two years, the couple went back and forth about their wedding plans. Then Mr. Burden was hospitalized this year, “and there were a few moments that the nurse or doctors asked me to leave because we were not spouses,” said Mr. Dicke, who considered the distinction “foolish.” Nevertheless, he said, “it was time to make it official.”