Carol LeBau: Belly Dancing 101

The plan was that FACES publishers Beth Palmer and Ann Henrichsen (otherwise known as “the Swisher sisters”) would participate in a two hour belly-dancing lesson, Mike Wolforth would take photos, and I would come along to make everyone uncomfortable by sitting there and not talking. Essentially, my job as art director is to visualize the finished story in all its four-color glossy splendor, and to make suggestions to the photographer. Among other things, I look for angles that make people look as young and thin as possible, and it was for my skill in this area, I believe, that my presence was requested.

The instructor was to be Carol LaBau, a belly dancer and teacher of vast experience, a great deal of personal charm (from the male point of view), and a sense of humor. An interesting plot-wrinkle was that both she and the Swisher sisters hail from Kadoka, which, for a town of 700 people, seems to produce an inordinate number of attractive and accomplished women.
(Read the rest of this story in Spring ‘09 FACES)

Sandi Haskell and Paula Marsh: Sister Act

When you join Sandi Haskell and her sister Paula Marsh at their favorite coffee hangout inside Borders in Rapid City, you are in for an education on how to get the delicious brew for almost nothing.  Valuable information, for sure.

 They have their routine—a certain window, certain magazines to browse through, and a project or several projects to work on.  Sandi uses a walker to get from the van to the sunny table near the window in the coffee shop.  Paula parks the van and wheels what looks like an enormous scrapbook tote inside to Sandi’s table.

(Read the rest of this story in Spring ‘09 FACES)

Ruth Brennan: The Smarts behind the Arts

For most of us, the phrase “the arts” suggests a painter daubing at a canvas or an actor making his stage debut. But what we don’t think about are things like: who writes grants for funding, who makes sure the art center’s heat bill is paid, or who sits in committee meetings with city and state officials. For many years, Ruth Brennan rarely got to sit back and enjoy a concert, play or art exhibit opening because she was busy making sure everything behind the scenes was on track. She’s retired now and has a little more time to enjoy rather than oversee the arts, but she still remains a driving force behind the arts in South Dakota.

(Read the rest of this story in Spring ‘09 FACES)

Christy Remington: Dancing with Miss Christy

Christy Remington doesn’t merely teach little girls how to pirouette and plié. She imparts passion and poise to the faces reflected in the mirrored walls of her west Rapid City dance studio.

“These kids learn so much more than dance,” said the 29-year-old owner and director of Prima School of Dancing.

“Miss Christy,” as her young charges call her, is proud of her students’ success on the dance floor. But outward accomplishment means little if they haven’t grown inwardly.

Tiptoe into Christy’s classroom, and you’ll find more than dancers going through the motions. Here little girls learn how to be little ladies and young ladies learn how to be graceful and confident young women.

“When I’m in the classroom, I enjoy encouraging kids to be the best version of themselves,” she said.

The Rapid City native wasn’t much older than many of her students when she settled on her vocation. Her decision to pursue a career in dance came as no surprise to friends and family. Dance is, and always has been, what moves Christy.

(Read the rest of this story in Spring ‘09 FACES)

Wylleen May: Custer’s Cross-Country Commuter

Sure, the Custer area offers some spectacular scenery along with the amenities of country living, but is calling it home worth a 2,000-mile commute to work? Wylleen May thinks so. She works in Los Angeles, California, as the executive in charge of production for television’s American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance series as well as the NAACP Image Awards specials. Born in Rock Rapids, Iowa, some 30 miles from Sioux Falls, Wylleen bought land west of Custer eight years ago and started work on her new home. “After living in southern California for three decades, I wanted to move closer to my family,” she explains. Her family still is hundreds of miles away. Her parents remain in Rock Rapids, and her son, MaCayne, 24, attends John Marshall law school in Chicago. But, Wylleen didn’t want to return to the prairie. She wanted hills in her view.

After looking at home sites in other states, including Colorado, Montana and Wyoming, Wylleen came across the Custer property via the Internet. “I was in New York doing the Essence Awards, a special which honored outstanding citizens, when I saw the ad,” Wylleen recalls. “I got on a plane at about 3 a.m. and flew to Sioux Falls. The next morning I drove out here and looked at the property. I fell in love with it.”

Jack Redden: An Old Country for Young Men

Jack pulls a cigar from a newly opened package and chomps on the end.

Nineteen Forty-seven was the first year I chewed on a cigar,”he comments, sticking it in his mouth. “I was rough-necking in the Elk Basin oil field up near Powell, Wyoming. On Sunday afternoons we played baseball and I was catching a game when someone stuck one in my mouth. I chewed on it until the 6^th inning when I got a bit sick. He takes the cigar out of his mouth; looks at it for a moment then sticks it back in. First time ever, he repeats. Playing ball that summer was the best time I ever had, Jack recollects. One Sunday we traveled over 200 miles and I caught one baseball game at Powell and two softball games at Thermopolis. By that third game, I wasn’t rallying the team much at all.

He laughs, loudly and long. In fact hardly five minutes goes by during our three hour conversation that Jack Redden, “retired” geologist, doesn’t laugh long and hard and loud.  He calls himself a maverick and that he is, an independent thinker who does things his way. Throughout this interview he took my questions wherever he wanted to go with them eventually meandering back to the answer.

I had come to visit with Jack to ask about the culmination of the last twenty-five years of his life—a 5×4 foot digital geologic map of the Black Hills–but two hours went by before we ever got to that subject. Instead I listened as Jack gave me a stream-of-consciousness journey through his life interjected with laughs and verbal asides like You get me?, and I’ll go you one further…, and I have been very fortunate, and Oh, I didn’t finish my story…and, acknowledging my lack of geologic knowledge,  Do you know…you probably don’t…

(Read the rest of this story in Spring ‘09 FACES)

Becky Svalstad: Friends in High Places

When animal lover Becky Svalstad was growing up along Spring Creek southeast of Rapid City there was always a menagerie of pets—dogs, cats, hamsters—but never anything with feathers.

“My mom would not let us have birds as pets,” the 28 year old recalls.

Although Becky was sure she would grow up and pursue a career related to her love of horses and cattle, birds began to capture her heart when she started working in the bird department at Reptile Gardens in high school.

“Birds have their own personalities and are so much fun to be around,” she says.

This affection for birds is a bonus at her “home away from home,” Wildlife Experiences, Inc., where she is part of a small group of dedicated people who work there among a large number and variety of birds, and a few small animals.

(Read the rest of this story in Spring ‘09 FACES)

Cover Story – Overseeing Otho: Dallas Dietrich Meets the Need

Welcome to beautiful downtown Otho, South Dakota, population: three humans, 29 cats, and 3 9/10 horses.

“The cats and the horses are Mary’s projects,” says Dallas Dietrich, Otho’s self-appointed mayor, historian, and jack-of-all-trades. He points out the window at a very pregnant mare in a wooden stall below their barn-turned-home. “She’s expecting sometime in May.”

“Well, we think May but we’re not sure,” Dallas’s wife Mary interjects from the nearby kitchen, with that half-teasing, half-chiding tone characteristic of couples who’ve been together for years and are used to correcting one another.

She explains that they rescued the malnourished, already-pregnant mare in November, and that the owner predicted she’d foal “in a month or two”—which was at least three months ago.

Dallas, dapper in a royal blue shirt and matching kerchief, smiles and shrugs. “Anyway, we’ll have a new baby in the spring,” he says, his trademark matchstick dangling from the corner of his mouth.

Sitting in the Dietrich’s kitchen, I’m grateful for this story of the now-healthy mare and the expected foal, bolstered by this symbol of Spring, new life and hope, within the context of the story I will soon hear about Dallas’ life. Paradoxically, it is a story I am both honored to be told yet dread to hear. But as Dallas says, it is what it is—his life, his personal history, his journey. It’s the story of an intelligent and driven man who likes to make things happen in ways that help others; who persevered amidst unimaginable tragedy and loss; and who continues to dream and to do even as physical challenges continually threaten to bring him down.

To learn more about Dallas and Meeting the Need, visit their website, www.meetingtheneed.com.

(Read the rest of this story in Spring ‘09 FACES)