In 1984 a group called Steppin' Out Dancers was put together by Kimberley sisters Laurie and Nora Few to perform a Can Can at an Engineer's Convention at the ski hill. In the 40 years since then the group have built a legacy of supporting the arts and culture scene in Kimberley.
Kathy Clarke, Heather Ney, Norah and Laurie Few and Carol Regan were the five original members of the group.
Over the years the group also featured a number of other dancers, including Cathy Murphy, Nora McLeod, Laurie Few, Heather Ney, Lynne Foxgord, Sheila Lucas, Lorraine Anderson, Dodi Dube, Betty Ann Helland, Molly Bradford, Lorraine Robinson and Shirley Patterson.
The present group includes Wendy Nowicki, Linda Douglas, Lori Pasiechnyk, Delia Christianson, Mary Doris Shewan, Diane Manson, Veronica Paauw, Kathy Clarke, Cynthia Peacosh and Stephanie Chale (from a distance).
Clarke and Wendy Nowicki, who joined a few years after the group's inception, stopped by the Bulletin office to share some stories and photos for a 40-year retrospective.
Clarke has danced her whole life and helped with a lot of the choreography, and also helped teach the new dancers to the group. Everyone in the original group had dance backgrounds.
"We danced Can Can a few times and then we expanded to do some Bavarian, because of course Bavarian was the theme back then when Wendy joined," Clarke explained.
Throughout the years the group performed regularly at annual local events like JulyFest and the Accordion Fest, as well as things like the Winter Fest, numerous conferences and the Winter Games. Nowicki recalls jumping out of a cake at the Accordion Fest one year.
For around a decade the group would take a road trip to Spokane for Oktoberfest at the German American Club. Clarke said that trip was always a favourite of theirs.
"Adi [Unterberger] the yodelling woodcarver would come down at the same time to the same places we were, so that was kind of fun," Clarke said. "They treated us very well."
The group also travelled to perform in Kalispell, Calgary for the legendary Stampede Parade, Rock Creek and the Sam Steele Parade in Cranbrook.
Another major highlight was in 1986, just two years after the group formed, when they were invited to perform at Expo 86 in Vancouver.
At one First Saturdays event in 2014, the group performed the first ever Flash Mob in Kimberley. The Flash Mob, inspired from the iconic scene in the film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, started out as a traditional Bavarian dance in the Platzl, until there was a record scratch and the Dynamiters came in, who had all learned all the dance steps. The current Mayor of Kimberley at the time Ron McCrae was even involved.
"Even the organizers of First Saturdays didn’t know, they just thought we were dancing, so they were pretty amazed," Nowicki said.
In 2001, the Steppin' Out Dancers decided to put together a variety show to showcase the diverse talents of the women in the community and the result was A Lillith Affair, primariliy the brainchild of Diane Manson.
"At that time, users of Centre 64 had to go and work a bingo in Cranbrook in a smoky bingo hall to do their thing to make money for the Centre," Nowicki explained. "So Diane thought, why don’t we try to do a show that’s by-women, for-women — except we had like our light guy and our sound guy.
"I think that was our first year we made 1000 bucks and gave it to the Centre. And then we did another one the next year around the same thing, but then we went to two nights, then we went to three nights, so that’s sort of how Lillith got started — it was basically so we didn’t have to go sit in a bingo hall."
The show encouraged the group to learn new types of dances each year, ranging from themes such as Bollywood, to Elvis impersonators and kickline.
In 2014 the group held their final Lilltith Affair show at Centre 64, bringing their donation totals to $52,900. The vast majority of that money went to Centre 64, but the group also supported the Kimberley Summer Theatre, The Cranbrook Women's Transition House and the A Clear View Campaign, which was a fundraiser for the hospital to bring in a digital stereotactic mammography unit.
After 2014, the troupe passed the reigns of Lillith over to the Lady's Leg Dancers.
Nowicki and Clarke also recalled past members and collaborators who have passed on, including one of the founding members Carol Regan who passed away suddenly a few years after the group formed.
At a Lillith Affair show in 2014 the group payed tribute to Debbie Marie Blais a singer who sang with the group during multiple performances. Blais tragically passed away in 2013, after she tried to rescue her dog who had gotten into a retaining pond at Bootleg Gap Golf Course.
When asked what the group is up to lately, Nowicki said:
"It looks like cocktails and dinners and laughs."
"Every year we say we’re going to try and put something together, but some of us, like I’m 76, and our bodies are starting to fall apart," Clarke added. "We have good intention and we still support the arts, but our logo is now fitness, fun and friendship."
In addition to the fitness, fun and friendship, Kimberley will certainly remember Steppin' Out for their long legacy of supporting and contributing to the arts and culture scene in Kimberley.
