The story below is from our September/October 2023 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
A couple of moms, several kids and their dads reach to the sky to entertain and answer the age-old question, “How’s the weather up there?”
Courtesy of Miss Kitty
Beth Deel and Wendy Schuyler have taken that old bromide suggesting that the family that plays together stays together to yet another level, both literally and figuratively. The stilts help a lot.
Courtesy of Miss Kitty
You’ve likely seen them in one iteration or another: two glamorous women, towering above you, wearing exotic, Vegas-worthy costumes; several children and a tall man wandering the parade route on stilts and in their own attractive costumes; all of them together—nine on occasion. Mostly, though, you know the moms because they’ve been engaged in public entertainment for years, dating to their dance days.
Deel and Schuyler, both Roanoke Valley natives, have been playing together for years and have been besties for most of that time. They are both college-trained dancers, teachers and business partners. They once owned a publication together (Deel has a degree from the Kansas City Art Institute), so they are well-schooled in publicity. Deel teaches art at Fallon Park School and Schuyler works with three-year-olds in preschool classes.
Their own children (Siena, 11, and Ruby, 7, are Wendy’s, and Beth’s are Buck, 10, and John Henry Johnson, 11) are occasionally joined by family friend Aaron Garland and his two kids, Viana, 10 and Joana, 7.
Deel’s partner, John Johnson, a builder, designed and made the family’s first stilts and continues to do so. The building process is a challenge, he says, because finding strong wood with straight grain is difficult.
The costuming came along a bit later as a promotion for the women’s publication, My Scoper, which highlighted Roanoke area events. “We wanted to be Amelia Earhart,” laughs Deel. “It was an aviator costume with big balloons.” All on stilts.
Courtesy of Miss Kitty
They discovered quickly, says Deel, that “anyone can walk [on stilts]. They just need confidence. But then walking you can do, but performing is a different level.” Siena stresses that for her, learning wasn’t all that easy: “I learned on Mom’s stilts, and they are heavy.”
And how do they get up and down? “It’s magic,” says Schuyler with a straight face. But little Siena corrects her: “We just find a high place to get up and down.” Simple stuff. Nothing simple about the costumes, though. They have closets full of them, many hand-made.
Courtesy of Miss Kitty
And all the showmanship can be relatively lucrative for a part-time gig. The women charge $150 an hour each, minimum two hours to appear in parades, festivals and anything else you can imagine. They share the take with the kids when the little ones perform.
Deel says the performances are a natural progression for all of those involved because, “We love where we live and we want to be part of things. We’ve spent time with dance productions, but this is more interactive. It seems to inspire wonder and awe, and it is always positive.” She says there is “no end game” but “we would love to be in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.”
Through it all, says Deel, “We love to play dress-up.”
Schuyler’s daughters are successful competition dancers, replete with their own costumes.
Says Beth Deel, “There’s nothing better than a Roanoke party” and all those tall people it attracts.
The story above is from our September/October 2023 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!