The story below is a preview 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.
Want to learn more about this stiltwalking bunch? Check out the latest issue, now on newsstands, or see it for free in our digital guide linked below!
The story above is a preview from our September/October 2023 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!