It’s not a blend you often run into – or would expect to, really, but there it is, and there she is, in flesh and blood. From my first 10 minutes in Sunny’s office, I began to suspect there was more story to her than ‘my excellent Ft. Pierre contact’ – and I was right!! Climb into your saddle, or strap on your ballet shoes, and enjoy the story:
Sunny was born and raised on a ranch in the Bad River valley, near Ft. Pierre. As the only girl in a family of 5 children, she grew up riding horses, and breaking & training them! After all, it was in her blood, as her uncle was the nationally famous rodeo star, Casey Tibbs! She loved it – still does. (The riding, that is – not so much the breaking anymore.)
At age 13, her life changed when she saw her first dance recital and suddenly the cowgirl had an alter-ego! After graduating high school in 1961, she went to the University of Utah (UofU) where she majored in ballet. She spent her first two college summers at Jacobs Pillow University of Dance in Lee, MA, and quickly decided that New York was the place to be if she wanted to dance. She left the U of U behind and became a professional dancer. The list of her successes (Broadway shows, traveling companies, Ballet Repertory Co., Radio City Ballet Co, etc) is simply too long to list for this section, but suffice it to list this stunning example: She was selected for the famous and prestigious Ballet Russe in 1967, and spent a year in Europe, even dancing before Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly!
She came back to South Dakota in 1971 to help her parents move off their Bad River ranch, and her life changed drastically again. By the end of that summer, she had met and married her husband, and had returned to SD to ranch! In 1973, they bought Two Rivers Ranch on the Belle Fourche River, which at 40,000 acres, was the largest contiguous ranch in SD at the time. By 1980, they had stocked the ranch with 4000 head of buffalo. Caught between bad times and high interest in 1984, they sold out and moved to California, where Sunny learned how to train and show cutting horses (not unlike dancing on horseback, she says) and taught dance!
Time marched on and circumstances changed. Following a divorce, Sunny moved back to South Dakota. She finished her college degree, acquired a dance studio, and also became involved in newspaper journalism, tourism & travel management, and State government. When she retired, she came to work for the Ft. Pierre Development Corporation, which is, of course, how I met her and first knew her!
Sunny continues to own and operate Hosanna Dance studio, and still dances herself. She also continues her riding -boots, spurs and all – and has participated in all but one of Ft. Pierre’s Trail Rides of various lengths.
She has said “Apart from my strong faith, dance and horses have been the passions of my life” I’m just glad she also helps promote Ft. Pierre as she does, or I might never have gotten to know her!
