Ricki Lu Biehl-Feeley
Dance and Design move her By TOM HOWARD
As a child, Ricki Lu Biehl-Feeley was equally enthralled by dancing and arranging the tiny furniture in her Barbie Dream House. Perhaps not surprisingly, Feeley dances professionally and also helps clients find the right look for their home. Feeley majored in dance during college, and more recently she has taken courses from the New York Institute of Art and Design before launching her interior design business, Lubee’s’s Décorating Service, earlier this year, http:// www.lubeesdecor.com. She is also director and choreographer of Terpsichore Dance Co. in Billings. To some, dance and interior design might not seem to have that much in common. But the two creative endeavors offer many similarities. In an interview, she explains her twin passions. Q: What came first, your love of dance or your interest in design? A: My mom and my grandmother were every aware of how the interior of their house looked and I loved to participate in that. Sometimes I would clean the house and rearrange things just to surprise her when she got home. We always went all out for the holidays, and it made such an impact on me as a child, just the magic of the holidays. That’s what I like to do with clients: create an atmosphere. I started dancing when I was 4 years old. It’s always been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Have your own kids expressed an interest in design? Not really. My 11 year old sometimes asks me why I always have to move things around in her room, so she’s not quite there. She’s more interested in Minecrafter. To what extent are dance and interior design similar? Dance is an art and interior design is an art as well, so they coincide well. For my interior design clients, I try to learn as much about them so that I can create an environment that fits their lifestyle. I talk to them and think very seriously about how they use a room or a space. I ask them about kids, and
their ages and what the room is being use for, whether they’re using it for eating, a work space or whether it doubles as a hangout for their kids. It’s just making sure the space fits their lifestyle. What kinds of projects get you excited? I love designing kids’ rooms, finding everything they love and arranging it in a cool, artistic way. My son’s room, for example, is a woodland theme. It has beautiful curtains with wildlife, but it’s in a soft gray. I found the material I liked online, so I sewed them in the length I wanted, with help from my mom. When I look at Billings I see a lot of great designers, but they tend to do things on a large scale. My focus is more on a smaller scale of helping clients individually, whether they want just to refresh their space or do a full design. I also like to focus on furnishings, and I do a lot with antiques. Tell us a little more about Terpisichore. I’m the founder and director, and I do most of the choreography. All of our dancers are local. Most of them have danced growing up and this was the next step for them. When it comes to choreography, do you give specific directions to your dancers or do they have more leeway? Sometimes I’m very specific in the movements and I know what I want them to do and when. Because I have such great dancers a lot of the time we also create collaboratively. I will give them inspiration, a word or a movement or a style, and they will go and explore that movement and perhaps come up with two counts of eight on their own.
LARRY MAYER Gazette Staff
12
December 2016