Desert Companion - March 2016 by Nevada Public Radio

03 MARCH

SHE’S A SIN CITY ICON. SHE DANCES THROUGH PAIN AND INJURY. AND THEN THE DANCING STOPS.

PAYING TO PARK The old Vegas is over

THE AFTERLIFE OF THE LAS VEGAS

SHOW GIRL

A MOVING TRADITION LIVES ON AT THE AMARGOSA OPERA HOUSE

by H E I D I K Y S E R

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In Early Childhood, fostering creativity is essential to the development of the whole child. Whether our youngest Dawson students are painting, kneading clay, or creating found-object sculptures, we know each creative experience helps our students learn to express themselves artistically, boosts their confidence, and opens their eyes to the artful beauty of the world around them. -Jude Ross, Art Teacher

Month 2015

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The Dawson Difference At The Alexander Dawson School, we can’t predict the future, but we can teach children how to shape it.

The Alexander Dawson School’s theater students learn the basic skills of acting and theater craft. But it’s not just about performing; our students also create and build all of the theatrical sets, as well as select their costumes and stage makeup. The overall emphasis is placed upon learning to appreciate the arts and to embrace their creativity. More importantly, they learn to persevere, work with a team, and be courageous and confident in front of an audience. -Cory Haugen, Theater Teacher

In Dawson’s Lower and Middle Schools, we encourage students to develop individualized artistic behaviors and processes. Giving our students the support and artistic guidance to make their own choices – and yes, mistakes – helps them to develop a true sense of self. Dawson students experiment with ceramics, drawing, printing, sculpture, painting, glass and woodwork. But no matter which medium they’re using, they learn to appreciate the artistic process, take risks, and find their creative voice. -Chantelle Cook, Art Teacher

Research proves that learning how to play a musical instrument, as opposed to simply listening to music, has tremendous benefits to a student’s overall academic success in all areas of study. As a music educator at Dawson, my goal is to create an environment where students not only develop a true appreciation for and understanding of music, but also find their own musical identity through performance or composition. And it’s great to know that, for our Dawson students, the benefits of music education extend beyond the classroom. -Mark Carroll, Orchestra Teacher

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EDiTOR’S Note

Outer space

ith the relatively safe dissolution of the Republic of Bundystan in Oregon behind us — that kindergarten experiment in armed narcissism as political grievance — we should take a moment to thank the Bundys for the sliver of good that came of it all: a renewed dialogue about public lands. To be sure, as the saga boiled, social media brimmed with the usual hyperventilation and theatrical outrage that passes for spirited conversation on the Internet. But it was also heartening to read, in many cases, impassioned, well-reasoned defenses of both the spirit and idea of public lands. This isn’t to completely discredit the feelings of the Bundys — and make no mistake, this was about feelings masquerading as political philosophy. I’m sure we’ve all been so goaded by frustration that sometimes we, too, just want to revert to our 9-year-old selves, retreat to a fort in the wilderness and eat free snacks, but, fortunately, most of us realize we live in a shared world called Grownupland. Still, whatever side anyone took, all those feelings are a reminder of how personal public land is to us, how emotionally and imaginationally invested we are in it. It’s not a paradox. If our lives in our offices and at our kitchen tables and at red lights and the grocery store are episodic, the outdoors offer a more generous narrative span that holds the promise of the epic. In other words, we go outside for a story. It’s a theory that comes to mind, anyway, when I consider the stories we received from local hikers in “Trails and tribulations” (p. 44). These brief sketches of decided misadventure and mishap don’t just capture the lighter (and, in some cases, darker) side of nature. They also illuminate human nature, revealing pivotal moments Next of courage, determination, risk MOnth and, in some cases, bad luck and Style inside irresponsibility. Hiker and wiland out: spring derness activist Jose Witt got fashion and home design

March 2016

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hung up on a rock-climbing excursion and nearly lost his hand; Andrew Lanfear saved his nephew from a possibly fatal fall; Penny Sinisi did fall (spoiler: not fatally). There are plenty of scrapes and scars but, more importantly, lessons and insights too. But don’t let their harrowing tales put you off from diving into our main feature, “This hike, it’s personal” (p. 82). Whether you’re a seasoned trailmaster, a dog-lover or you hit the weekend trails with toddlers in tow, we’ve got plenty of hikes to fit your lifestyle, mood and skill level. Written by Alan Gegax, a Desert Companion contributor who heads up one of the valley’s most successful hiking Meetup groups, this personalized list will keep you on the trail for months to come. Our cover feature, “‘I would have done it for free,’” (p. 70) shines a light on a different kind of personal story, but one with far-reaching implications. Staff writer Heidi Kyser investigates a side of professional dance that gets lost in the usual Vegas glitz: the frequent, sometimes chronic injuries dancers sustain as part of the job — and the alarming lack of institutional support for their well-being. With the recent closing of Jubilee!, there’s been a renewed appreciation for the showgirl as revered Las Vegas icon. That’s great. But icons are not abstractions. Kyser tells the stories of these dancers who work the Strip stages as costumed and painted kinetic sculptures — but, as her Andrew Kiraly article reveals, after the show, they’re editor human through and through.

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MAKING OUR WORLD

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Hey, everyone, it’s a guy from Brumby! Reading Desert Companion! He’s in a picture on Facebook, reading our February edition — “Best of the City,” though surely you haven’t forgotten because how could you? “Brumby is the ‘best local band’ in Las Vegas, according to Desert Companion’s readers’ poll, and our mothers,” Brumby’s page burbled. (“Your mothers are right,” replied a woman named Pamela, totally failing to acknowledge the good taste of DC readers in her celebratory exclamation.) You know who else won big in a music category? You do if you read the blog at vegasentertainmentlawyer.com: “A big congratulations to Las Vegas’ own Jesse Pino, who was recently voted ‘best singer-songwriter’ by Desert Companion magazine,” the blogger wrote, sounding as though he couldn’t agree with this designation more. “I couldn’t agree with this designation more,” he wrote. And we agree with his agreement, in a non-legally binding way. Likewise, if you noticed a slight flush to Mother Nature’s cheeks, it, too, involves the Best of the City issue. “Your Southern Nevada state parks are blushing today,” says the Facebook page of Spring Mountain Ranch State Park, joyfully anthropomorphizing. “Three of us were listed in the Desert Companion magazine 2016 Best of the City list that came out this week!” (The Fire Canyon hike at Valley of Fire was voted best advanced hike; Beaver Dam was named best place to get away from it all; and Spring Mountain Ranch is best outdoors social media portal.) Tell the parks we said “Congrats.” Some read Best of the City as it is; others read Best of the City as it could be. Among the latter is Ken Person, who has his own best to suggest. “I was just wondering if you or the staff had ever been to Baobab Stage in Town Square,” Person emails.

March 2016

letters@desertcompanion.vegas

Vo lU m e 1 4 I s s u e 3

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“Community theater at its best.” He goes on to applaud the owner, the acts, the affordable ticket prices — and he’s no mere shill. “I have no ties to this, no interest in it other than my personal enjoyment. I just feel it is worth promoting.” Thanks for the heads up, Ken! But if we had to hand out an award for the best social media response, it just might go to a Ms. Johnson on the Neon Museum’s Facebook page, reacting to the museum’s award for best historical attraction: “I read it ‘best horizontal,’ lol.’” Ahem. That sounds like a different magazine entirely.

If much of the February issue was devoted to enumerating the best of the city, we also devoted space to a development likely to be the opposite: the purchase of the Review-Journal by Sheldon Adelson’s family. The premise of Andrew Kiraly’s piece is that the paper, as we’ve known it, is dead. Reader Carol Wagers, a subscriber to the paper since she moved here in 1964, sadly agrees: “Your analysis is right on,” she wrote. And she’s taken action: “I cancelled my subscription to the paper as soon as I learned Adelson bought it. It seems that their Circulation Dept. is getting scared. I’ve had two phone calls from the RJ already asking me to resubscribe at bargain rates. Of course, I said no way, and told them why. “I’m hoping that readership falls to levels where Adelson loses all of his investment and the paper folds. It would be interesting to learn how many cancellations they’ve had since his name was revealed.” If it’s difficult to second her emotion about the paper’s demise, she’s not alone in her frustration at the thought of the state’s largest paper being a billionaire’s plaything. Stay tuned for more drama.

P h ot o c o u r t e s y o f b r u m b y

March 2016

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March 2016

Vo lU m e 1 4 I s s u e 0 3

www.desertcompanion.vegas

70 ‘I would

have done it for Free’

Showgirls are integral to the mythology of Las Vegas. They’re tough athletes who work through injuries and often with no backup career ready — because they love it. A look at their lives after the dancing stops. By Heidi Kyser

March 2016

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82 This hike, It’s Personal

Whatever kind of hiker you are — hardcore, family, wildlife-curious — we have a trail that’s perfect for you. By Alan Gegax

Red Rock: christopher Smith

Features

March 2016

www.desertcompanion.vegas

Vo lU m e 1 4 I s s u e 0 3

departments All Things

39 making it home

63 Dining

89 The Guide

25 business The end

Life and homes in the Downtown and midtown neighborhoods By Elisabeth Daniels

64 The Dish The hot,

So many things to see, hear, do, experience

44 outdoors

banshee howls for pork belly!

of free parking and the end of the old Las Vegas 28 outdoors Lee

Canyon goes seasonal 30 zeit bites The

game is on at Meepleville 32 Profile Riffing on a

guitar artist 34 Object lesson

Fashion that goes from the country to the city

Cautionary stories from Nevada trails

66 cocktail of the month Juicy Vodka at

VegeNation

UNLV’s three-pronged attack on AIDS By Chantal Corcoran

68 First Bite F. Pigalle

54 culture

of the road for the Taxi Authority?

There are new toes in the dance shoes at the fabled Amargosa Opera House By Dave Clark

march 2016

66 Eat this now The

50 Science

36 Open Topic End

bubbling joy of Dutch oven cooking

DesertCompanion.vegas

takes the “fond” out of “fondue”

12 DECEMBER

96 End note First look at the plans of the stadium Sheldon Adelson wants to build By Andrew Kiraly and Scott Dickensheets

SHE’S A SIN CITY ICON. SHE DANCES THROUGH PAIN AND INJURY. AND THEN THE DANCING STOPS.

PAYING TO PARK The old Vegas is over

THE AFTERLIFE OF THE LAS VEGAS

SHOW GIRL

THE DANCE GOES ON AT THE AMARGOSA OPERA HOUSE

on the cover Stephanie Smith Photography Aaron Mayes

by H E I D I K Y S E R

p a r k i n g i l l u s t r a t i o n : k i p n o s c h e s e ; r e s e a r c h e r : a n d r e w J a m e s ; d u t c h o v e n : s a b i n o rr : r o p e : h e r n a n v a l e n c i a

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Mission Statement Desert Companion is the premier city magazine that celebrates the pursuits, passions and aspirations of Southern Nevadans. With awardwinning lifestyle journalism and design, Desert Companion does more than inform and entertain. We spark dialogue, engage people and define the spirit of the Las Vegas Valley.

Publisher Melanie Cannon Associate Publisher Christine Kiely Editor Andrew Kiraly Art Director Christopher Smith deputy editor Scott Dickensheets senior designer Scott Lien staff writer Heidi Kyser Graphic Designer Brent Holmes Account executives Sharon Clifton, Parker McCoy, Favian Perez, Noelle Tokar, Markus Van’t Hul NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Couture Marketing 145 E 17th Street, Suite B4 New York, NY 10003 (917) 821-4429 advertising@couturemarketing

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Contributing artists Bill Hughes, Jenna Dosch, Anthony Mair, Aaron Mayes, Chris Morris, Sabin Orr, Hernan Valencia Editorial: Andrew Kiraly, (702) 259-7856; andrew@desertcompanion.vegas Fax: (702) 258-5646

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Website: www.desertcompanion.vegas Desert Companion is published 12 times a year by Nevada Public Radio, 1289 S. Torrey Pines Dr., Las Vegas, NV 89146. It is available by subscription at desertcompanion.vegas, or as part of Nevada Public Radio membership. It is also distributed free at select locations in the Las Vegas Valley. All photos, artwork and ad designs printed are the sole property of Desert Companion and may not be duplicated or reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. The views of Desert Companion contributing writers are not necessarily the views of Desert Companion or Nevada Public Radio. Contact Hannah Howard for back issues, which are available for purchase for $7.95.

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you gotta figh t for you r rig ht to pa a a ark

Meet some transcendent tumbleweeds page 30

business

Space invaders Say goodbye to free Strip parking — and goodbye to the neighborly, square-deal Vegas of yesteryear B y T. R . W i t c h e r

hen Jay Sarno opened Circus Circus casino in 1968, he charged an admission fee to visitors. “He thought it was so unique and wonderful that people would pay to go in,” says UNLV history professor Eugene Moehring. The plan lasted about a week. Customers refused to pay. Who could blame them? In a city built on the adage that the house always wins, the rest of us take what we can: free drinks, dinner-and-a-show deals, and, certainly, unquestionably, free parking. But the days of free parking may be numbered. MGM Resorts International, the largest casino operator on the Strip, announced in January plans to start charging visitors to park in its 37,000 parking spaces spread across 11 of its casino properties on the Strip. “This is a business decision and we don’t take this change lightly. It is a significant departure from a long-established paradigm in the Las Vegas market,” says Gordon Absher, vice president of corporate communications at MGM Resorts, via email.

i l lu s t r at i o n k i p n o s c h e s e

March 2016

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ALL Things

business

The move will help the company construct a $54 million, 3,000-space parking garage near the Excalibur, which will accommodate visitors coming to the new T-Mobile Arena behind New York New York. The new garage will begin construction this spring and open next year. At this writing, the rate structure is still being finalized, though the cost of overnight self-parking won’t exceed $10. The fee is expected to start in spring 2016.

‘Valet is not enough’

ut such explanatory details haven’t stopped the great wailing and gnashing of teeth from tourists and locals alike, who see Strip parking as something akin to a natural resource or a right. The experts who spoke for this story have a range of opinions, too. Some say paid parking on the Strip is a terrible mistake, others say it’s the way of the world. But whatever their take on the issue, most agree on this: The end of free parking marks a continuation of a conceptual shift in what the Strip represents — not the democratic, affordable vacation spot of yesteryear, but, increasingly, a destination decidedly geared toward luxury amenities and experiences. Moehring, for one, thinks MGM’s plan is a bad idea. “The history of 60 years of not paying to park at casinos is being broken here,” he says. “It’s not as though you’re going into some place that doesn’t make money. They make tons of money. And now they want to charge for parking, too?” For him it’s another symptom of the corporatization of contemporary Las Vegas — a world of reduced comps, expensive shows and pricey food. “Vegas is not the bargain it was in the ’50s and ’60s and ’70s. Every department must make a profit. Even parking now must make a profit.” (“Valet,” he adds, “is not enough.”) For locals like us, it also marks a shift of the Strip into a more professionalized, profit-driven machine rather than the freewheeling adult playground conveniently located in the center of town.

March 2016

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“In the early days of the Strip, going to the Strip was less of a big deal than it is now,” says Michael Green, a UNLV history professor. “There was a feeling they were part of the community. After all, Nevada had a monopoly on legal gambling, the owner of the casino might live around the corner from you. So there was more of a feeling of closeness and intimacy. Now, locals still go there but it’s more likely for a big event, in their lives or in the life of the property.” A parking fee, the thinking goes, will only add to that sense of event. MGM may be keying into this idea as it sells the decision as a little extra buffand-shine to the visitor experience. The company plans to invest $36 million in parking upgrades, including redesigned layouts for improved accessibility, parking guidance systems, smartphone apps that will allow visitors to check for spaces before arriving, upgraded lighting, signage and paint, as well as improved elevators and escalators. Absher writes that MGM believes guests “will find the facility upgrades and parking expansion a great addition to their overall experience.” He adds that “challenging navigation and difficulty finding available spaces” are common concerns customers have. “We acknowledge that this aspect of our resort experience can be improved, and we’re taking an aggressive approach.” Some experts think that people may grin and bear it if paid parking is explained to them as a transaction in which they’re getting something of value in return — even if it is just being able to navigate a casino parking garage with fewer hassles. “Consumers are educated nowadays and they’re reasonable. If their rationale is reasonable, I don’t think this parking fee will be the deciding factor in whether people stay,” says Billy Bai, Professor at the William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration at UNLV. And make no mistake, says Bai: Rival casinos are watching closely. “I think they’re going to watch a little bit and how MGM guests react to this,” says Bai. “If (competitors) see that consumers are grumpy

about it but it hasn’t affected their bottom line or their brand perception, I think they may move into this field by assessing a parking fee accordingly.”

‘we should all be charging’

here are other good reasons why the plan may make sense — one being that everyone is doing it. “Every expert says we should all be charging for parking,” says Kara Kockelman, professor of engineering with the University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Transportation Research. “It’s environmentally thoughtless to roll that price into all the other prices that are in these hotels.” Transit planners and thinkers hope that paid parking will encourage more people to seek alternative, more sustainable methods of transportation, such as bicycles or public transit. (But this is Las Vegas, so don’t count on it. The Regional Transportation Commission moves about 41,000 passengers a day through its two main Strip bus routes, the Deuce and the SDX, but according to an RTC spokeswoman, the transit agency expects no impact from MGM’s decision.) As such, the shift to paid parking on the Strip may merely complete a process that has been under way for decades — our detachment from the Strip as a place where we locals want to spend our time. And since we’re not down there that much, what’s $5 to $10 extra once or twice a month? As Las Vegas grows up, perhaps so must we. But other observers warn that we shouldn’t take the leap lightly. We’re still known by many for our square-deal hospitality, and pay-for-parking seems to threaten that. “(Casinos) don’t work for one-time visitors. They look for repeat visitors,” says Pushkin Kachroo, an engineer and transportation expert at UNLV. And paying to park in a town legendary for its hospitality may leave many, not just us locals, white-knuckling their steering wheels in anger. “It’s a question of trust,” Kachroo says. “Do you trust whom you are buying from?”

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䌀愀氀氀昀漀爀䄀搀洀椀猀猀椀漀渀猀䤀渀昀漀爀洀愀琀椀漀渀 ☀ 䌀愀洀瀀甀猀吀漀甀爀

ALL Things

trending Green machines: Lee Canyon plans to use its facilities in warm weather, too.

outdoors

What’s in a name? Not ‘snow’ Lee Canyon aims to be a resort for all seasons B y

ou can’t help but think that the Las Vegas Ski & Snowboard Resort’s recent return to its original name, Lee Canyon, has something to do with the “ski” and “snowboard” in the now-discarded name — and you’d be right, though perhaps not for the presumed reason. It’s less about the loss of snow due to climate change, and more about the addition of spring, summer and fall activities on Mount Charleston. When Park City, Utah-based Powdr Corp bought the resort in 2003, it changed the name to the Las Vegas Ski & Snowboard Resort. Now Powdr, still the owner 13 years later, has changed it back to Lee Canyon. The new-old name comes with a logo designed to resemble a retro ski patch, a revamped website and all the other standard brand-identity trappings. The intent, says resort manager Kevin Stickelman, is to invoke both history and a contemporary sensibility. It’s working for Rob Gurdison, a Las Vegas native who grew up skiing (and snowboarding, since the first day it was allowed) at Lee Canyon with the likes of

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H e i d i K ys e r

Amy Purdy and Jason Mullen, and was invited to the 1998 Olympic trials. Gurdison has snowboarded all over the world, but he still frequents his local resort, he says, now taking his kids there. “My impression of it is that it was a small mom-and-pop type resort for a long time, and when Powdr came in, they really stepped up their park-making skills,” Gurdison says. “The Lee Canyon name has that hip, nostalgic feel.” But winter regulars like Gurdison aren’t the main targets of the rebranding. That distinction belongs to a fresh audience: people who would mountain bike, ride a zip line, attend concerts and hold family reunions at the resort during warm seasons. Attracting this clientele relies on adding amenities that were part of a master plan Powdr submitted in 2011 to the U.S. Forest Service, with which it has a long-term lease on the land, Stickelman says. Construction has been mostly on hold since then, while scientists mapped out the habitat of the endangered Mount Charleston blue butterfly. During that time, Powdr has been able to work on existing

facilities — renovating lifts and restaurants, improving snow-making capacity — but has been prevented from launching the major expansion. “Last July … we got the approval process for us to start up again,” Stickelman says. “We hope to have the approval about 18 months from now, and then we’re shovel-ready to begin.” He stresses that the new name, sans ski or snowboard, is meant to highlight the impending year-round availability of activities and amenities at the resort, not its lack of precipitation. The resort, which averages 212 inches of snowfall per year, got only 70 inches last season, Stickelman says, and 67 the year before. But he adds that it’s back up to normal this year and is in no danger of closing due to too-warm conditions, as some resorts at lower elevations have done. “Skiing will forever be an important part of our business,” he says. “We’ve always been a 12-month business, but skiing is the biggest sector.” In other words, even if the resort has to make its snow, rather than receive it freely from the heavens, Stickelman expects it to remain cold enough for snow sports to go on. A thornier problem is transportation. Routes 156 and 157, the two-lane roads between U.S. Highway 95 and Mount Charleston, can get clogged with traffic — only a fraction of it headed to the ski resort, according to Stickelman. He cites data from the heaviest traffic day over the Christmas holiday, 10,000 vehicles, noting that only 820 cars were at the resort. The U.S. Forest Service had been getting federal money to provide shuttles from a parking lot near the highway to Kyle and Lee Canyons, but with ridership averaging only 20 percent, the service stopped applying for the grant. Hope isn’t lost, though. Stickelman says the Mount Charleston Winter Alliance, a public-private coalition that includes Powdr, is working together to solve the traffic problem.

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ALL Things

zeit bites

the games of life

Chairman of the boards Timm Metivier’s Meepleville is a game-geek paradise

he board game café — it’s a thing. In February, the New York Times looked in on the boardgame scene in Toronto, and when the Times notices, thingness has been achieved. It’s happening here, too, at the Meepleville Board Game Café at Sahara and Decatur. “I just believe that Vegas is the perfect place for something like this,” says owner Timm Metivier. By which he means it’s a normal place full of people who like fun. “We are just an average American city that just happens to have a three-mile strip of insanity running through the middle of it.” The store has about 1,000 games you can play and a couple hundred on display. The most popular? “A couple would be Patchwork, Ticket to Ride, King of New York, Cards Against Humanity.” And the most obscure? “The Justin Beiber Game, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon Game, Dr. Ruth’s Game of Good Sex.” Sure, you can opt for the oldies — Monopoly, Sorry, Life. But why stop there? “If they’re just willing to try something different,” Metivier says, “it’ll open them up to a whole new world of games that’s changed a lot in the past 20-30 years.” Scott Dickensheets

dead and yet, thanks to art, alive Imagine a multihued riot of these guys (left) bunched into the rotunda of the county government center. “The tumbleweed was once a living organism that uproots itself, and, in our sense of the meaning, dies,” says artist Chris Bauder. But, transcending this ephemerality, they enjoy a second life roaming the landscape, picking up and redistributing stuff — seeds, objects. Then Bauder gives them a third act: “It takes on a new life as I will coat them in latex paint and glorify them as art objects.” Imagine once more a bunch of them massed in a gallery, and there you have it: a fresh take on life expectancy and time. The Gathering, by Christopher Bauder, March 12-May 6 (reception March 18), Government Center, clarkcountynv.gov

THE BOTTOM LINE ›› the future of casino charges 2016: MGM ends free parking. 2017: Did you see the David statue’s naughty bits? Render $$ unto Caesars!

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p h oto g r a p h y BRENT HO L M ES

eat your veggies! Ones you’ve grown, that is. Norm Schilling’s guide to planting spring edibles

differ from the rest of your landscape. Start with easier-to-grow plants, such as onions, strawberries and Swiss chard. Some veggies are more tolerant of our alkaline

As I strive to eat healthier, my attention has turned to the joys of growing my own veggies and herbs — I’ve never had a store-

soils — asparagus, onions, peppers, spinach, peas and tomatoes. Tomatoes can be prolific here. Use small-

bought tomato as delicious as those from

er varieties such as Yellow Pear, Patio or 4th

my garden. March is a great month to get

of July. Don’t overfertilize with nitrogen; it’ll

started; here are some tips:

mean lots of leafy growth but very little fruit.

Your garden will need shade in the

For insect control, soapy-water sprays

hottest part of the day, 2-5 p.m. Block walls

work well for many pests, or use pyrethrum,

on your yard’s west side work great, as do

an organic pesticide. For caterpillars, use

spots east of shade trees. Best, trees with

BT, a bacteria that’s selective in what it

open, sparse canopies offer filtered sun.

controls. Pull weeds.

Invest in raised beds. Fill them with a rich soil medium, like garden soil from a nursery. If you grow in pots, use large ones at least 12 inches deep, to help store moisture. Use drip irrigation. Put your veggie beds on a separate valve, as their water needs

Consult resources: I keep handy a chart of what to plant when from Becoming a Desert Gardener, a pamphlet available online. I also like Southwest Fruit and Vegetable Gardening by Jacqueline Soule and Extreme Gardening by Dave Owens.

it’s all relative

I didn’t think my genealogy had many gaps — until I let the Clark County Nevada Genealogical Society shake my family tree. The mass digitizing of public records has made it easier for these skilled researchers to delve into your past. Turns out my great grandfather ... well, let’s keep that in the family, shall we? But on March 5 at the Green Valley Library, 10:30a-3:30p, the society can help you fill in your ancestral gray areas, for free. Walk in or reserve a time at 702-2074261. Scott Dickensheets

2018: “Welcome to the Bellagio Conservatory: first three sniffs are free! then: cha-ching!”

March 2016

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ALL Things

March 2016

people

DesertCompanion.vegas

profile

Jason Oberly Guitar artist

f you’re a professional rock guitarist, the instrument hanging around your neck isn’t just your livelihood — it’s your life, a sacred and prized weapon of mass seduction that you care for like a six-string offspring. If you happen to be one of the successful players charged to perform this wizardry for arena-sized audiences, you don’t let anyone touch your instrument beyond the tech who keeps the strings stretched and tuned. Except maybe North Las Vegas’ Jason Oberly. He’s the artist with the trust, tints and technique to transform any Fender Strat into a work of high-textured art. “I moved to Las Vegas in 1993,” recalls the Santa Maria, California native. “Worked at Excalibur for 15 years delivering room service, answering phones, anything they asked, until I stumbled into painting guitars. I was always drawing as a kid, started with sketching and tracing, which got me into hand-eye coordination. Then I discovered airbrush in the late ’80s, and I realized my calling.”

>> Jason pocketed his first coin as an airbrush artist when a local rocker asked him to paint Mötley Crüe’s Theater of Pain album cover on a white Stratocaster. “Between social media and word of mouth around town, I started to get really busy almost overnight,” he says. “I was introduced to Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osbourne, Black Label Society) and painted a guitar for his son’s Christmas gift. I also did a Dimebag Darrell tribute illustration for Zakk. Now my clients include Rob Zombie’s lead guitarist John 5, Avenged Sevenfold, Metallica’s Kirk Hammett and Five Finger Death Punch’s Jason Hook. I designed the Explorer he’s using on the band’s upcoming tour, which is the actual instrument he smashed in the ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ video. I had to repair it first, so yeah, I guess you can say my skill set has expanded into the luthier realm.” There is something delightfully scary about Jason’s work. “For John 5, I’ve done several designs, including the Munsters and a Lon Chaney Wolfman. I did a tribute to Randy Rhoads’ Flying V. Outside of metal, I did an acoustic Taylor for Priscilla Presley in the shades of Elvis, with the TCB (taking care of business)

P h oto g r a p h y A n t h o n y M a i r

logo. Someone sent me a pic of Robert Plant playing that guitar. Really cool.” >> Jason’s booked for six months, trying desperately to manage his workload. His creative process is intense and meticulous. “It’s all going digital now,” he observes. “I do mockups in Photoshop, save the scan on my Mac and piece together the image. Jason Hook’s Explorer took six different mockups. The artist and I share input. My job is to bring what they want to reality. Help them realize their vision. One job that really challenged me was John 5’s Creature of the Black Lagoon, with all the microdots, textures and multiple paint layers.” Jason recently added cars and motorcycles to his repertoire. “I painted Sons of Anarchy star Ron Pearlman because I loved the show. I became friends with one of the Mayan characters in season seven and ended up painting his bike. Difference between airbrushing a motorcycle and a guitar is the three-dimensional surfaces — not only are they round, they have curves, so laying tape is an issue; like with flames or any graphic, your masking-out process has to be absolutely precise.”

>> Jason is poised to expand his workspace to a bigger property that can house a full-service studio and garage. “If you can paint on it, I’m into it,” he says with a smile. “I was flown to New York to paint a ’64 Oldsmobile for the owner of American Headers and Exhaust. He was making a drag car, so I painted the American eagle logo on both sides, made it look like it’s beveled chrome. One time, something screwed up at Elton John’s Million Dollar Piano show at Caesar’s Palace, and a mandolin got this big chip in it. The tech called me on Thursday and asked, ‘Hey, can you fix this for Saturday night’s show?’ Yeah, bring it to me. There was folk art painted on the mandolin. I had to make it perfect. On-call repair! He found me through one of the local art stores. They said, ‘If anyone can do it, Jason can.’” Lonn M. Friend

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ALL Things

object lesson

Gear

Out and about Rain or shine, this season’s outdoor gear does double-duty as stylish casual wear By Alan Gegax and christie moeller

Columbia Omni-Tech jackets are legendary for keeping hikers dry in the wettest conditions. And warm: many models feature Columbia’s amazing OmniHeat dots that reflect body heat. $200

A classic North Face T-shirt is as good as material gets — lightweight and durable — for warm weather. $30

The Kuhl Liberator is a pair of convertible pants ruggedly built for tough conditions. And who doesn’t love themselves a big cargo pocket? $95

Salomon Quest 4D II GTX hiking boots sound hi-tech, and they are — waterproof and breathable, these lightweight hiking boots incorporate trail-running shoe tech into a backpacking boot design. And they still manage to look cool. $240

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All items available at REI in Boca Park, 710 S. Rampart Blvd., 702-951-4488

P h oto g r a p h y C h r i sto p h e r Sm i t h

Styling by Christie Moeller

A “Smartwool” base layer keeps you warm, even when it’s wet, removes sweat and controls odors. In other words, great on the trail or at a crowded bar! $95

The Pelion comp shirt by Arc’teryx is literally cool, combining synthetic wicking material with side-mesh venting. $95

The Patagonia men’s down sweater vest will make you feel warm in more ways than one: This lightweight, windproof vest is stuffed with traceable down — that is, it’s from geese that are not force-fed or live-plucked. $179

Shorts by Prana No muss, no fuss, just durable, classic quality clothing with a focus on ethics. $69

Feed your smart.

All items available at Desert Rock Sports, 8221 W. Charleston Blvd., 702-254-1143

‘beautiful and diverse’

ose Witt, the model for these outdoor styles, isn’t just dressing the part. He’s the Southern Nevada director of Friends of Nevada Wilderness (nevadawilderness. org), which advocates for the protection of Nevada’s wildest places. Growing up in Las Vegas, Jose fell in love with the outdoors exploring the nooks and crannies of Red Rock Canyon and Mt. Charleston. As the Friends’ Southern Nevada director, Jose manages a staff of three that produces the organization’s stewardship, outreach, and event programs, which include the Wild Speaker Series and annual Wild & Scenic Film Festival. “Nevada is such a beautiful and diverse state, it’s a shame folks around the country don’t realize how awesome it is,” says Witt. “Then again, it’s the quality of solitude one can get not far from urban life that makes it so special.”

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ALL Things

open topic

politics

Changing cabs A recent audit recommending the end of the Taxicab Authority shouldn’t have surprised anyone. But will it do any good in the long haul? B y G e o r g e K na p p

urprised by the brutal, slice-and-dice audit of the Nevada Taxicab Authority issued earlier this year by the governor’s office? If you can read or watch TV, you should have seen this coming. The writing has been scrawled all over the wall in large, blood-red letters for decades. Few government documents have ever been as blunt or as blistering: Written by the governor’s Executive Audit Committee, it stopped just short of characterizing the Taxicab Authority as a totally corrupt shill for the industry it supposedly regulates. The auditors did suggest that the Taxi Authority be abolished altogether. Governor Brian Sandoval remarked that he couldn’t recall ever reading an audit this critical. No one should be surprised. The general public, including most taxi drivers and dozens of current and former employees of the Taxicab Authority, concluded years ago that the TA is a ball of lint in the pocket of the taxi companies. The audit alleged that TA has allowed the taxi barons to systematically fleece tourists and locals alike in several heavy-handed ways — including a $3 charge to use credit cards and a 20-cent per mile fuel surcharge imposed at a time when fuel costs had been dropping for months. Auditors estimated the public had been ripped off to the tune of $47 million in just one year. The audit could just as easily have offered a laundry list of other transgressions and failures on the part of the Taxicab Authority, issues that have been widely reported in news stories but which have been largely ignored by the governor, Legislature and

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the appointed board that oversees the TA. A notable example of this failure to pay attention was the resignation letter submitted in September 2014 by Charles Harvey, who was appointed by Sandoval in 2011 to clean up the TA by serving as its chief administrator. In his letter, the well-regarded Harvey said the environment of the Taxi Authority was “a challenge to (his) integrity, honesty and professionalism.” He set out to create a model regulatory agency but ran face-first into “levels of dysfunction” that he characterized as indescribable, a “culture within the agency that does not value accountability, professionalism or customer service.” Harvey said he repeatedly sought the help of his bosses at the Department of Business and Industry, at the attorney general’s office and from the TA’s board, but found himself alone and isolated. So he quit. You might think a letter that powerful would generate major interest among journalists, lawmakers and regulators, but it made the tiniest splash. It was one of several dozens of stories I’ve written

P h oto g r a p h y b r e n t h o lm e s

I remember sitting at McCarran Airport, counting the cabs that chose to head south, into the tunnel, to get passengers to Strip hotels. about failures within the TA and, like most of the others, it was ignored. The oldest story I remember writing was in 1986, back when local restaurants began paying bounties to cab drivers for delivering passengers to certain supper clubs. The Taxi Authority knew about it but did nothing. The problem festered, then exploded over the next 20 years, in particular when strip clubs began paying up to $100 per passenger. Cab drivers went nuts. They diverted passengers from their requested destinations, told outrageous lies about competitors’ businesses — and again the TA did little to stop it. The companies were making money, and so were the drivers. There have always been cabbies who would pad their fares by taking the longest possible routes, but it reached new heights in Las Vegas. I remember sitting at McCarran Airport, counting the cabs that chose to head south, into the tunnel, to get passengers to Strip hotels. That added $8-10 per trip to the fare. From 2009-2012, our news team at KLAS Channel 8 documented rampant long-hauling by local drivers. More than half took the tunnel out of the airport, and in the dozens of undercover test rides we took, not a single driver ever followed the law by asking the passenger if it would be okay to take the longer route. We aired news stories about the ongoing rip-off, but the TA ignored the issue for years. TA enforcement officers told us they had been ordered to ignore long-hauling. When they tried to write citations, they said, the tickets were torn up by supervisors, who were suspected of having cozy relationships with deep-pocketed taxi companies. The officers who complained were disciplined or fired. Here’s the most damning evidence of all. When the allegations about widespread long-hauling and inept enforcement finally got the attention of state auditors — who estimated the scheme cost the public nearly $15 million per year — it was the taxi industry itself that came to the rescue. Executives from some of the

big taxi firms defended the TA in public, held news conferences, demanded apologies on behalf of their much-maligned drivers. Not surprisingly, the industry has come to the defense of the TA in response to the most recent audit. Dozens of drivers have told me over the years that they hate to long-haul, but that their bosses ordered them to do so, directly or indirectly. Eventually, one of those supervisors for a major taxi company filed a lawsuit alleging that he had been ordered to encourage long-hauling by his drivers. Charles Harvey made long-hauling one of his top priorities when he took the job at TA. He staged high-profile enforcement events, made a big splash, but eventually, that effort ran out of gas, and so did Harvey. When the industry that is supposedly being regulated comes to the defense of the regulators, something is not right. If the TA was doing its job, the companies should be squawking. Instead, the TA bends over backwards to give the taxi firms whatever they want, including more cabs on the streets, surcharges for fuel and a wide berth when it comes to long-hauling. The taxi industry spread a lot of money around, not only in the form of gifts to regulators, but also the maximum campaign contributions to elected officials who may have any influence over the industry, including the governor. What’s likely to happen? State lawmakers are now taking a look at the audit. It would require legislation to abolish the TA. Not surprisingly, the TA board rejected the audit’s findings and has authorized a counter audit. What are the chances it will come up with different conclusions? The idea to eliminate the TA altogether is certainly justified, and one plan is to put the taxi industry under the auspices of the state’s Transportation Authority, which already oversees limos and taxis outside of Clark County. That plan has a lot of merit, but don’t be surprised if it gets scuttled or buried in the coming months. The taxicab barons have deep pockets.

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l i ving in the he art of it al l

finding your center

Urban renewal in central and downtown Las Vegas The historic center and University District offer smart city amenities to adventurous urbanites by elisabeth daniels

t its heart, Las Vegas is a quirky mix of old and new, balancing a hunger for the new with a penchant for a mythical past. Paradise and Winchester, two of our largest towns, are unincorporated townships, a nod to the independent spirit of our Wild West heritage. And yet those same two townships encompass the world-famous Strip, where yesterday is regularly imploded to make way for tomorrow. Along with all the cool stuff on the Strip, Paradise is home to McCarran Airport, the Atomic Testing Museum, and, of course, UNLV. The University District spans Maryland Parkway from Flamingo to Tropicana. On campus, the Barrick Museum and Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery feature exhibits by both students and professionals. Open 24 hours, the infamous Double Down Saloon, known for punk music, psychedelic murals, and being the birthplace of the bacon martini, is located here. The intersection of Paradise and Naples is one of the city’s better-known LGBTQ hubs, with bars and nightclubs catering to the community.

P h oto g r a p h y C h r i s to p h e r S m i t h

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Stretching past Paradise and Winchester, Las Vegas Boulevard winds into Downtown, the historic center of the city. Before the development of the Strip, it was also the core gambling district. Fremont Street remains the heart of downtown gaming — now framing a pedestrian mall underneath a 90-foot-tall canopy, 1,500-feet-long. With a nightly light show, lovedand-loathed SlotZilla zipline attraction, local bands and national acts playing on three stages, and exceptional people watching, it’d be easy to stay on Fremont. But then you’d miss Fremont East, “an up-andcoming entertainment district catering to local hipsters,” according to Geoff Schumacher, author of Sun, Sin & Suburbia: The History of Modern Las Vegas, with hotspots like the Beat Coffeehouse and Records, Atomic Liquors, and Downtown Cocktail Room. North of Fremont is the Downtown 3rd area, or dt3, best known for the Mob Museum and its Friday Downtown 3rd Farmers Market. South of Fremont is 18b Arts District, an assortment of art galleries, one-of-a-kind stores, and restaurants. With an eclectic blend of history and art, a diverse range of activities and nightlife, and the appeal of an urban lifestyle, Downtown and Central Las Vegas bring a lot of verve to the city. ED

March 2016

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Variety Pack

Small, classic and high living From retro ranches to sleek mid-rise living Hig h l iving Those craving a more urban lifestyle in the midst of Downtown’s renaissance can choose from four high-rise condos — Soho Lofts, Newport Lofts, Ogden and Juhl. These properties offer easy walkability, luxury ameni-

ties, minimal maintenance and great views. A 1,356-square-foot, one-bedroom, two-bath condo at Soho Lofts (900 Las Vegas Blvd. S.) was recently listed on Zillow for $294,999. A one-bedroom, one-bath unit at the Juhl (353 E. Bonneville Ave.) was recently listed for rent on Zillow for $1,250/month.

Newport Lofts

Downtown denizensto-be will soon have another option to choose from. Construction is underway on Fremont & 9th, a 5-story, podium-style building that will combine 231 stylishly appointed rental units with 15,000 square feet of retail space along Fremont Street.

hello, neighbor!

Heidi Swank is about

two-thirds of the way through of an epic restoration of her historic home in Downtown’s Beverly Green neighborhood — from the floor slab to the cabinets. It’s a labor of love in more ways than one. Swank isn’t just a mid-century modern fan, she’s also executive director of the Nevada Preservation Foundation. The foundation raises awareness about historic preservation and helps shepherd neighborhoods through the process of obtaining historic status. “People think getting a historic designation is just a touchy-feely thing, but there are good economic reasons for doing so, too,” says Swank. For instance, it boosts home values and buffers them against economic downturns, and gives the community a sense of historic connection. In the case of Swank’s home, that connection became personal. Researching her home’s history, she discovered it was designed by Hugh Taylor, a prolific mid-century architect known for his homes as well as his design work on the Moulin Rouge and Sunrise Hospital. Not only was Swank able to contact Taylor and get her home’s original plans. The Nevada Preservation Foundation became the curator of Taylor’s archives, a collection of thousands of architectural drawings and photographs. Andrew Kiraly

H e i d i S wa n k a n d Pa r a d i s e Pa l m s : B r e n t H o l m e s ; H i g h R i s e , B u n g a lo a n d J o h n s . Pa r k H o m e s : C h r i sto p h e r S M i t h

Making it home

C al l of the b ung alow

Huntridge

Near Fremont East, the Biltmore Bungalows (which aren’t actually bungalows at all), were built in the 1940s as homes for civilians supporting the war effort. Homes in this subdivision are mostly two-bedroom cottages. An 832-square-foot, two-bedroom, one-bathroom Biltmore Bungalow home, located at 320 Bonanza Way, recently sold for $30,000 on Zillow. West of the I-15 and walking distance to Downtown, the upscale Scotch 80s features ranch estates on large lots. The well-heeled McNeil Estates neighborhood blends unique homes in a variety of architectural styles with a central location, west of Rancho Drive between Charleston and Oakey.

Retro charm

Biltmore Bungalows

Fans of retro charm will appreciate the Huntridge and John S. Park neighborhoods, both located south of Charleston and east of Las

Vegas Boulevard. In 2003, the residents of John S. Park successfully petitioned to have their neighborhood designated as a historic district, so the homes here have to stay true to their original designs. Built between the early 1930s and the late 1950s, the homes in John S. Park are predominantly Colonial-Revival or Ranch. The difference is easy to spot. Instead of the L- or U-shaped floor plans, covered patios and rustic exteriors that characterize ranch houses, Colonial-Revival homes are rectangular, with multi-pane windows and entrances accented with columns, pediments or hoods. (Many of the area’s last remaining Tudor-style houses are here, too.) A 2,960-square-foot, one-story, single-family home with three bedrooms and three bathrooms, located at 1311 S. 7th Street in the John S. Park neighborhood, was recently listed for $339,900 on Zillow. ED

In the Neighborhood

t’s no surprise that Paradise Palms was named the Valley’s “Hottest Neighborhood of 2015” by real estate website Redfin. Popular in its heyday, this quaint vintage neighborhood is seeing a resurgence of interest. Situated between Downtown and the University District, Paradise Palms was Las Vegas’ first master-planned community, developed in the 1960s by Vegas developer Irwin Molasky. Close to the Strip, the curved streets and cul-de-sacs made it feel private, which is why stars like Johnny Carson, Debbie Reynolds, and Phyllis Diller had homes here. Mob associate Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal, the inspiration for the protagonist in the movie Casino, was a resident as well. The houses at Paradise Palms had multiple designers, which lent the community

a playful, quirky feel. Homes designed by architects Dan Palmer and William Krisel were characterized by open, ranch-style floor plans, post-and-beam construction on concrete slabs, clerestory windows, decorative block walls, and seamless indoor-to-outdoor spaces. Desert Inn archi-

tect Hugh E. Taylor had an edgier style. He favored angled butterfly roofs and coarse concrete, stretches of glass, wood and stone, and ornamental shutters. The variety of rooflines and colors are just as appealing today as they were back then. ED

March 2016

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Making it home

Crown Jewels

Street smarts: Maryland There’s something old and something new on our “other” main street Maryland Parkway is an unsung main street. Spanning from Downtown to midtown, the street features cheap eats, dive bars and cool cultural quirks. Let’s start on south Maryland Parkway and Fremont Street at new downtown cafe PublicUs (publicuslv.com). This place is so artisanal, you’d suspect even the unerringly cheery baristas are free-range. Its design might be called Martha Stewart Industrial; the food and drink, painstaking and precise but rich and generous, too. Up the street is The Center (thecenterlv.org). It’s the social HQ of the LGBTQ community, offering classes and services, but it feeds bodies as well as souls: Check out the can’t-believeit’s-vegan dishes at the Center’s Bronze Cafe, helmed by the inventive chef Peter Bastien.

center piece

Okay, including the entirety of Commercial Center (Sahara just west of Maryland) on a street crawl may be cheating, but, it’s necessary to give a proper shout-out to its Thai comfort food (Komol, komolrestaurant.com), Northern Thai cuisine (Lotus of Siam, lotusofsiamlv.com), its edgy plays (Onyx Theatre, onyxtheatre.com), not to mention its celebrated trans dive bar, Las Vegas Lounge (702-737-9350). Maryland Parkway also has some of the best dive

bars in the city, from the rapidly hipsterfying Huntridge Tavern (702-3847377) at Charleston to the nautically themed Smuggle Inn (702-731-1305) on Vegas Valley Drive, with its strangely comforting, dim, smoky, subsea murk, to Champagnes Cafe (702737-1699) at Twain, a literal and figurative brick house of no-frills drinking. Finally, grizzled blue-collars rub elbows with equally grizzled grad students at the Stake Out (702-798-8383) — and the burgers, wings and various fried things are surprisingly good. Across the street is UNLV, but for a different kind of book-learning, check out Alternate Reality Comics near Flamingo and Maryland (alternaterealitycomics.net), a volcano of pop culture that features everything from smash’em-up superhero tales to underground comix to action figures. AK

On Maryland Parkway just south of Charleston is The Center, a place devoted to providing services and support to the LGBTQ community. But it’s so much more: It’s a hangout, a social hub, resource center and, in many ways, the heart of the gay and lesbian community in Southern Nevada.

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• Behind the doors of a nondescript warehouse next to a strip mall, a multi-sensory repository of popular culture awaits. The Pinball Hall of Fame (1610 E. Tropicana Ave.) houses the largest collection of pinball machines in the world. Unlike most museums, you can touch (and play) the hundreds of pinball machines, classic arcade games and other novelty machines. It’s a nonprofit with a volunteer staff, and every quarter you drop into a machine goes to charity. Considering that games cost between one and four quarters to play, $20 will go a long way for you — and a good cause. • Tenaya Creek Brewery (831 W. Bonanza Road), is a buzzy new arrival downtown — literally. Formerly a suburban brews-andfood operation, the new location marks a renewed focus on its well-respected craft brews, from crisp pilsners to heavies like its God of Thunder, a thick, rich, sweet Baltic porter with a nice kick. • When you see the motorcycles out front, you’ll know you’ve arrived at Hogs & Heifers Saloon (201 N. Third St.). Order a beer or a shot of whiskey, but don’t ask for wine — or blended drinks. They do serve lots of fun attitude. The bartenders scream out orders over megaphones, and the girls dance on the bar, wearing strategically placed stickers in case they decide to take their tops off. Be sure to look for Jim Morrison’s mug shot and arrest report on the wall. ED

P u b l i cUs , T h e C e n t e r a n d p i n b a l l h a l l o f f a m e : B r e n t H o l m e s ; G e t o u t p h o t o c o u r t e s y o f S p r i n Gs P r e s e r v e

PublicUs

tilts and buzzes

Making the Grade Area schools of special note Founded by Wharton School of Business graduate Connie Yeh in 2013, th Bridge School (310 S. Ninth St.) is a private preschool with an entrepreneurial focus. Enrolling infants through second-graders, the curriculum at 9th Bridge centers on “social-emotional learning” along with science, reading and math.

Number of Students: 45 Ages: 6 weeks through 7-9 years Indoor/outdoor classroom environments

Get Out (or play in)

Quench your thirst for culture, learning and fun

mbrace your competitive side at the Gold Spike (217 Las Vegas Blvd. N.). Play ping pong, pool and oversized cornhole in air-conditioned comfort in the Living Room. Or soak up some Vitamin D over a round of giant chess or Jenga in the Backyard. The more introverted among you will gravitate toward the hotel’s media library, stocked with books to borrow and vinyl records to play on a portable Crosley turntable. The 180-acre Springs Preserve sits on the Las Vegas Springs, the city’s original water source. If the wide range of exhibits and two museums (Nevada State Museum and Origen Museum) don’t quench your thirst for knowledge of the area’s history and culture, follow the 3.65 miles of trails through 11 acres of native habitats and archeological sites. Stroll through the Las Vegas’ luminous past at the Neon Museum (770 Las Vegas Blvd. N.). Meet your guide at the clamshell-shaped Visitors Center, which is the former La Concha Motel lobby. From there, you’ll walk through one and a half acres piled high with donated and rescued signs. Go at night to see several signs illuminated. And keep an eye out for a few fully restored signs that have been mounted throughout DTLV. ED

Amenities & Attractions The fun begins before you set foot in the Downtown Container Park (707 E. Fremont St.) when you’re greeted at the entrance by a

flame-throwing, 40-foot-high praying mantis. Inside, repurposed shipping containers housing retailers and restaurants line the perimeter, and a large playground and stage fill in the center. Displayed throughout Main

Street Station Casino Brewery Hotel (200 N. Main St.) is an eclectic assortment of antiques and curiosities. Pick up a brochure and map from the front desk or bell desk in the lobby and take a self-guided tour through

Valley High School (2839 S. Burnham Ave.) is a public school that offers two well-regarded magnet programs. The curriculum for the International Baccalaureate program is considered to be among the most rigorous in the world. Through the Academy of Hospitality and Tourism, students gain experience from internships at Las Vegas resorts and a partnership with the Hotel Administration College at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Graduation Rate: 66.06% Average Class Size: 22-27 The class of 2014 earned $8.8 million in scholarships, with students now attending colleges such as Princeton, Tulane, Brown, and Cornell. Now 23 years old, Las Vegas Academy of the Arts (South Ninth Street and East Clark Avenue) quickly become an educational institution, turning out world-class musicians, dancers and more. The school has received 12 Grammy awards, more than any school in the country. Average GPA: 3.742 Graduation Rate: 98.2% Average Class Size: 27-29 Awarded a 5-Star School rating for the past two years

history. The most unusual attraction? A graffiti-covered section of the Berlin Wall located in the men’s restroom off the main casino floor. It’s not just for men’s eyes only. Women can ask to be escorted in by security to see this

pivotal piece of the past, too. Winchester Cultural Center (3130 McLeod Drive) is Clark County’s only full-service arts facility. Programming covers the usual dance, theater, and the visual arts, but also more unexpected

areas like fitness and skateboarding. There are offerings for adults as well as youth. The center has a gallery that exhibits the work of local artists, an indoor theater, a desert demonstration garden and a skate park. ED

May: su mmerlin and en viron s

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Outdoors

Trails and tribulations Tight spaces, terrifying falls, broken bones — and ultimate triumph. Hold on tight as you read this digest of outdoor adventures gone sideways, told by those who lived it

we needed some rope to continue down the rest of the canyon. We rigged a system that sacrificed the 300-foot rope but salvaged a 200foot rope that could be retrieved from the bottom. The only trick was that the person rappelling would have to transfer from one rope to the other. I was the first person down. In the process of transitioning from rope to rope, a cord jammed in my rappel device. Without thinking, I grabbed a couple loops of rope with my left hand to be able to use my right (brake) hand to remove the cord from the device. Upon removing the cord, the rope, with all of my body weight, cinched down hard around my left wrist. Dangling freely a hundred feet from terra firma, I was stuck. I struggled to figure out a way to get out of the jam. After 20 long minutes, I came to the conclusion that the only way I was going to get down was to “snake” the rope around my constricted wrist. I pulled up a few feet of rope with my right hand and fished it through. At first, the pain was minimal. But what I didn’t know is that I was effectively cutting and cauterizing my wrist as I was lowering myself. I finally got down, unable to stand up because my legs were numb. At this point, my bloody, rope-slashed hand had swollen to twice its size. My friend made it down and, after some time, we continued down the canyon where we handled another 40-foot drop without issue. After a four-mile, cross-country hike, we got to my truck and drove the four hours to Las Vegas. Shortly after getting home, I went to the hospital where I spent two nights and three days. Moral of the story is that I was in over my head. I had taken about a year off from canyoneering and my skills were not up to par to be exploring new canyons where more advanced skills are necessary. If I’ve learned anything, it’s to make sure I’m well-practiced before taking on such challenges. Jose Witt ‘I think I really hurt my leg’

‘I was in over my head’

September 2012

hile exploring a canyon in nowhere Nevada, a friend and I got to the top of a cliff where the bottom could not be seen. After more than

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an hour of trying to figure out how long of a drop we had to deal with, we determined that the cliff had to be at least 400 feet high. We only had a total of 500 feet of rope. You would think, no problem, but this is just the cliff we’re talking about;

November 2015

n a typical fall day late last year, I went mountain biking out of Blue Diamond, eager to get in a quick hour before the sun went down. About halfway into my usual loop, I came across

I l lu st r at i o n H e r n a n Va l e n c i a

another mountain biker sitting up, with his legs splayed across the trail, his helmet a little askew and sweat beaded on his brow. From the panicked look on his blanched face and his trembling hands, it didn’t take much to see that he was injured. Slowing to a stop, I started asking him questions to determine whether he’d need a slow walk or a helicopter ride to civilization. Oblivious to my questions, he simply sputtered, “Ugh ... I think I really hurt my leg.” Following his gaze down to his right shin, I could see we’d need the helicopter. His leg, as dusty and mud-splattered as it was, announced its injury by way of a massive lump protruding from the shin — it was his broken bone just short of puncturing the skin. I asked if he’d called for help. He feebly held up his phone and told me that he wasn’t getting reception. I had better luck climbing up a bit higher out of the small gorge we were in, and called for a rescue squad. Flying in by helicopter and “landing” with only one strut on a rock, the other hovering in the air, the rescue team was the picture of professionalism in the middle of nowhere. One of the medics helped the mountain biker get stable while he worked out next moves with the helicopter circling above us. He asked the guy how he had hurt himself so badly. A bit calmed, the biker explained that he’d ridden to the top of a rock above us, and had gotten off his pedals to stand there and take in the view. He lost his balance and toppled over, the bike coming down on his leg. The medic’s sense of humor delivered some much-needed levity: “So, technically speaking, you didn’t have a biking accident. This is a hiking injury.” Robin Bernhard

Now Enrolling Infants-2nd Grade Open House March 17 at 4 pm

Inspiring Young Entrepreneurs and Creators

Call for additional tour times

Features

• Student Inspired Project-Based Learning • Individualized Instruction for Each Child •• Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math Integrated Curriculum •• Daily Family Connections Activities • Artist-in-Residency Program • Indoor/Outdoor Classroom Environments

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‘Guys, I’m starting to freak out’

November 2015

took a trip with caving club Southern Nevada Grotto to explore Wounded Knee Cave, a wild cave at Red Rock that has been protected under lock and key. It was an encounter with claustrophobia — culminating in a moment of pure panic — I’ll never forget.

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Outdoors I had crawled on my belly through a tunnel to access the cave. Next, I waited in line to shimmy 15 feet up a “chimney” that was so narrow, the guide had advised, “If you fall, just make yourself big. You won’t go anywhere.” As I scooted my way up this crack, I fit so tightly that I could not move my hand from its position at my waist up to my

shoulder. My feet clawed and skidded against the slick limestone, desperate for purchase, and as I looked up for my next handhold, I was greeted with an inky abyss which I knew (because they had gone to great pains to tell me) would transition into a belly crawl that would make this chimney feel downright spacious. And then, the person climbing

ahead of me stopped, and I was instructed to wait ... in that awkward spot ... with my hot, panting breath blowing back in my face off the wall in front of me that seemed impossibly close to the wall behind me. I had been warned about the first climb that it would be a tight, uncomfortable squeeze, and that claustrophobia could become an issue. But I’m a good climber, and I’d done some caving before. “I’ll be OK,” I had told them. “You’ll be OK,” I now told myself. I started to panic. The exit of Wounded Knee Cave was only 50 feet away. If I retreated, I could be out in minutes. I’ll give myself 30 more seconds, I thought, as my heart began racing. And then, meekly, I squeaked, “Guys, I’m starting to freak out.” The trip leaders sprang into action. “No problem. Put your hand here. Now scoot over here. Good job.” And a minute later I was up, catching my breath before beginning the next stage of the trip that taught me caving is not for me. Alan Gegax ‘My feet slipped and I began to drop’

February 2013

was scrambling at Burlap Buttress, a peak in Red Rock, with three companions who were spotting my ascent of a particularly steep, tricky rock. One companion was on top of the high rock I was tackling, and the two others were behind me in case I lost my grip. My spotter atop the rock was on his belly, tightly grasping my hand as I tried to shimmy up the sandy, slippery rock. Then, my feet slipped. I began to drop, and next thing I know my hand slid from my spotter’s grip. My first thought: $#@!! I knew I was in trouble. The spotters behind me didn’t have time to react — in fact, one was busy taking a photo at the precise moment I fell. I plunged 10 feet down to the ground and, by pure luck, missed the boulders we had climbed up and instead landed just behind them on a rocky patch of sand. I was lucky to get away with a golf ball on my elbow and a little bruising to my ego — which is preferable to splitting my

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y l l u f w a We’re r u o f o d prou . s r u o h 2 6 , 6 4 2

Giving is in our employees’ hearts. Cox Communications employees volunteered 24,662 hours in our community in 2015, helping to improve the lives of others through the support of education, families, children and diversity partnerships.

Outdoors head open on a rock. Best of all, I was able to continue the hike and reach that beautiful peak. Penny Sinisi ‘A white-hot sheet of sheer, abject terror’

June 2010

tanding at the terminus of Ice Box Canyon with sheer, towering walls to the right and straight ahead, I watched my nephew Nick begin climbing up the rock to the left. Though the grade was not exactly inviting, it didn’t look too forbidding, either. He was only 10, but was a precocious and very aware climber — as he’d shown the last few hours, scrambling over boulders and fallen tree trunks. I followed, noting with concern that the sandstone of the wash had given way to limestone — much slicker and with far fewer footholds. We climbed deliberately, aiming for a prominent ledge high up in the

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rock. Sweating lightly, we gained it and took in the view. The big rainwater basin at the base looked tiny, and I felt a certain unease creeping up on me. 100 feet up? 110? As I wondered, I found a small, flat rock and snapped off a throw out into empty space. Watching the rock sail out, then turn on its edge and plummet, my unease morphed into something deeper. We began the descent a few minutes later, working our way down a crack running diagonally across the rock face, with me in the lead and Nick right behind. The crack became shallower, became a seam, and then barely a wrinkle. My fear became more palpable, and I instructed my nephew to stay close and follow my route exactly: The footing was poor, the grade was illogically far steeper going down, and there was nothing to hold onto.

Sweating hard now, I noted a small but secure-looking ledge below me. I finally got my feet onto it, noting we were still 30-35 vertical feet from safety. Standing and facing in towards the rock, I heard Nick shout — and I realized he’d lost traction. Still on his feet, he slid down the rock on a path that would miss the ledge, about 2.5 feet to my right. I knew he couldn’t stay upright — that his momentum (and the weight of his head and torso) would almost certainly pitch him forward into the rocks below. Leaning into the rock, I swung my right arm out, fingers formed into a claw. He was wearing a loose, white T-shirt and as my hand found its front, I closed it into a fist. It was at that moment that time itself ... skipped, and in that fraction of a second, I was consumed by a white-hot sheet of sheer, abject terror. It was probably only a

fifth of a second, but it was the worst, most sickeningly terrifying moment of my life. When I regained awareness, I found myself with a fistful of his shirt, pivoting to swing him around onto the ledge. Badly shaken, we hunkered down, and when a small group of hikers appeared below us, we implored them to call Search and Rescue. It was nearly midnight before we heard the clatter of the helicopter — a sound I never thought I’d find so sweet. Andrew Lanfear ‘Screaming, I run across the desert floor’

May 2005

do this thing called geocaching, a hightech treasure hunt. On one such excursion, my search takes me to the end of Horizon Ridge Parkway and leads me on a mile-long hike across the desert. My GPS says I have 30 feet to go. So up the hill I scramble, looking for the geocache. Suddenly, the GPS goes dead. The only thing in my pack is leftover pizza, water, and a camera. No matter, I think. I’ve come this far. I’ll scramble up 30 feet more and find that treasure. While I’m clawing my way up the scree, fishing in holes, lifting rocks and generally annoying the desert life, the sun sneaks silently behind the horizon. No matter. I took a desert survival course. Before I left my car, I’d looked up and seen antennas straight ahead. So, I conclude, my car is 180 degrees behind them. But now when I look around, I see antennas in every direction. I start walking to where I think I left my car. An hour later, I’m jabbering to myself, and two hours later, I’m seeing other people and trains crossing my path. Luckily, there is still a sane part of my brain that tells these hallucinations to go away. Finally, I get to some kind of an industrial plant. All I know is that there are lights and trucks. But they’re leaving — and it’s now midnight. So, flashing my camera and screaming, I run across the desert floor, hoping that I’ll arrive before the last truck leaves. Luckily, I catch it. It’s the best treasure ever. Debbie Prince

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Science

Birth of an idea: Dr. Ezeanolue focuses on prenatal HIV testing.

AIDS in their sights Three UNLV-affiliated scientists are taking very different measures in the fight against HIV and AIDS B y C h a n ta l C o r c o r a n

t was 34 years ago, in 1981, that the first patients of HIV were identified. Even now, there remain more than 36 million people worldwide living with HIV. In 2014, 1.2 million people died from AIDS-related illnesses. Three UNLV research professors, each manning a different front — from educational memoirs to life-saving baby showers to a possible cure — continue to make headway in this worldwide battle. Dr. Mary Guinan

r. Mary Guinan’s story as a pioneer in the fight against AIDS is well documented in Randy Shilts’ 1987 book And the Band Played On. Her character was further immortalized in the 1993 movie of the same name, when actress Glenn Head-

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ly portrayed Guinan in her role as one of the Centers for Disease Control virologists identifying AIDS as a sexually transmitted disease. But not until now has Guinan written her story in her own words. This month will see the release of Guinan’s first memoir, Adventures of a Female Medical Detective, from John Hopkins University Press, proceeds of which will support scholarship funding to UNLV’s School of Community Health Sciences, where Guinan retired as founding dean last year. “It’s really hard to say you prevented something,” Guinan says. “You never hear anything until something goes wrong. … So I wanted to tell the story of how the system worked, essentially.” This was her motivation for writing the 12-chapter book covering her early years

in medicine when, in the ’70s, she travelled throughout India as part of the CDC’s smallpox-eradication program; how she became such a herpes expert that she was called Dr. Herpes; her efforts to identify the AIDS virus and battle the epidemic (six chapters are dedicated to this); and her time in Southern Nevada, as the state’s first female chief health officer, where she helped to see passage of the 2007 Senate Bill 266 that made HIV testing mandatory for pregnant mothers in Nevada, and oversaw responses to the 2008 hepatitis C outbreak and the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. Readers of Guinan’s memoir will be privy to personal stories never before told publicly, such as her account of being accidentally stuck with a needle in San Francisco, in 1982, while taking blood from a patient who fainted during an early CDC study to identify the cause of AIDS. “I didn’t think anything of it,” says Guinan, “because we really didn’t know what it was about.” Two years later, she developed a lesion that looked very much like Kaposi’s sarcoma, a symptom of HIV infection; by then she did know, both how the virus could be transmitted and the harsh fact that there was no treatment: “Everybody died.” Nor was there testing available until 1985. “It was terribly frightening

P h oto g r a p h y A n d r e w Ja m e s

because I thought my husband would be infected and my son would be infected.” Fortunately for Guinan, this was merely a scare. It was also only one of many accidental needle-sticks among medical professionals that would lead to the CDC’s guidelines for health-care workers. Her book explores, too, the stigma and myths still surrounding AIDS. She references a recent survey that confirms, despite all evidence to the contrary, that people still believe you can catch it from a toilet seat. “It’s associated with sin. (They say) it’s a punishment from God. It’s still a problem,” Guinan says. “People don’t want to get tested. They don’t want to be labeled as HIV-infected.” This urge to ignore what frightens us and what we don’t understand is Guinan’s primary concern. She wants readers to appreciate how public health care works to protect everyone, every day. Particularly when the subject is HIV and AIDS: “People kind of turn off. ‘Oh, it’s not me.’ But it is us,” she explains. “And we need to be aware.”

“they who dance find infinite golden floors beneath their feet.” – Marjorie Allen Seiffert

Dr. Echezona Ezeanolue

irector of the Global Health and Implementation Research Initiatives at UNLV’s School of Community Health Services, Dr. Echezona Ezeanolue (aka Dr. Eze) is a founder of pediatric HIV services in Southern Nevada. As such, he was integral to the passing of the 2007 Senate Bill 266 requiring HIV testing as routine prenatal care — thus preventing perinatal HIV transmission from mother to child so that children in Nevada are no longer born HIV-infected. That’s not the case in Nigeria. In 2010 — the same year Ezeonolue would take to Washington to work in the office of the secretary for health and human services, an honor he earned for his accomplishment in Nevada — 75,000 Nigerian newborns had been HIV-infected. It was also in 2010 that the federal government removed AIDS from the list of communicable diseases banning migration to America. Thus the country had a renewed interest in treating AIDS globally, prompting the secretary of health to turn to the Nigerian-born, Nigerian-educated Ezeanolue. Ezeanolue was stumped. Not only had he left Nigeria 13 years earlier, but he knew that testing was available there

Barrick Gold Corporation is proud to support the Nevada Ballet Theatre.

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Science for expectant mothers and treatment for their babies; and, thanks to the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), it was entirely free to them. So why were only 16 percent of pregnant Nigerian women being HIV-tested? “We can’t find the pregnant women,” he was told by several American institutions already on the case in Nigeria, where AIDS is a heterosexual disease, accounting for 210,000 deaths in 2013. It turns out that only 35 percent of Nigerian births actually take place in the hospitals, where the testing is offered. It was several years later that Ezeanolue was again approached to help. This time it was a friend, a Nigerian bishop, who pointed to Ezeanolue’s success in Nevada — where exactly zero children had been born infected — when he asked, “Why can’t you do this in Nigeria?” (That year, another 50,000 Nigerian newborns had HIV.) During an eye-opening mass, which the doctor had returned to Nigeria to attend, the bishop asked the pregnant women in his congregation to approach the altar for a special pregnancy blessing. The pregnant women stood. Meaning, suddenly, in this 98 percent Christian-based community, where churches can outnumber health clinics as much as 12 to one, Ezeanolue had finally discovered a way to identify expectant mothers. Such prayer sessions would become the first platform of a three-platform project developed by Ezeanolue and his colleagues and funded by PEPFAR — the Healthy Beginnings Initiative — that would stand to increase prenatal HIV testing from 16 percent to 92 percent. The second platform includes church-hosted baby showers (wherein the mothers-to-be receive gift bags complete with sterilized razor blades, umbilical cord clamps, alcohol swabs and newborn clothing) held in conjunction with health fairs promoting education and free onsite testing for HIV, as well as malaria, sickle-cell genotype and Hepatitius B, to reduce any stigma that testing for HIV alone creates. Finally, upon delivery, baby receptions serve to track the health of both mothers and newborns. The “Baby Shower Project,” as the research project came to be known at the National Institute of Health, was a six-month trial of 40 churches in ru-

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ral southeast Nigeria, which ran the three-platform program at half the churches. At the other half, the pregnant women received only the prayers, showers and receptions, but not the free tests nor the education; instead they were instructed to seek testing on their own. The results surprised even Ezeanolue, who’d hoped for a 20 percent increase in HIV testing: In reality, 92 percent of the first group of women were tested. Whereas, of the control group, that figure was 55 percent. So successful was the “Baby Shower Project” that the community continued the program even in Ezeanolue’s absence, while they awaited his results. And the program spread; 200 churches are now involved. “It’s sustainable,” Ezeanolue explains. Like the testing and medication, the gift bags are provided, but the churches run the program independently. “It’s also feasible, culturally acceptable and transformational in terms of impact,” he says. Not surprisingly, he’s adapting the “Baby Shower Project” for temples in India and Muslim mosques, other communities where HIV and AIDS remain at epidemic proportions. Dr. Marty Schiller

r. Marty Schiller admits that he and his lab became interested in HIV for the wrong reasons. UNLV’s executive

Going viral: Dr. Schiller takes a genetic approach to fighting HIV.

director of the Nevada Institute of Personalized Medicine, with his student biometricians (mathematicians of biology), Schiller was working on short functional genomics (molecular biology that studies genomes and the function of DNA) and they wanted a system with several specific properties on which they could test their ideas. HIV was that system. “But,” says Schiller, “when you start working in an area, you learn more, and you pay attention and over time …” In this case, the knowledge and expertise Schiller accrued over time may actually, someday, lead to a cure for HIV. It began two and a half years ago, when the professor and his students were reviewing a newly published paper on a brand new technology called gene editing, whereby custom-engineered proteins can be injected very precisely into cells, thereby cutting the DNA, like molecular scissors. The cell then naturally repairs itself, and in this repair is the hope. Schiller’s students were discussing how they might use this new gene-editing technology in their functional genomic work when Schiller realized it might offer a solution to HIV. When HIV infects a person, the virus infects the white blood cells, inserting its DNA into the host’s DNA. The result is that person’s genome has a piece of the

HIV code within it, driving production of the virus, and there is no way to be rid of it. (Current treatment works to slow or repress this production, but medication must be taken faithfully and continually, otherwise the virus rebounds into full-blown AIDS.) Schiller’s team gathered tens of thousands of HIV viral sequences, which continually mutate to function, aligning these to identify positions in the sequence that never change. “These positions are presumed to be critical for the virus,” explains Schiller. Next, his lab designed a specially engineered protein, called HT-TALENs, injecting it into the cell via a cold virus, to cut very precisely into these critical regions. When the cell repairs itself, it no longer contains the HIV DNA. Schiller’s team has already achieved successful results in petri dishes and is working to make the process more efficient while he awaits patenting. The next step will be to work in collaboration with Brigham Young University, treating HIV-infected mice. “If it works there,” says Schiller, “it’s going to be pretty promising for treating humans.” He predicts they’re seven to 10 years away from human trials. Of the millions worldwide infected with HIV, only 10 million are being treated — each at a cost of approximately $15,000, annually, for life. Furthermore, there can be adverse reactions to the medication; it can become toxic to certain individuals; and sometimes the virus develops a resistance to it. “It’s a pretty big health problem,” says Schiller, who is still seeking funding for the project. This, he admits, is surprising. While other scientists have published papers presenting ideas similar to his, Schiller believes his is the approach that will make it to clinical trials, because HTTALENs was specifically designed as an HIV therapy whereas others were not; its technology can be retro-engineered to tolerate escape mutations; and it appears to be the safest to use on human beings because of the very precise cut his lab has engineered, which avoids any damage to the cell’s non-infected DNA. Three very different researchers, three very different avenues toward the hope of an AIDS-free future.

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Culture

Dancer in the sands At the Amargosa Opera House, a new talent carries on the tradition begun decades ago by visionary ballerina Marta Becket B y D av e C l a r k

ghost glides and twirls across the desert sands at dusk. A ballerina dances on a stage of crumbling adobe — the fossil of a former mining town fading like a mirage. These paintings on the walls could have foretold a desolate future for the Amargosa Opera House, the home and stage of Marta Becket since 1967. For decades, this strangely serene outpost at Death Valley Junction has been the site of Becket’s one-woman ballet recitals. The story of the eccentric ballerina performing in the middle of nowhere — in a theater with a painted “audience” of Renaissance-era figures, from kings and queens to courtiers — has become a legend of the Southwest. But Becket is 91, the stage dark for years. Little did Becket know that not only had she inspired a 6-year-old tourist to become a ballerina — but that same dancer would return to the Amargosa Opera House decades later. She, too, would uproot a professional career and flee the comforts of city life, beckoned by desert dreams of pure artistic expression in a town of five. Today, before an audience of 10, Jenna McClintock performs a mesmerizing show — a set of Becket’s classical selections sprinkled with her own. Afterward, a man approaches Becket, who is sitting in the front row, and says, “You inspire me.” McClintock felt this same inspiration decades earlier, when she had seen Becket perform for the first time. “What I remember most was I thought, ‘How is she floating off the ground?’”

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McClintock says. “That was it. My soul had been sold to the dance gods.” That 6-year-old girl returned home, staring at souvenir pictures of Marta every night. McClintock joined the Oakland Ballet at 14, later performing in Richmond and Chicago. By her late 30s, however, she had grown unhappy with the stresses of life in the Bay Area, and tired of competing with younger ballerinas. Around this time, she came across an article about how Becket was still dancing well into her 80s. McClintock decided the time was right to thank Becket in person for capturing her childhood imagination. She returned in 2010 when Becket was putting on her last show, age and frailty requiring her to perform while sitting. After the curtains closed, McClintock approached Becket, weeping. “’Because of you, I’ve had the most magical life,’” McClintock recalls telling her. “She just stared at me, grabbed my hand and said, ‘You can do this too.’ I wasn’t sure if she meant here.” ‘These characters have become my friends’

y 2014, McClintock was studying Becket’s routines and mending her costumes. And after four years

of darkness, the Amargosa stage lit up again. Jenna had found her footing and her home, trading a theater that seats 2,500 for one that can house 120. “These characters on the walls have become my friends,” she says. “I’ve never felt more comfortable in my own skin. It feels like fate.” That same sense of destiny has marked Becket’s life. It took her from performing at Radio City Music Hall and on Broadway to a West Coast solo tour, when a flat tire left Becket and her husband stranded in Death Valley. At the time, the community of Death Valley Junction housed a smattering of local businesses, including an auto repair. It didn’t seem to have much else at first. Encouraged by a keen sense of wanderlust, Becket meandered through the skeleton of a town left behind when the Pacific Borax Company vacated in 1947. Peeping through a hole in a door, she spied a decaying theater. What the town manager saw as an eyesore brimming with rodents, she viewed as a blank canvas. She promptly informed her stunned husband she wanted to stay. Becket delivered her first performance in 1968, curiosity luring an audience of ranchers, cowboys and even

P h oto g r a p h y J e n n A D o s c h

Encore: Jenna McClintock, left, and Marta Becket

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the Ash Meadows brothel madam. The townspeople often regarded her as an eccentric, but word of her performances soon spread beyond Death Valley. Yet, sometimes her audience was as barren as a salt flat, a problem she solved by creating her own. She spent years painting the theater. Since its completion in 1974, the walls have featured members from every economic strata of Renaissance-era society — from royalty to merchants to ladies of the night. Native Americans provide a link to the local past. “Painting the murals were the happiest years of my life,” Becket says. “I was always very thankful to have this building in which to paint my dreams. I feel as if it was waiting for me.” But she also had her share of nightmares — a difficult divorce, theater flooding and maintenance problems, arguments with management after she bought the town. Yet, through it all, Becket has been resolute in following her muse. While Becket is extremely grateful and complimentary of McClintock — who is building on her legacy — her tears following McClintock’s performance betray an upwelling of grief. “I have to admit it’s kind of heartbreaking to hand your creation, that you

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CULTURE

gave birth to, to someone else,” Becket says. “When I was performing for some 40 years, I’d always hang up my costumes and put my props away and be alone in the theater I created. I remember looking back at my mural, knowing one day would be the last one.” McClintock understands. “No one can know how painful it is,” she says. “But she has to let her creation go in order for it to live on.” Eternal and endangered

his former mining town seems at once both eternal and endangered. The opera house survives as a non-profit trust on the meager income generated from performances, tours and its 15 antique hotel rooms. The staff of eight fights a constant battle against the elements and age, incessantly repairing walls and roofs. Meanwhile, they forge ahead with plans to re-open a shuttered restaurant and renovate the dilapidated bungalows surrounding the hotel. Yes, donations of money, time and talent are desperately needed, including building repair, a nonprofit lawyer and

making the horses regular guests as an accountant. McClintock estimates they well. After they abruptly gallop away require at least $10,000 to protect one wall into the encroaching darkness, it seems of the theater from the rain. like a good time to peer into the sel“I just spackled the dickens out of dom-seen portions of the property. Room 18,” McClintock says. “I want to One of the largest abandoned sections get my hands on every hotel room. Last lurks behind a strategically placed mirror, year I tried to paint during the day and which masks a door. Inside is a miner’s perform at night.” barracks, unused since 1947; in room afThat captures the ethos of daily life at ter room, our flashlights illuminate sinks, Death Valley Junction. Every employee desks and toilets etched in ancient grime. pitches in to do everything; they have to, Then, something out of place: a teddy bear in order to realize McClintock’s vision. perched on a small chair. It was planted “We’d love to just expand the town — there by the producers of a paranormal have a café, a consignment shop to sell TV show a few years back the work of local artisans, a — an unnecessary touch in a farmers market,” she says. “I’d Amarg osa place where some employees love to use some of this space Oper a discuss their ghostly interacto develop a dance school and House and tions with an air of nonchapickup ballet company.” Hotel lance. McClintock thinks Behind the hotel is a vista HR-C 608 she may have encountered of the mountains surrounding Death Valley Junction, CA an irritated spirit right after Death Valley. At dusk, a herd 92328 swiping a nightstand from of wild horses scampers to the 760-852-4441 the barracks. property’s edge, one eager anamargosa“I was just sitting there imal nuzzling McClintock. The operanext to the nightstand, and hotel workers provide them house.com my window flies up, scaring with an enticing supply of hay, Performances 7p Fri and Sat; 2p Sun

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The art of movement: Outside and inside the Armagosa Opera House, where McClintock carries on a tradition of dance.

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Start Early. Start Right. the bejeebers out of me,” she says. “I told them I meant no harm and was just trying to recycle the nightstand.” More than traditional ghosts, though, there is a spirit to Death Valley Junction that pulls people in. Amargosa Opera House is a place at once both timeless and ensconced in the past — a setting where years unspool slowly across the decades. As though proudly detached from modernity, the rooms don’t have TVs and often lack Internet. There’s only one electrical outlet in each room. The dearth of cell phone service reminds you that you’re here for an experience. ‘I felt like I was coming home’

ne man stopped here for a glass of water eight years ago. Now he lives on the grounds as the head maintenance worker. Photographer Bobbi Fabian

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experienced a similar courtship. She stumbled upon the place during a road trip, as the self-proclaimed Australian coffee snob sought a boost. One of the workers made her a “really good” cappuccino from a vending machine. That endearing taste of life here prompted her and her friend to rendezvous annually in Amargosa for the next 12 years. “There’s something about Death Valley and especially this place — every year I felt like I was coming home,” Fabian says. In 2014, the L.A.-based photographer met McClintock, and discussed making her annual stay more than temporary. She decided to quit her job so she could renovate the moribund café. “I kind of felt the energy shifted here,” Fabian says. “Marta’s work was being carried on in a way it never had been before. I wanted to help out someplace that was bigger than me.” For the first time, the restaurant’s revenue will go back into the nonprofit corporation that manages the town. Fabian has immersed herself in remodeling the shuttered eatery and acquiring all the necessary equipment to produce a menu built on locally sourced food. Fabian says the stresses of her job and city life in L.A. gave her the final nudge toward the desert, and convinced her to exchange her camera for a spatula. (But she’s no novice in the kitchen: Fabian developed her culinary skills from years of food photography and hosting dinner parties to raise money for her work visas.) “When I was thinking about the café and changing my life, it really scared me, and that’s why I felt I should do it,” she says. She envisions the restaurant being partially supplied by its own garden and chickens. She also hopes to collaborate with Becket on a painted mural in the café, which she expects to open within the next two months. “I’ve been traveling around the desert for a long time, and finding an oasis in the middle of nowhere with really good food makes you so happy when it happens,” she says. “It’s going to be a place to bring the community together.” As her restaurant ideas take shape, she’s also been getting tourists involved, including a nonprofit restoration architect who happened to be traveling through. She’s trying to track down the

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CULTURE property’s original building plans in hopes of a full restoration someday. When not in the café or her future apartment, Fabian helps McClintock with lighting her stage show and drawing the curtains. A surreal silence

he enthusiasm of these new desert-dwellers permeates this unexpected encore of the Amargosa Opera House and Hotel. “I’ve been having hopes and dreams Jenna will carry it on as long as I did,” Becket says. “I’m a great believer in preserving the past because we can learn from the past. We can’t learn from the future.” And McClintock is clearly an eager pupil. She spends hours watching ballet with Becket and crafting her next piece about a magical bakery, with selections from Becket’s personal music library. “She’s done such a beautiful job here,”

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There is a spirit to Death Valley Junction that pulls people in. Amargosa Opera House is a place at once both timeless and ensconced in the past — a setting where years unspool slowly across the decades. Becket says. “She uses the stage the way I used to. She’s keeping the place alive.” Initially, McClintock’s family and friends could scarcely believe that a place like the Amargosa Opera House existed. Upon seeing it was real, they expressed relief. “I’m such a fanatic dancer, they would ask, ‘What are you going to do when you can’t dance anymore?’ ” McClintock says. Now she’s finally found her answer. With a radiant grin, she says, “I can dance till I’m 80, apparently.” As Fabian says, there’s something about

the passage of time here that you don’t quite expect. Its mystery could lie in the sweeping sunsets or the surreal silence that breeds creativity. “It moves slowly and fast at the same time,” Fabian says. With her paintbrush, Becket had once depicted images of the Opera House’s creeping disintegration into the desert. “She painted that it would kind of blow away in the wind,” McClintock says. But now, it appears that the opera house — once depicted in paintings as crumbling in the sands — has a strong new foundation.

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The Dish 64

eat this now 66

cocktail of the month 66 at first bite 68

Our c i ty's be st spots to eat & drink

Something to stew on: The ingredients for a hearty Dutch oven dish

P h oto g r a p h y s a b i n o r r

Caption

MA aR rC cH h 2016

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Dining out

Endless simmer: Paul Dicianno and some of the ingredients for creating Dutch oven dishes such as his stuffed pepper stew.

The DISH

Going Dutch There’s no debate about this recreational pot: the Dutch oven, staple of campfire cuisine. Meet its master B y Ja s o n S c av o n e

aul Dicianno has an extensive collection of cast-iron pans in his kitchen. Tiny ones for melting butter, slightly smaller ones for eggs. There’s a large one, well-seasoned with the ghosts of garlic and oil past, for prepping meats and veggies. But the big boy, the star of the show, is the Dutch oven. It’s nothing more than a squat, humble, 12-inch iron pot with stubby feet and a flat lid. Bury it under coals and set embers underneath, and you’ve got yourself a stalwart of trailside cooking. It’s the muse for Dicianno’s culinary and rustic adventures, and the centerpiece of a campsite subculture that asks rugged chefs to work high magic from a low kitchen. It’s night in Henderson, cool and pleasant. As he fusses over the coals underneath the oven, Dicianno points out that when it’s windy, the coals burn twice as fast. It’s not a problem on this night, which is great, because there’s enough smoke that if it carried, the neighbors would be complaining at best, inconveniently dialing 911 at worst. On this night, though, smoke billows slowly upward from an iron table, sweet and

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heavy. It makes you think of every Boy Scout camp, every illicit high-school bonfire. Dicianno busies himself in the radiant heat of the coals, moving food from that big prep skillet to the Dutch oven. He’s making Thai chicken panang. Simmer a little oil and garlic, then add chicken, coconut milk, some white onion, Thai chilis and panang curry. Once he empties the skillet into the oven, Dicianno turns to his charcoal chimney. It’s like a pitcher open on both ends, stuffed with charcoal. He makes his own wicks out of cotton balls, candle wax and an egg carton. When the fire is taking the charcoal it glows like a campground jack-o’-lantern. Once it’s hot, he rings briquettes under the oven and on top of the lid. The effect makes for a sort of cowboy

P h oto g r a p h y S a b i n O r r

broiler, heat coming from both sides. Dicianno has a chart that tells him roughly how many coals to use on each side to reach a certain temperature. Not that you need anything too specific — one of the nice things about this type of cooking is that you don’t need to babysit it. It takes low, constant heat and plenty of time. Perfect for throwing on the coals, kicking back with friends, possibly a beer or four. Which is how the whole thing started. Hunkered down in camp with friends. Dicianno isn’t an accidental chef and he isn’t a trained culinarian. He lives in that gray space so many food enthusiasts do, of developing those skills through years of a — oh, God, this is terrible, but we have to do it — simmering love affair with food. “I grew up in an Italian family, so my grandmother always cooked,” Dicianno says. “I grew up with a lot of good food around me. I’d always watch. All my aunts, who are now long since gone, their parents were from Italy. I’d sit there watching them roll homemade meatballs and make gnocchi. Even though I don’t remember the recipes exactly, it all kind of stuck with me.” It turned into something more formal two years ago. Dicianno, 50, owns a carpet-cleaning business by day. He’s also a member of the Vegas Hikers Meetup group, sort of a quasi-formal online collective designed for outdoors enthusiasts to get together.

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Dining out

Eat this now! Porchetta at SloBoy Food

1516 Las Vegas Blvd. S., facebook.com/SLOBoyFood You had me at pork belly. You had me at slow-cooked, walnut-infused, pesto-topped pork belly. Perfectly rolled, grilled, uncoiled and served in a humble paper tray, ably sidekicked by carrots or potatoes. It’s got an earthy, food-of-the-people boldness — not the empty, showy boldness of, say, a Bundy standoff, but the real, mouth-filling thing that even non-foodie humans can love. You want a thousand more words, look at the picture. But let me add this, because it’s important to your experience of the dish: The reason it’s served in a paper tray is that SloBoy occupies the tiny food-togo kiosk outside of Dino’s — it’s a cuisine incubator, that little hut, and SloBoy might only be there a few more months. Hurry. I’ll try to leave you some. Scott Dickensheets

Cocktail of the month

Juicy Vodka at VegeNation

Juicetail? The chirpy insouciance of the buzzword makes me suspect a gimmick’s afoot. (Do too many juicetails make me a healthdrunk?) But no gimmick here: Admirably true to form, the juicetails at VegeNation are crafted with the same happy obsession that applies to the Downtown vegan restaurant’s cuisine: with an earnest dedication to turning fruits and vegetables (the locally grown kind when possible) into sophisticated and satisfying culinary feats. The Juicy Vodka is perfect for spring. It’s an unfussy, refreshing concoction of fresh apple and carrot juice, walnut-cinnamon syrup and vodka from the Las Vegas Distillery. The choice of vodka is apt: It’s so smooth, and the other flavors so well-balanced, the only thing to remind you to stop chugging that juice because you’re gonna get healthdrunk! is the fact it’s in a martini glass. Andrew Kiraly 616 Carson Ave. #120, 702-366-8515

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Some other members schooled Dicianno on one-pot wonders in the Dutch oven. It didn’t take long for that campfire staple, chili, to give way to more experimental dishes. You get a little bit of a reputation among friends, and all of a sudden they’re pushing you into cooking contests. The first one was at Valley of Fire in 2014. There were only 15-20 people cooking. Why not? “I’m not a super-competitive person where I have to win everything. I just thought it would be fun, and I’m cooking anyway. I had this recipe book my dad had that all the old-timers at his RV park on Lake Erie put together. They had this recipe for stuffed-pepper stew.” By the time the judging started, around a hundred people came from neighboring campsites. Dicianno took second and the people’s choice, which got him into the Nevada State Dutch Oven Championship at Cathedral Gorge. He went back to the well on the stuffed-pepper stew, and again took the people’s choice award. Last year he took another people’s choice at Cathedral Gorge with his Thai chicken. Looking for types of food not typically prepped in traditional outdoor cooking, and using fresh ingredients, has helped garner attention for Dicianno’s dishes. It’s not hard to see why. The curry comes off, even after less than an hour in the pot, with a balanced flavor of pleasant heat and a rich, creamy coconut. Vegetables still pop and buttress the texture of the dish. The curry has a little zip, but it’s nothing that would upset any but the most boiled-potato palettes. “For me, I like pots of stuff. Stews, chilis, soups. Something that’s hearty,” he says. “Something that goes with a beer, maybe. Something with garlic. As soon as I get that garlic simmering in the pan, people come around.” The competitions have several categories, from main courses and sides to desserts. There are elaborate semantic arguments over what does and does not constitute a proper bread entry. (Stuffed breads or banana bread need not apply.) Some people take it as far as making cakes in their Dutch ovens — elaborate affairs like pineapple upside-down cake, or black

P o r c h e t ta : B r e n t H o l m e s ; D r i n k : C h r i s t o p h e r S m i t h

HOT PLATE

Paul Dicianno’s Stuffed Pepper Stew This is the recipe that locked up a second-place finish and people’s choice pick in Dicianno’s first Dutch oven cook-off. This isn’t one that’s set in stone, either. Rather, this recipe is a jumping-off point. Dicianno doesn’t make it the same way twice, and neither should you. Ingredients • Six green peppers cut into one-inch pieces • 10-12 ripe tomatoes of varying types, diced • Three pounds of hamburger • One large onion, chopped • Four garlic cloves, chopped • 30 ounces of water • Three tablespoons of olive oil • Two cups of rice, uncooked • Salt, pepper and spice to taste

P r e pa r at i o n 1. Cook rice and set aside to cool. 2. Brown hamburger over medium heat in your cast iron pan, careful to keep the meat in medium-sized chunks. 3. Add chopped onion and garlic and sauté for five minutes, then drain. 4. Add the hamburger, tomatoes, water, olive oil and green peppers to the Dutch oven. Cook one hour or until tender, spice to taste.

forest cake. Because you can stack ovens one on top of another, using the coals on the lid of one to serve as the bottom heat source for the next, Dicianno says he’s seen people come up with an entire Thanksgiving dinner, with a small oven on top for the gravy. Not that he plans on getting quite that ambitious anytime soon. For his next entry he’s considering something Indian. You can see how that would work. A Dutch oven isn’t wildly far afield from a tandoor. Plus, it has the advantage of dishing out just fine from one pot. The simpler the better. There’s a kind of frontier honesty to working within your limitations. “I wouldn’t consider myself a good cook,” he says. “I would say I have a knack for throwing things together.”

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MARCH 19

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Dining out

at first bite

Say cheese F. Pigalle recasts the fondue experience in a French boudoir on East Fremont. The result? Mon Dieu B y D e bb i e L e e

or people of a certain age, fondue was a fixture on the table of 1960s dinner parties, somewhere between a garish Jell-O mold and quasi-“Oriental” pu-pu platter. Its popularity was a no-brainer. With luscious blonde cheese sauce, made slightly tipsy with white wine, and pillow-soft cubes of white bread, the Alpine dish had as much appeal as a Swiss babe. But just how desirable is that same gal when she’s decked out in leather and latex? F. Pigalle is probably the only restaurant on the planet to pose that question. The new fondue restaurant on Fremont East tries to elevate the ooey-gooey, messy, sexy dish to obscene levels. Unfortunately, it overshoots and delivers an inadvertently comical experience. Where you might expect the dining equivalent of an erotic film, instead you get a late-night B movie. It’s shock value and provocation without substance. The interior is inspired by Pigalle, Paris’ red light district. Certain touches—an over-the-top crystal chandelier and shiny stripper pole — are welcome nods to the theme; others, not so much. For instance, the waiting area features a glass showcase full of BDSM equipment. It’s an interesting way to bide time (we twiddled our thumbs for five minutes before being acknowledged by a server/hostess), but an implement meant to be inserted in, um, an orifice many considered to be “exit only”

MARCH 2016

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is perhaps an unwise prop choice. The meal began with complimentary pickles, a perfunctory pile of salty and acidic veggies. Ours included green beans, carrots, cauliflower, and spicy peppers. From there, guests choose from four styles of fondue — traditional Suisse, beef, shrimp, and chocolate — and an optional side of seasoned French fries. Remember this, because if you aren’t seated in view of the chalkboard menu, you’ll never know your options. Paper menus are not part of the program. A cocktail and beer menu was available by request, but it seemed that the house was keener on pouring complimentary bottomless wine. Guests may choose one style, Chablis and Burgundy on our

particular evening, per order of fondue. Paging Dr. Freud! Here’s where things got weird: the booze was served in baby bottles with rubber nipples, tips sliced off. Infantilism not being on my list of preferred bedroom activities, I took a cue from neighboring tables and unscrewed the cap before sipping. “Suckers for suckers,” a dining companion noted of the gimmick. All of these missteps are easy to repair, and they were just as easy for me to overlook if the food was excellent. It pains me to say that this wasn’t the case. I’ve been a loyal patron of Sam Marvin’s Tivoli Village steakhouse, Echo & Rig, since its inception. After countless visits in its two years of operation, I’ve never

P h oto g r a p h y C h r i s to p h e r S M i t h

on the plate

March’s dining events you don’t want to miss

Good morning: From left, Kitchen Table’s peach cobbler; pork-belly Benedict; the small, busy kitchen; a sampling of syrups.

with the same potatoes, shreds of tri-tip, and kale. Our server instructed us to plunge the beef in a bubbling vat of oil for 30-45 seconds (oy vey, a lawsuit waiting to happen) before seasoning each piece in a selection of dipping sauces: horseradish, A-1, chimichurri, or béarnaise. Unfortunately, each piece was too oily for the sauces to cling. The kale was also cold. A tablemate wondered if it should be dropped in the oil, but I hesitated at the prospect of frying watery, leafy greens. Still, we tried. The sputtering fat made one friend jump from his seat. At that point, we opted to skip dessert. I can appreciate the intention of reinventing a dining tradition once favored felt shortchanged on service or quality. by housewives. And in our current age In comparison, his F. Pigalle feels like of over-sharing and overt sexuality, I’d a phoned-in attempt at making a quick like to believe that I am hardly prudish franc. Take the traditional Suisse fondue, or out of touch with The Kids. But if F. served with French bread cubes, generPigalle strives for longevity, perhaps the ous chunks of salami, pee-wee potatoes, best option is to go full camp: hire showand apples. Yes, Marvin nailed the cheese girls, have performers break into song and sauce. It arrived piping hot and covered dance during service, spank the customthe dipping specimens in ribbons of nutty ers. (Our server gave each guest a firm, Gruyere-flavored goodness. But it eventuformal handshake—a bizarre greeting ally overheated, and the fat and milk solids for a place that proudly displays handseparated. Meanwhile, the spuds were as cuffs.) Otherwise, the impossible task of cold as a corpse, as if pre-filled juggling professional hospitalF. Pigalle bowls were rushed from the ity and food with a crazy sex 508 Fremont St. prep fridge to our table. schtick will leave many guests 702-550-4797 The steak fondue came confused and disappointed. fpigalle.com

silver state chili cook-off March 19. Whether you like it chunky, soupy, spicy or meaty, Pahrump’s 4th Annual Silver State Chili Cook-Off will have something for every chili-lover. Besides lots of chili, the cook-off will also feature celebrity judges, live bands, staged gunfights, raffle drawings, a car show and a special performance by the Silver Tappers. More information for prospective entrants at visitpahrump.com/events. 9a-4p, free. Petrack Park, 150 NV-160, Pahrump, NV

unlvino’s bubble-licious April 14. A drinking event with some real pop, Bubble-licous returns to The Venetian, once again featuring a variety of champagnes, sparkling wines and a tasting menu from The Venetian and Palazzo’s collection of restaurants, all taking place in the resort’s Doge’s Palace plaza. 7-10p, $100-$125, unlvino.com

vegas uncork’d by bon appétit April 28-May 1. Vegas Uncork’d by Bon Appétit marks its 10th anniversary with a wide menu of culinary events and a world-class lineup of renowned chefs, including Giada De Laurentiis, Emeril Lagasse, Michael Chow, Guy Savoy, Gordon Ramsay and Nobu Matsuhisa. In addition to the Grand Tasting, new events include After Hours Sake & :Sushi at TAO in the Venetian, brunch at Giada in the Cromwell, and Sushi Making and Sake Tasting at Nobu in Caesars Palace. At various venues on and off the Strip, vegasuncorked.com

HOURS Tue - Sun 4p-4a M arch 2 0 1 6

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‘I would have done it for free’ Dance takes a serious toll on the human body. So why don’t Las Vegas’ most prevalent professional athletes get more help coping with the consequences? by

vening sun seeped through the drawn blinds in a studio at Sherry Goldstein’s Yoga Sanctuary, highlighting the cheeks and shoulders of the dozen students who’d signed up for Rachael Sellars’ anatomy workshop in June 2015. Seated in a circle, they introduced themselves one by one, explaining why they were there. “I’m a former dancer,” one woman said, “so I have a couple old injuries. I’m interested in learning more about how good alignment can help me deal with my low-back pain.” A person or two later, the line was repeated, “I’m a former dancer,” this time in relation to shoulder surgery. It soon became a joking refrain — “also a dancer,” “danced all my life” — to preface the litany of aches that had brought more than half of those present to yoga in search of relief, and to the workshop that day hoping to reassemble the pieces of their disjointed bodies.

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Heidi K ys e r

Among the dozen current and former Las Vegas dancers who told Desert Companion their stories of injury and illness were (left to right, standing), Stephanie Smith, Jacky Pagone, Clare Tewalt, (seated) Linda Le Bourveau, Michele Chovan-Taylor and Rachael Sellars.

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“Well, I danced for 30 years, in addition to teaching exercise classes and doing personal training,” said Michele Chovan-Taylor, a muscular redhead with hazel eyes who was once the gold-painted girl in Splash at the Riviera and dance captain for Legends in Concert at Imperial Palace. “So, I have neck issues — I can’t turn my head more than this (she demonstrated with a stiff glance to the right) — back issues, hip issues and knee issues. Basically, I’m a wreck from head to toe,” she laughed. Chovan-Taylor, Sellars and the other retired dancers at the yoga studio that day are a representative sample of Las Vegas’ largest professional athlete population, albeit of the artistic variety. According to national labor data, Nevada has the highest percentage of dancers and choreographers per capita in the United States. In the 15-year period from 1990 through 2005, the National Endowment for the Arts reports, the state averaged seven dancers and choreographers per 10,000 people, and Las Vegas was home to more of the professionals than any other metropolitan area, including New York and L.A. Although the numbers have dropped since then, Las Vegas still leads the nation in dancer employment. As other cities grapple with their professional football players’ head injuries and baseball players’ drug addictions, the costs of high-impact, high-stakes sports are coming to light. Meanwhile, under our noses, legions of (mainly) women struggle unacknowledged to cope with chronic pain caused by years of service to the entertainment capital of the world. “The showgirl is an icon — the silhouette of her does reference the city still,” says Karan Feder, an entertainment scholar who curates the Nevada State Museum’s collection of showgirl costumes. “We may move past that eventually, now that we’re losing Jubilee! and we won’t have a show like that anymore. … But I’d say for the near future, the showgirl is still going to be a representation of our city.” And how does the community repay this icon? Inconsistently. Cirque du Soleil’s 81 full-time dancers have comprehensive employee benefits, including access to an in-house performance-medicine department and auxiliary services such as massage and personal training. A few other large productions offer similar services. But outside this utopia, dancers face an uneven landscape of contracts that may or may not include health insurance, paid leave and work rules designed to minimize bodily stress. Locally based shows don’t have the union agreements that are common in Chicago, L.A. and New York and offer members benefits such as pension and limits on physical demands. Professional dance associations have no Las Vegas chapters, and the national organization created to help dancers transition to other careers is currently in flux itself. According to the 20 current and former professional dancers interviewed for this story, a dozen of whom have worked primarily in shows on the Las Vegas Strip, the industry has made great strides in teaching students to stay healthy through proper nutrition, full-body conditioning and rest. At the same time, they say, the act of dance is getting riskier. “After 9/11, so many shows closed or went down to one performance,” says Sellars, a tall former Rockette with a mass of black curls pinned back in a loose bunch. “To bring people back in after that, they had to have a shock value — either extreme acrobatics or extremely sexy. When I saw that happening, I was like, ‘Oh my god. I have to do something else with my life.’ But so many of my friends were stuck. The only thing they knew was dance.”

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“Basically, I’m a wreck from head to toe,” says Michele Chovan-Taylor, who was once the gold-painted girl in Splash at the Riviera.

For them, and all the starry-eyed debutantes waiting in the wings, what promise does Las Vegas offer for life off-stage?

Living the dream X Burlesque, a lounge show at the Flamingo, opens with a jarring throb of Metallica and strobe lights. Five women wearing short, black leather jackets appear inside a huge, empty picture frame on the center of the stage. The one in the middle stands out – taller than the others and the only blond. Known to her friends as Smithy, Stephanie Smith has sharp, classically pretty features and sinewy limbs that will come in handy during the second act, when she will take to the pole for a show of gravity-defying athleticism. But for this introductory number, the goal isn’t technical, it’s functional: to introduce the dancers and the risqué tenor of the show. Within a minute, all five tear away panels of their jackets, going topless. Facing away from the audience, they sway their bare bottoms in sync as the lights and music abruptly go out. It’s tempting to suppose that the Smithy of 17 years ago — graduating from Toronto’s Ryerson College with a three-year performing arts degree after some 15 years of classical ballet, jazz and tap school — didn’t picture herself here at the age of 39. It’s also wrong. She loves her job. “I have an awesome deal,” she says in her Desert Companion

assignments at conventions, concerts and special events. Compare this to the 22-year career of Linda Le Bourveau. The Northern Californian came to Las Vegas on vacation with a boyfriend in 1969, and went looking for work on the Strip after the couple ran out of money. Still leggy and sparkly eyed at 64, Le Bourveau tells how she landed a spot in Lido de Paris at the Stardust and, aside from a two-year stint at the original Lido in Paris (to avoid an unwanted affair with Stardust owner Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal, she says — but that’s another story), performed in the Vegas show continuously until it closed in 1991. The entire time, she was a full-time hotel employee with benefits, including medical insurance and paid vacation. Plum positions like this — relatively more lucrative and stable than the rest of the national dance scene — drew masses of dancers to Las Vegas looking for work. “When these shows were started, men and women came from all over to dance here, and without these shows, they would have never landed here,” Feder says. “I consider them our early settlers, who defined our city and made it what it is today.” Chuck Rounds and Minnie Madden, who run Callback News, a 27-year-old trade publication for the Las Vegas entertainment industry, estimate that the showgirl dance business peaked between the late 1970s and the early 1990s with productions in huge casino showrooms that cumulatively employed as many as 600 dancers at a time along the Strip. Today, they put the total number of dance jobs at around 200. “Jubilee! once had 120,” recalls Madden, who danced in lounge shows in the ’70s and ’80s and started the newspaper to meet the need for a clearinghouse of audition postings. “Those shows were very popular, because it was just singing and dancing with a theme and fabulous wardrobes.” February 11, Jubilee!, the last of these iconic shows, closed. Several factors contributed to their demise, according to Rounds and Madden: the corporatization of casinos beginning with Howard Hughes, the implosion of old buildings with huge showrooms, the advent of “four-walling” — casinos renting performance spaces to Stephanie Smith fills in regularly for X Burlesque at the Flamingo as part of production companies, which then have to do their own markether freelance dance career. ing and promotion — and the multi-property deal between Cirque du Soleil and Mirage (now MGM Resorts). “Nobody would produce Jubilee! in a four-wall, because it’s too expensive,” Rounds says. “Nobody has interview. “I actually am a swing, which is like an unthat kind of money. A lot of those shows were replaced derstudy who replaces the other girls on call. When “I consider with magic shows and concerts, which have a few I came back after taking a year off in 2012, I didn’t (dancers) our dancers, but not dozens.” want permanent days. I say yes to almost everything early settlers, who Madden adds: “Once production shows went out unless I can’t. … But it’s nice to be in charge of your defined our city of the hands of hotel owner-operators and into (the own schedule and to be able to say no.” and made it what hands of ) private production companies, the number Smith’s trajectory illustrates the most recent phase it is today.” of shows started to decline, the genres changed and in the evolution of professional dancing on the Las the business model changed.” Vegas Strip over the past four decades. Following The new paradigm offers dancers few full-time stints at Tokyo Disneyland and on Holland America jobs with benefits outside Cirque; most, like Smith, Line cruises, the native Canadian came to Las Vegas are freelancers. Meanwhile, circus acts, hip-hop and other perin 2002 for the launch of Showgirls, a traditional topless revue formance trends have infused dance with gymnastics, such as at the Rio, and its accompanying HBO documentary, Showgirls: aerial silk routines or Smith’s pole number. Some dancers end up Glitz & Angst. After six months on the reality TV-style productransitioning completely to acrobatics, where there’s more steady tion, she went on to dance in the Rockettes touring company, Midwork. night Fantasy (which later became just Fantasy) at the Luxor and, One example of this is Blake Carter, who studied dance at the since 2009, X Burlesque. Over the years she’s gone from having University of Central Oklahoma and came to Las Vegas in 2009 to a full-time job to her current status as an independent contracaudition for Le Rêve after dancing in theme parks, on cruise ships tor, with one steady part-time gig complemented by temporary

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and the L.A. commercial circuit. “Once I got to Vegas, I switched mainly to circus and acrobatics,” Carter says. “I found a love for that.” Today, he does a hand-to-hand balancing act with partner Chris Jones. Called Duo Ronin, they’re their own bosses and perform around the country using Vegas as a base of operations. Like Smith, Carter likes being in control of his own schedule. But there’s a major drawback to this lifestyle, they and the others interviewed for this story who haven’t retired yet say: When they’re not working, they’re not getting paid. And when they’re injured, they can’t work.

The show, going on I broke my ankle on Christmas doing the hypnosis show (Marc Savard Comedy Hypnosis at the V Theatre in Planet Hollywood). It’s the silliest thing, because I wasn’t even running or anything. I just slipped on the stairs. I was coming off stage to change into the next costume, and I slipped down — there were like four stairs — I slipped down the last step and broke my ankle. (Did you finish the show?) Yes. – Jacky Pagone Tiny and dark-featured, Jacky Pagone radiates the self-awareness that dancers get from more fully inhabiting their bodies than other people. She was a ballerina before she was a showgirl, evolving, over 19 years in the profession, from full days of rigorous pointe work, which had given her arthritis in her toes by high school, to what she describes as the relatively low-impact job of assisting magician Nathan Burton and hypnotist Marc Savard at Planet Hollywood. In the world of dance, the Las Vegas Strip is unique territory. Other big cities may have as many dancers, or more, but a greater percentage of them are often concert performers, such as those in nonprofit ballet and modern dance companies. New York has a large population of these working alongside musical-theater performers on and off Broadway. And Los Angeles has a lot of commercial dancers in film and TV. Although Vegas has all these kinds of dancers too, its specialty is, for lack of a better word, showgirls — dancers who are part of casinos’ resident entertainment, from headliner concerts and magic acts to topless revues and variety shows. (And within the broad “showgirls” category, there are many styles of dance, from adagio to tap.) “I didn’t want to go to Vegas, because I was living in New York, and it seemed like the entertainers’/dancers’ zoo, from a New York perspective,” says Ivorie Jenkins, a classically trained concert dancer who nonetheless did move here in 2010 to perform in Cirque du Soleil’s Viva Elvis. “I didn’t want to trade in my artistry for being a pawn in someone else’s show. But I knew it was a great opportunity. I knew what Cirque meant in the world of entertainment and dance.” The Vegas dance ethos pre-dates Cirque, of course. Amber Sorgato, a Boston Conservatory graduate and current owner of Studio 34 dance academy, nails it when she recalls her time in the early 2000s show Storm at Mandalay Bay: “It was definitely my official Vegas show. I had a wig and high heels and booty shorts

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and push-up bra, and I was like, ‘All right. Let’s do this!’” The local style may be known as more fantastic and provocative, but it isn’t necessarily easier than others on dancers’ bodies. While concert dancers put in grueling eight-hour days practicing unique combinations of technical movements for shows that typically run for a few weeks, showgirls do the same sequences, once or twice a night, night after night, week after week, for months or even years — often wearing high heels and on precarious staging. (Headdresses, now rare, are another particular local stressor.) Dancing of any kind, anywhere comes with myriad occupational hazards — set malfunctions, for instance, or one partner dropping another — that are difficult for even the most conscientious company to avoid all the time. But the two seemingly highest risk factors for Las Vegas dancers, repetition and equipment, are within the industry’s control. Nancy Kadel, a Seattle-based physician who co-chairs the Task Force on Dancer Health backed by nonprofit association Dance/ USA, says most dancer injuries are caused by overuse of the body. Locally, “overuse” translates to “repetition.” “The repetition of the job is how you get hurt,” Chelly Franken, a former dancer in Viva Las Vegas at the Sands, Country Tonite at the Aladdin and Folies Bergere at the Tropicana, says. “You’re always kicking the same leg, doing the same movement, going the same way.” Performance Health Center’s Katie Hightower, who believes she’s treated dancers from every show on the Strip in the last decade, says the most common injuries she sees in women are in the feet, ankles and knees; men tend to have more shoulder problems, from partnering; and both males and females have neck issues. Back pain is also prevalent among the dancers interviewed for this story: A few report having herniated discs in their spines, and a few

SHOWGIRLS NOT ALLOWED

others say they have degenerative arthritis, ranging from the neck to the low back. Almost Despite its preponderance of professional dancers, Las Vegas is bereft of organizaall say they have chronic back pain of some tions to represent them. While some dancers report having union cards from producsort, or acknowledge that if they don’t yet, they tions based in other cities, none had obtained membership through a dance gig here. probably will someday. Chovan-Taylor, who As for professional associations, Dance/USA Executive Director Amy Fitterer says, “A has degeneration in both cervical and lumbar lot of other major cities have a non-union 501(c)3 whose purpose is to support the vertebrae, says that’s the nasty thing about for-profit dance community, but I cannot find one in the state of Nevada.” overuse injuries: “They don’t rear their heads until years later.” “Most of what I see is not an overt injury; PROFESSIONAL it’s cumulative,” Hightower says, “especially UNIONS ASSOCIATIONS on the Strip, where they’re doing 10 shows a week. They may not be doing something that Actors Equity American Dance Resource stressful if you do it once, but multiply it by Encompasses theatrical productions that Dance Guild Center 10, and it becomes very stressful.” include dancers, such as Jersey Boys and Focuses on New Southern CaliforAnd, she adds, “The shoes they wear are Phantom of the Opera, but is mainly for York, and on nia network that actors, national communications director concert, rather welcomes comnot the best.” Maria Somma says. than theatrical, mercial dancers If a dancer’s most vulnerable body parts performers. and helped the are her feet, ankles and knees, then her most American Guild of Musical Artists national Task important piece of protective equipment is Focuses on ballet and opera companies, Dance/USA Force on Dancer and has no companies organized in NevaAdvocates on Health coordiher shoes. Technical footwear is designed to da, according to national dance executive behalf of on nate screenings support the joints and absorb the impact of Nora Heiber. “The showgirl-type dance nonprofit dance in Los Angeles. landing jumps, but even dance shoes, if they scene would be our jurisdiction, but we companies. There is nothing have heels, may increase the risk of injury. haven’t been approached,” she says. Nevada Ballet similar for Las Citing a late-1990s study of Broadway theTheatre and SierVegas. American Guild of Variety Artists, AGVA ra Nevada Ballet ater dancers, who typically wear high-heeled Contracts with organizations like Radio are members. National Dance shoes, Kadel says they can expect four to five City Music Hall and Universal Studios — Council of injuries per 1,000 hours of dance. A showgirl seemingly a fit for Las Vegas-style shows. National America dancing 20 hours a week would hit that num“The last AGVA show in Las Vegas was Association of Based in Provo, the Rockettes at the Flamingo,” West Dance and Utah, focuses ber in less than a year. Coast Representative Steve Rosen says. Affiliated Arts on competitive Le Bourveau remembers having cusHas chapters dance. tom-made heels when she danced in Lido de in Connecticut, Paris. Cobblers would come to Las Vegas from New York and France, she says, and take detailed measureWisconsin; none in the West. ments of her feet. (After retiring from dance, she transitioned to a related field, today working as a costume technician for Cirque.) Still, Le Bourveau has had four knee surgeries since she retired. Shoes today usually aren’t custom-designed and occasionally aren’t even specially made for dancing. Some — like those worn by the X Burlesque dancers — have four-inch or higher heels. The more physically demanding the role, Kadel says, the greater the risk for injury. So, if you add extreme dance moves, such as knee-drops and standing splits, to high heels, the risk is compounded. Moving and sloped stages, along with those made of inflexible material, further aggravate this risk. A controlled trial at Long Island University in 2008 found that professional dancers performing on raked stages (those graded upward away from the audience for better visibility of performers) sustain more injuries than dancers who perform on flat stages. More frequently seen than raking in Las Vegas, sources say, is metal — rather than wood or the heavy vinyl surface referred to as “Marley” — which is necessary to support very heavy props, like those used in magic acts. With a broken ankle, Jacky Pagone finished Angela Albuquerque, who performed with Siegfried & Roy from the Marc Savard Comedy 1999 to 2003, tells how she and her fellow dancers would measure Hypnosis show at Planet Hollywood. themselves at the beginning of the week, after a couple days off, and then again at the end of the week, “after jumping around on

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Arms:

ANATOMY OF A DANCER

One broken (right)

Shoulders: One torn labrum One undiagnosed left injury

Desert Companion interviewed 20 current and former dancers for this story, focusing on the 13 who have spent a significant part of their careers in Las Vegas. Together, they’ve put in 120 years here, mainly working in Strip shows, but also freelancing as bevertainers, go-go dancers, convention spokesmodels and in other gigs. Ranging in age from 30 to 64 today, they’ve performed in everything from Folies Bergère and Siegfried & Roy to Marc Savard Comedy Hypnosis and X Burlesque. This is a composite sketch of the toll it’s taken on their collective body.

Wrists: One jammed (right) One shattered (right) One ganglion cyst (left)

Spine: Arthritis in neck Bulging disc C5-6 Osteoarthritis C5-6 Degenerative discs C5-7 Degenerative arthritis L4-5 Herniated disc L4-5 Bulging disc L5-6 Herniated disc L5-S1 Lower back arthritis Recurring low back pain Three cases of scoliosis Right sciatica

Hips: Two jammed hips (right and left) One bone bruise in hip socket Arthritis (right and left) Chronic pain/ sciatica

Torso: One umbilical hernia Multiple bruised ribs One broken rib Pulled intercostals

Legs: Two torn left hamstrings One pulled right hamstring One contused thigh One strained groin muscle

Knees: One dislocation (left) Torn cartilage (right and left) Two left meniscus surgeries, Undiagnosed injuries (right and left) Chronic pain

Feet

Ankles: One broken ankle Multiple sprained ankles (right and left) Tendinitis (right and left) Torn right Achilles Recurring pain

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Two broken toes Osteoarthritis in toes (right and left) Two bunions (one right, one left) One severe left foot sprain One bone bruise in foot Chronic pain

a steel stage.” They’d be a half-inch shorter at the end of the work rate activities such as riding a stationary bike or taking Pilates week, she says, from repeatedly landing jumps on the unforgiving classes into their workouts to maintain balance and avoid oversurface, compacting their spines. She suspects the excruciating sciuse of certain body parts. Although all producers encourage their atic nerve pain she occasionally feels is due to performing not only dancers to warm up and stretch before and after shows, overall on steel, but also on moving stages for Princess Cruises. fitness is an independent contractor’s own responsibility. The local producers who agreed to talk to Desert Companion beKadel says, generally, the more wellness services are available lieve they do their part to keep their dancers safe. Small to mid-size on site, the more the risk of injury is reduced. In dance, this availcompanies Anita Mann, David Saxe and Stabile Productions stage ability ranges proportionate to the size of the production compatheir shows — Fantasy, Planet Hollywood’s 13 shows, and the four ny — from Cirque’s full staff of physicians, physical therapists and X shows (Burlesque, Country, Men and Rocks), respectively — on personal trainers, to Mann, Saxe and Stabile’s policies of providflat wood or Marley surfaces. Both David Saxe and Anita Mann, ing such services as needed. who together employ more than 50 dancers, say they require techBut in order for dancers to take advantage of these services, nical footwear. Mann, whose mile-long resume includes dancing they have to admit they’re injured, and their failure to do so may with Elvis at the Hilton and choreographing the Solid Gold Dancbe the biggest risk factor of all. ers in L.A., says she’s rejected shoes that her Fantasy dancers have To understand why dancers would keep quiet when they’re hurt, asked for because they were unfit for performing. Angela Stabile, you have to get inside their heads. Those interviewed by Desert Comco-owner of Stabile Productions, says her company doesn’t have repanion say the job defines them: Dancing is in their blood, who they strictions on shoes, such as heel height, but her dancers work only are. Embracing this identity means accepting the risk inherent in the two and a half hours per night on average. job. All our sources had sustained at least one sprained (or “rolled” or “I myself was a dancer, and we had incredibly high heels in “twisted”) ankle — and most had many more — during their careers, Crazy Girls,” Stabile says. “With X Burlesque, it’s all very visual. but only a couple listed them among their injuries when first asked. Some numbers are barefoot, and one’s en pointe. It depends what Only after prodding, and then reluctantly, did they acknowledge the number calls for, but you get used to it.” sprains, even those that required days off work. Cirque du Soleil’s spokesperson, Jenelle Jacks, says Asked to explain this, they give some variation of that its artists’ shoes and stage surfaces vary from the answer: Dancers are taught, either implicitly or show to show, theater to theater, and experts deterexplicitly and often from a young age, to grit their “You learn you mined what is best in each instance. teeth and perform through pain. A good dancer is one better recover very who doesn’t complain. In addition to the broad safety requirements that quickly or your apply to all workplaces, the Occupational Safety & Sometimes, it’s a matter of job security. “You learn spot will be taken, you better recover very quickly or your spot will be Health Administration has some regulations that unfortunately.” address theater particulars, such as mandatory taken, unfortunately,” Albuquerque says. “There are guardrails, safety nets or personal arrest systems for so many of us out there, especially females. The guys walking surfaces six feet or more above a lower levhave it a little easier. The females — there’s somebody el. Nevada OSHA spokeswoman Teri Williams says ready to take your place. And when you’re an indeemployers with 10 or more employees have to establish and impendent contractor, they’ll only wait for you so long.” plement a written safety program. “This safety program should In other cases, there’s something more complicated at play. address the specific hazards related to their particular industry “The die-hard dancer doesn’t want anyone to know they’re inand workplace,” Williams says. jured, and they’re going to go to class and do the show anyway, However, independent contractors aren’t counted as “employees.” because it’s embarrassing to them. It’s a fail,” Pagone says. “EvThe U.S. dance industry doesn’t formally address its endemic eryone works through aches and pains and injuries and breaks. risks, such as shoes. Despite attempts to create standards, none that Everybody does it. Everybody pushes through because you love are universally agreed on exist, according to Amy Fitterer, executive it. When you’re onstage, you kind of forget about it. It’s okay. You director of Dance/USA. go home and you ice. What else are you going to do, you know? “It’s actually a point of contention,” she says. “On one hand, When what’s fulfilling is performing? And everything else goes there would be a desire to see nationally published standards away when you’re doing it?” that could be voluntary but are encouraged. But every time we’ve started to go down that path, ironically, choreographers and small-budget companies get very, very concerned, because they may already be struggling to put together rehearsal times for their dancers to get together.” Mann doesn’t think standards are needed, albeit for a different reason: “I think you have to use your best judgment as a human being. Even if there were standards, as someone who has great reBy the time Rachael Sellars’ stop came up on the New York subspect for dancers, I would go beyond them. As I sit here, looking at way in the spring of 1997, the pain in the back of her left ankle was my knees, after dancing every day for decades, I know how hard so bad she needed help standing up and getting off the train. She dancers work. Your body gets beaten up.” took a seat on the platform and pulled up the leg of her pants to The best way to minimize the risk of repetitive stress injuries, inspect: From her foot to her calf was a dark, swollen mess. She Hightower says, is cross-training. Dancers today often incorpohad told her Rockettes dance captain during lunch break that day

Coming together

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Soleil or Broadway show, if you have no union, you have no real that she thought she’d twisted her ankle, so the captain let her contract,” Tewalt says. “You have no protection at all. … I guess take off her heels for the second half of rehearsal. But that only then it’s down to the benevolence of your employer. Are they gomade matters worse. Flat-footed, Sellars had to jump extra high ing to take care of you? And if you have an injury that’s going to to keep her kicks in line with those of her heeled peers, causing put you out of work for a long time, who pays for that?” added strain on the ankle. By the time she got to the doctor the Contracts for Las Vegas dance work come in all shapes and next day, he told her, the Achilles tendon was nearly severed. Her sizes, due to the range of producers’ budgets, from 150-seat, dream of dancing at Radio City Music Hall ended on her second seven-times-weekly shows like X Burlesque to 1,800-seat, day of rehearsal. After a month of physical therapy in New York, 10-times-weekly productions like O. Dancers may be part- or fullSellars headed to Nevada, where she would eventually land a setime, permanent employees or contractors; they may be tempories of Strip jobs that included Spellbound at Harrah’s, Lasting Imrary or on-call, or work with no formal contract at all. They may pressions at the Luxor, and the Great Radio City Spectacular at the be hired by an agency, talent-broker, producer, hotel or entertainFlamingo. (She also toured with the Rockettes for five seasons.) ment corporation, but in most cases outside the big shows, they’re More than the pain, several other things about Sellars’ injury self-employed, responsible for paying their own taxes. experience stick out in her mind, things other former Rockettes “Like most dancers, I count from five, six, seven, eight, so I give also note. all my numbers to my tax man,” Pagone jokes. “They treated me so well,” she says. “The show was unionized, Contract work is unreliable almost by definition, yet the curso they sent me to the doctor right away. I had full workers comp. rent dancers Desert Companion interviewed report that their Because it happened in New York, I had to do physical therapy employers accommodate interruptions. While Pagone’s broken there, even though I didn’t live there. I was there for a month beankle healed, she says, Marc Savard performed without an assisfore transferring to Reno, where I thought I would audition for a tant and let her do office work until she could return to the stage. show at Lake Tahoe. But I couldn’t even walk. It took six months Smith says that when she took time off from Fantasy after her of physical therapy to heal, and they covered everything.” mother’s death, Mann held her position until she got back. “During Rockettes, you were encouraged, if something hapWork schedules for local dancers are also erratic. Shows may pened, to report it,” says Clare Tewalt, who danced in the Christrun in the afternoon, evening or late night; once or twice a day mas show from 2004 through 2008, in addition to performing (occasionally three, with a matinée); five, six or in Spirit of the Dance at the Golden Nugget, World’s seven nights a week. Call times can be 30 minutes Greatest Magic Show at the Greek Isles and Shag With to an hour and a half before curtain, depending on a Twist at the Plaza. “They’d have someone from the how long it takes to apply makeup and warm up. Reunion watching the clock, and after a certain amount “If you have no hearsals may be before, between or even after perof time in our heels, we took them off and practiced union, you have formances, in the wee hours of the morning; they in flats.” no real contract. may be every week or as-needed, say to integrate a “Rockettes were the most empowered female You have no new cast member or “clean up” a number, in industry dancers that I worked with,” says Sorgato, whose othprotection parlance. er shows included Notre Dame at the Paris and Céline at all.” Albuquerque’s description of her schedule at SiegDion’s A New Day at Caesars Palace. “I remember fried & Roy makes it sound almost like a regular job: 6 thinking, before I started dancing with them, that p.m. to 1 a.m. five nights a week. Contrast that with a they were just up there to look pretty and do a bunch freelancer, who might tend bar 2-7 p.m., perform in a of kicks, but they were very educated and intelligent.” show 8-10, then do a go-go gig 11 p.m.-2 a.m., dancing a half-hour “That was the most money I made,” Smith says of her two on, half-hour off. And if regular physical training isn’t provided Rockettes tours. “It was $1,250 a week, and that was in 2002.” for by her employer — through on-site facilities, lessons and inAttention to safety, comprehensive benefits, good pay, a say — structors, as Sorgato enjoyed during her time with Céline Dion the very reasons members of a profession organize. Radio City — then she has to go to the gym or take dance classes on her own has a contract with the American Guild of Variety Artists, or to stay fit. AGVA, one of the unions that welcome dancers. Others are the “Now most casinos have a multiplex mentality, so instead of Actors’ Equity Association, American Guild of Musical Artists running one big show three times a day, they run three different and SAG-AFTRA. A few shows that have come to Las Vegas from shows,” says Chuck Rounds of Callback News. “So every dancer cities where they have union contracts bring those agreements has at least one other job.” with them. Jersey Boys is a current example; past ones include Because of this, it’s almost impossible to pinpoint dancer pay. Lion King and Mamma Mia! But dancers have never organized Sources report having made as little as $633 a week for 10 shows at in Las Vegas, and efforts to do so are the unicorn of the local inJubilee! and as much as a couple thousand dollars for one freelance dustry: Everyone remembers it happening, but no one can recall performance of a specialty act. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ where or when, exactly. data isn’t necessarily helpful, because it’s employer-reported and Why no dance unions here? Opinions vary, from the prevadoesn’t include independent contractors. According to the bureau’s lence of corporate show ownership to the relatively good pay and May 2014 employment and wage estimates, dancers make an avconditions that dancers enjoyed in the industry’s nascence. But erage of $19 per hour, compared with the national average for all almost every dancer agrees that the profession is ripe for union occupations of $23 per hour. (Remarkably, Nevada, which has 1,030 protections today. dancers per capita, the most after Hawaii, also pays the best, at $32 “When you dance here, unless maybe you’re doing a Cirque du

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WORKING HARD FOR THE MONEY

Dancers as a percent of all working artists: Other entertainers 45,227 2.3%

Like any professional artists, dancers are hard to quantify, says Mina Matlon, director of research and information services for nonprofit industry association Dance/USA. They may work in non-arts jobs between or in addition to dancing; they may be on-call, independent contractors or consultants. Nevertheless, good estimates exist. They indicate that dance, the arts job comprising the highest percentage of minorities, is also among the worst-paying.

Dancers and choreographers 24,713 1.3%

Announcers 55,302 2.6% Actors 46,526 2.7% Producers, directors 145,014 6.4%

racial/ethnic minorities in labor groups:

Photographers 154,914 7.7% Designers 828,747 38.8% Architects 203,272 8.9%

Total U.S. labor force 31.7%

All artists 20.4% Musicians 185,675 9.2% Dancers and choreographers 41.1% Fine artists, art directors, animators 212,236 10.7%

Writers, authors 197,768 9.6%

Median wages and salaries by artist occupation: $63,111

Architect $52,630

Producers, directors $44,792

Writers, authors

$42,074

Designers

$38,559

Announcers

$33,982

Fine artists, art directors, animators Actors Musicians Dancers, choreographers Photographers Other entertainers

$30,254 $27,558 $27,392 $26,875 $25,363

Artists as a whole - $43,230 U.S. labor force as a whole - $39,280

*Source: National Endowment for the Arts, “Artists and Arts Workers in the U.S.” (based on 2005-2009 American Community Survey, U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce)

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per hour.) And dancers make less than all other artists except photographers, according to a 2010 report on arts occupations by the National Endowment for the Arts; coincidentally, dance has the highest percentage of females and minorities. Sources don’t point to discrimination when asked why they’re underpaid, though. They turn, again, to dancer psychology. Sorgato says: “Dancers are used to being vocally quiet, because we express ourselves through our bodies. Look at management meetings. The dancers would be all plopped on the floor in groups, like little kids in kindergarten. You’re just so used to being on the ground stretching. You could speak up for yourself no matter where you’re sitting, I guess, but in the corporate world, in any other job, a 32-year-old woman is not going to be sitting on the floor while a manger stands up and talks down to her, physically.” Even more telling, every dancer interviewed for this story said she would do or have done it for free. “You don’t become a dancer to get rich,” producer Anita Mann says. “You become a dancer because you are a dancer. You have to dance. There is no finer fulfillment for you. Yes, we have to pay our bills and raise our kids. But we’ll do anything to dance.” Low pay is fine if the benefits are great — particularly for a physically risky occupation. But here, too, offerings vary widely. Stabile’s dancers are independent contractors, responsible for their own health insurance (though if they are injured on the job, they qualify for workers comp); Saxe’s company plan covers individuals who work 30 hours a week or more; and Mann gives her dancers medical, dental and vision insurance. Only Mann offers paid leave beyond what’s covered by workers comp. When Ivorie Jenkins herniated a spinal disc, putting her in a back brace for two months and benching her from Viva Elvis for three, she says, Cirque du Soleil paid her 75 percent of her salary, covered all her medical bills and provided for daily physical therapy, as well as acupuncture, chiropractor and other treatments. Large employers often have extra, non-medical perks as well, from yoga and nutrition classes to career and psychological counseling. “The level of care depends on (the company’s) resources,” Jenkins says. “I think they all want to give the best they can. … When you join a company, you know how prestigious it is.” Smaller producers agree that taking care of an employee’s onthe-job injury is in everyone’s best interest. But the contractor paradigm can pose problems for those who do offer benefits. “In the old days, a dancer danced in a show and that was it,” Saxe says. “But now, they’re working so many different types of gigs and running around like crazy. So, sometimes, we’ve had someone with a hurt knee who didn’t hurt it at our show, but then they didn’t have insurance on the other gig, so they’ll put in a workers comp claim with us, and it’s a little frustrating.” For the contractors, it’s not ideal either. Besides the financial burden, they say, supplying their own care means the providers they have access to may not understand their needs. “If you do some average physical therapy, it’s not getting you ready to go back and do what we do,” Blake Carter says. “You can lift your leg 90 degrees? They’re like, ‘Oh, you’re doing great!’ So — I won’t name names — but I had (a physical therapist) from another show come help me on their own time outside the show, which they’re technically not allowed to do. But I had to take care of it on my own.”

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Perhaps due to the lack of formal support systems outside large companies, Las Vegas dancers have forged their own network of self-care, sharing contacts, knowledge and skills. Outsiders see the city as having a remarkably cohesive dance community, and many of those within it agree. “It’s not about what’s going on onstage,” Franken says. “Backstage you bond so much. You’re naked in front of your friends. And we joke about what just happened. ‘I couldn’t find my glove, but the audience will never know I had a black sock on my hand!’” “I get very nostalgic now when I watch behind-the-scenes shows about auditions,” Sellars adds. “It’s the best thing ever. It’s a family vibe. You’re going through something together, and you have each other’s back. My experience was camaraderie of dancers — women — working together and being creative. … The injuries didn’t matter. I never got sick of going to work. I loved it. And I miss it.”

Moving on Anaïsa Bates, who goes by Nessa, pops a potato chip into her mouth at the picnic table outside The Beat Coffeehouse. “Well, I mean,” she draws out the “ea” and raises her eyebrows, making her huge brown eyes look even huger, “it’s funny. I am considering going back to school now, but it would be for makeup, cosmetology. My mom always did it, and it was something I thought I’d do if I ever stopped

it,” Bates says. “You love it? You work hard. You’ll want to fight dancing. … Now, I’m really through all the times when you’re down on yourself because you getting into it. It just organdidn’t get the job. You eat, sleep and breathe it, and it will happen. ically happened. But if anyMaybe not the way you want it to, but it will.” thing, I’m still trying to get The irony is that this career, which elicits such complete dedicainto another show again.” tion, is short-lived. Vegas dancers do seem to keep working longer In 2001 Bates graduatthan their ballet, film and TV counterparts, where, experts say, their ed from Las Vegas Acadeshelf life ends in the late 20s, early 30s. “A lot of Cirque du Soleil permy, where she majored in formers are married with kids and in their 30s and 40s,” says Krisdance, and went straight to tina Blunt, who once danced with Alvin Ailey and on Broadway in work, first, briefly, as a goNew York, and now runs the Vegas Gone Yoga! Festival. go dancer, and then in Show Still, 40 is a long way from retirement age. And most of those in the Sky at the Rio and Juinterviewed for this story say they didn’t go into dance with bilee! at Bally’s. After three a backup plan for life after dance. Recognizing this, Edward years as a blue bell (the covWeston created the nonprofit Career Transition for Dancers in ered dancers) in the tradi1985. The Actors Fund in New York administered it originally tional showgirl production, with the support of the unions that include dancers, and it was Bates decided she wanted later spun off as a separate nonprofit. Essentially a grant-giving to go back out on her own. operation, Career Transition for Dancers funds education and In 2008, she returned to training and provides counseling to help dancers prepare for go-go dancing, combining their second life. Cirque offers similar programs for retraining it with convention work and in-house advancement. and bartending, which proAt 33, former Jubilee! blue bell Anaïsa Bates From 1997 until the end of last year, Joanne Divito was the vided her with corporate is starting to feel the West Coast coordinator of Career Transition for Dancers. In employee benefits. While impact of dance on 2004, Divito brought a national outreach project to Las Vegas. she was with Jubilee!, she her body. But she’s not ready to quit yet. “We decided we wanted everybody in Vegas to know about us, so began dancing with Lost we went from show to show to tell Vegas dancers about what we Vegas, a crew made up of were doing,” she says. other show performers “It’s an incredible organization,” Blunt says. “They’ve helped who wanted to create their so many people.” She and other sources have used Career Transiown art on the side. They’d get paid to perform occasionally, and tion grants for training and certification in all sorts of fields, from Bates would practice with them in the early-morning hours after massage to real estate. work. She has also danced in the nonprofit group Culture Shock At the beginning of this year, Career Transition for Dancers, as a since 2008. In other words, Bates is one of those who’s been jugseparate entity, ended. Divito’s position was eliminatgling multiple gigs for more than a decade now. ed, and the grant program was absorbed by the Actors But at 33, the nonstop activity is catching up to Fund. It has a new West Coast program career counher. Her knees, hips and lower back hurt off and on, selπor, Sophia Kozak, who stresses that scholarships undoubtedly due in part to her innately uneven pel“I wish I had a and advice are still available to Las Vegas dancers. vis and related scoliosis. (Running up and down a higher-paying “I’ve been speaking with a lot of dancers from couple flights of stairs in heels several times a night job. I feel like I’m there,” says Kozak, who’s based in L.A. “It’s imfor three years to change costumes between Jubistill living the portant for them to know that there’s support lee! numbers probably didn’t help either, she guessstruggling artist available. Injured dancers can get services for what es.) She’s on the fence about what to do next. reality.” they’re going through.” And she’s not alone. About half of those who But Divito is concerned about the lack of direct shared their stories with Desert Companion had an outreach. She worries that dancers, who are already associate’s or bachelor’s degree — mostly in dance, overworked and reluctant to speak up for themselves, but also in business, communications and public rewill be less likely to get help if it means traveling to L.A. for a manlations. One had an MBA. Those who’ve moved on most frequentdatory orientation. Still, she sees an opportunity for the dance comly went into the fitness business, teaching Pilates, yoga, Zumba or munity to leverage its cooperative spirit, band together and create dance. One became a real-estate agent; another is a medical lansomething helpful for future generations. guage specialist. According to federal labor data, full-time fitness “When I heard about my office closing,” Divito says, “I said, trainers and aerobic instructors make $39,410 per year on average. ‘Yet again, it’s the dancer who gets screwed.’ … I encourage them “Now that I’m older, I wish I’d gotten a degree,” Sellars says. to start another real organization for dancers. It’s important that “I wish I had a higher-paying job. I feel like I’m still living the these kids have a place to go.” struggling artist reality.” Yet neither she nor any other source regrets her first career Editor’s note: The author taught at Yoga Sanctuary from 2006 to choice. 2013, and knows Angela Albuquerque, Kristina Blunt and Rachael “If I had a 15-year-old girl in front of me right now, and she was Sellars from her time there. considering going into dance like I did, I would tell her to go for

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this

Whether you’re a weekend warrior, seasoned camper, wildlifewatcher or doglover, we’ve got the perfect hike just for you

THIS HIKE, IT’S PERSONAL

BY ALAN GEGAX

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HISTORY BUFFS THIS HIKE, IT’S PERSONAL

LONE MOUNTAIN

Clark County 215 at the Lone Mountain exit 36°14’21.08”N, 115°18’37.82”W

FITNESS FANS THIS HIKE, IT’S PERSONAL

WHITE ROCK LOOP Red Rock National Conservation Area

Short but steep, the run to the top of Lone Mountain is only 2/3 mile, but it gains over 700 feet of elevation. Run up the trail to build your lungs. Run down the trail to build your strength. For a full-body workout, scramble straight to the top up the east face.

36° 9’37.31”N, 115°29’53.38”W

White Rock is the most popular trail at Red Rock for runners, and the shaded northern half of the loop has cool mornings well into summer. A treadmill? Pshaw. The street? For suckers. Thanks to gorgeous places on the edge of town like Red Rock, the place to run is on the trail. White Rock Loop will push you harder than any elliptical, but the six-mile path will also reward you with a wooded green canyon, a stark red desert, and wildlife ranging from mountain bluebirds to bighorn sheep. If you gas out, there’s no shortage of beautiful places to stop along the way to refill your lungs with clean, fresh air. PRO TIP: Run the trail clockwise from Willow Springs. Go-

ing that direction, the uphill portion of the trail comes first, is shorter, and is more scenic, while the downhill finish provides a long cruise home. GETTING THERE: Take the Red Rock Scenic Loop for about seven miles, then take the Willow Springs turnoff and park in the lot on the right side of the road. THIS HIKE, IT’S PERSONAL

TRAIL CANYON

Mt. Charleston 36°15’59.03”N, 115°39’30.77”W Get your summertime trail running fix by heading up to Mt. Charleston. The surface on Trail Canyon is forgiving, but the terrain is not. The trail starts at nearly 8,000 feet, and climbs another 1,500 feet in two miles, where the truly ambitious can continue up the North Loop Trail.

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SLOAN CANYON PETROGLYPHS Sloan Canyon NCA 35°54’59.37”N, 115°7’25.56”W

One of the richest petroglyph sites in the state is right in our backyard. The Native Americans who called Sloan Canyon home kept themselves pretty busy, leaving their mark on the dark rocks that line the walls of the canyon. In a section of trail just a tenth of a mile long, researchers have counted more than 1,000 petroglyphs, consisting of a fascinating variety of symbols, drawings, and works of art. Though the petroglyphs have lasted for hundreds of years, they are still fragile, and should not be touched. Even the oils on our fingers can slowly remove this irreplaceable piece of history. TREASURE HUNT: This drawing room

had an adjoining kitchen. Be on the lookout for rocks with a smooth, concave top. These were formed by years of grinding as the natives prepared their meals. GETTING THERE: The closest trailhead requires a long drive down a bumpy power line road. An alternate trailhead can be found on the southern edge of Anthem.

THE CABINS

Valley of Fire 36°25’50.33”N, 114°28’53.50”W Even before air conditioning, the allure of Valley of Fire was too great to resist. In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps used local sandstone to build three small cabins for early visitors to the park. The accommodations were Spartan, but windows had a five-star view.

FOURLEGGED FRIENDS

ANTHEM PARK PEAK

Black Mountain 35°56’42.68”N, 115°4’53.29”W

THIS HIKE, IT’S PERSONAL

What starts as a paved, neighborhood trail climbs south into the largely untouched foothills of Black Mountain. The 402 Trail to Anthem Park Peak has nearly continuous views of the city, and the trail surface is pretty easy on a dog’s feet. From the peak, continue clockwise to make a big, scenic loop.

MCCULLOUGH HILLS TRAILS Henderson

35°59’52.81”N, 114°59’53.86”W On the edges of Henderson, where the hills had been torn apart by fattired trucks and ATVs, there is now a complex of gorgeously built multi-use trails. Bring your dog along for a jog, a bike ride, or a casual hike on some of the nicest paths Clark County has to offer.

THE R AINTRE E Mt. Charleston 36°18’31.97”N, 115°36’42.67”W

Put that doggy backpack to good use with this long climb to a 3,000-year-old bristlecone pine.

It’s pretty amazing to stand next to something that was alive before the founding of Rome. It’s a fact that will probably be lost on your dog, but Fido will enjoy the six-mile journey all the same. Mt. Charleston’s North Loop Trail is wide and well-maintained, making it easy to keep your dog on the leash without having him underfoot. Along the way, there are sweeping vistas of the open deserts north of Vegas, including the Nevada National Security Site. A short detour beyond the Raintree can put you and your dog atop Fletcher Peak. Be warned, Mt. Charleston is mainly limestone, which can be hard on a dog’s pads. Check them regularly during the hike, and bring those goofy dog shoes just in case. ADDED BONUS: An easy 0.3 miles beyond the Raintree is Mummy Spring, a reliable source of fresh water for you and your dog. Refill here for your hike back down the hill. GETTING THERE: From Las Vegas, head north on US 95, then left onto Kyle Canyon Road

(Highway 157). Turn right onto Deer Creek Road (Highway 158), and park at the trailhead just past Hilltop Campground. THIS HIKE, IT’S PERSONAL

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HARDCORE HIKERS THIS HIKE, IT’S PERSONAL

MT. WIL SON Red Rock NCA 36°4’52.55”N, 115°26’53.51”W

Wilson is the big daddy out at Red Rock, and is a must-climb for any seasoned hiker. From the Vegas Valley, Mt. Wilson’s profile stands like a fortress against the setting sun. It calls to the intrepid, to those who point and exclaim, “There! I want to stand up there!” The journey to Mt. Wilson starts at family-friendly First Creek, but this 11-mile romp leaves kids and picnic baskets far behind, and 3,500 feet below. Bring plenty of high-energy food, more water than you need, and start early. Beware, even the “standard route” forces hikers through dense brush and over craggy rocks. On alternate routes, the difficulty soars. But the payoff, looking back over the precipitous drop to Red Rock below and Las Vegas beyond, makes the long day worth it.

ADAPTIVE HIKERS

R AILROAD TUNNE L S Lake Mead NRA 36°0’42.32”N, 114°47’37.87”W

THIS HIKE, IT’S PERSONAL

Probably the longest unpaved accessible trail in Clark County, Railroad Tunnels makes a rewarding day for hikers of any ability. Eighty-five years ago, in an effort get supplies from Boulder City to the Hoover Dam construction project, grizzled men with jackhammers and dynamite leveled the hillsides and laid down train tracks, creating five tunnels along the way. The trains no longer run and the tracks have long been removed, but thanks to the efforts of the Rails-to-Trails initiative, what

remains is three-plus miles of beautifully graded trail suitable for bikes, strollers and wheelchairs. The whole trail provides beautiful vistas of Lake Mead, and the tunnels are downright fun. Broad and flat, the trail is as obvious as a freeway, making it virtually impossible to get lost. TREASURE HUNT: Visit the trail in the early morning or evening for a chance to see bighorn sheep. Later in the evening, bats come and go from the tunnels in search of their nightly meal. GETTING THERE: Take US-93 through Boulder City toward Hoover Dam, and turn left onto Lakeshore Road. Just past the Alan Bible Visitor Center is the small parking lot and trailhead.

CLARK COUNTY WETLANDS PARK

East Las Vegas 36° 6’2.99”N, 115° 1’21.36”W For an accessible adventure that’s really different, check out the Wetlands Park. Miles of trail, paved and unpaved, wind through tall reeds, skirting past a dozen ponds and a flowing wash. For migrating birds, this oasis is a muststop. Bring your binoculars.

RED SPRINGS

Calico Basin 36° 8’46.61”N, 115°25’9.77”W

PRO TIP: Don’t tell anyone, but there is a much easier path from the west that starts at the end of Saltgrass Road in Lovell Canyon. It’s not as fun, though. GETTING THERE: From either Blue

Diamond Rd. or Charleston Blvd., take Highway 159 to the First Creek trailhead.

MT. POTOSI

Goodsprings 35°55’3.55”N, 115°29’20.47”W Potosi is Mt. Charleston’s overlooked and seldom-hiked little brother. If you want 360-degree views that extend from Lake Mead to Death Valley, and you don’t want to share the summit with, well, anyone, then Potosi is for you.

THIS HIKE, IT’S PERSONAL

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Granting visitors access to a fragile meadow and a natural spring, the boardwalk at Red Springs is a great example of the BLM’s mission to allow access to areas while simultaneously protecting them. The fully accessible path brings visitors right to the base of the red rocks that give the area its name.

BACKPACKERS AND PEAKBAGGERS THIS HIKE, IT’S PERSONAL

HAYFORD PEAK Desert National Wildlife Refuge 36°37’43.99”N, 115°17’15.44”W

Camp in the lap of luxury in an old moonshiner’s cabin that has been lovingly restored by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The Desert National Wildlife Refuge contains more than 2,000 square miles of protected land. From Hayford Peak, backpackers enjoy unspoiled views of what the West looked like before civilization left its mark. To break up the ascent to the peak, travel to Hidden Forest, which is about six miles of steady climbing from the trailhead, and bed down in the restored cabin for the night. In the morning, fill your Camelbak with spring water (piped right to the cabin) and head uphill to Hayford Peak. For seasoned backpackers, the hike from Hidden Forest to Hayford isn’t too difficult, but going from there all the way back to the trailhead can seem interminable. Why not camp a second night?

ACTIVE FAMILIES THIS HIKE, IT’S PERSONAL

WHITE OWL CANYON Lake Mead National Recreation Area 36°6’42.19”N, 114°50’39.24”W

A great adventure for the budding naturalists in your family. Starting at Lake Mead’s 33 Hole overlook, head down a steep hill and follow a trail across a small bay that, in the lake’s halcyon days, was underwater. At about 1/10 mile, the trail bends left and heads up a broad wash. Slowly and steadily, the wash’s walls come together, squeezing down to a narrow slot that is White Owl Canyon. When you come to the fork (about ½ mile from the trailhead), bear left. Hike quietly and keep your eyes up for the eponymous owls. Eventually, the canyon crosses under Lakeshore Drive via two large pipes. Venture through as far as you like, then turn around and enjoy the canyon again. TREASURE HUNT: Throughout White Owl Canyon, the nooks and crannies are filled with owl pellets and pack rat middens. Bring some gloves, and let your kids pick through the debris for bones! GETTING THERE: Take Lakeshore Road from Henderson to the 33 Hole Scenic Overlook. Park in the first lot on your left. At the far end of the lot is the trailhead.

THIS HIKE, IT’S PERSONAL

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WILDLIFEWATCHERS

BOULDER WASH Lake Mead 36°14’33.72”N, 114°32’23.64”W Boulder Wash is an excellent adventure for beginning backpackers. The hike follows an enormous wash down a gentle descent for nearly seven miles, concluding at a secluded cove on the shore of Lake Mead’s upper basin. Navigation is easy, and the hike is long enough to really prepare you for harder journeys.

THIS HIKE, IT’S PERSONAL

MUMMY MOUNTAIN Mt. Charleston 36°18’31.97”N, 115°36’42.67”W Camping by a natural spring is a rare pleasure in Southern Nevada. Enjoy the cool quiet of a mountain evening by Mummy Spring, and get your rest. The next morning, grab your day pack and make the demanding slog up infamous scree slopes to the top of Mummy Mountain.

PRO TIP: Hidden Forest’s reliable water draws crowds of winged creatures great and small. Late afternoon hummingbirds are wonderful. Daytime flies and nighttime moths, not so much. If you’re going to sleep out, be sure to bring at least a bivy.

BONANZA PEAK Cold Creek 36°22’56.70”N, 115°44’27.57”W

Just an hour north of Vegas, Cold Creek is home to a large herd of America’s favorite invasive species: wild horses.

GETTING THERE: Take US-95 north to Corn Creek Road.

At the end of the road, turn left onto Alamo Road, then right onto Hidden Forest Road to its end. High-clearance vehicles recommended.

WHITE DOME LOOP Valley of Fire

36°29’8.48”N, 114°31’58.59”W White Dome kicks off with a gorgeous descent through a rainbow of rocks. At hill’s bottom, the remains of an old movie set bring Hollywood history to life. Around the corner is a fun slot canyon, followed by impressive views with arches and windows galore as the trail loops its way home.

Make no mistake, Bonanza Peak is a worthwhile destination all its own. It’s over 10,000 feet, it has unobstructed views to the north, and if you love switchbacks, boy does it have those. But the real reason people take the drive to Cold Creek is for the horses. The bajada north of Mt. Charleston plays host to literally hundreds of wild horses, and they can be see ambling about in family groups right along the road. Extinct in the Americas since the Pleistocene, horses have flourished since being reintroduced by Spanish conquistadors dating to Columbus. As an added treat, the ponds around Cold Creek are an excellent place to go bird-watching.

CALICO TANK Red Rock Canyon NCA 36°9’45.24”N, 115°27’1.25”W

BONUS: There is not enough forage in these deserts to sup-

There’s a reason this is the most popular hike in Red Rock. Calico Tank is a great place to introduce children to scrambling, challenging but not dangerous. The changing scenery ensures kids don’t get bored, and the ephemeral tank at the end of the trail is a surprisingly satisfying payoff.

port the population of horses, so the BLM occasionally rounds them up, nurses them back to health, trains them, and makes them available for adoption. GETTING THERE: Take US 95 north out of town and turn left at the Southern Desert Correction Center onto Cold Creek Road. Take Cold Creek Road all the way to the end.

LA MADRE SPRING Red Rock Canyon NCA

36°9’40.57”N, 115°29’56.03”W Starting from the trailhead, this hike passes through gravelly desert dominated by manzanita and yerba santa. As the trail climbs, it becomes lined with single-leaf pinyon, Nevada’s state tree. At the spring, everything changes as riparian flora and fauna, including tree frogs, take the stage.

THIS HIKE, IT’S PERSONAL

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IT’S A BLAST!

Experience Science and History by the Megaton

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Learn how America’s Cold War warriors unlocked the secrets of the atom in the Las Vegas desert.

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your Arts+Entertainment calendar for march

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neon reverb various locations downtown It’s baaaack! The beloved Downtown indie music festival — hiatused for a few years — roars back with a lineup that organizers call its best ever. Headliners include L.A. garage-rock darling Ty Segall (above), the Melvins, Sage Francis, and Leopold and His Fiction — plus a hot blast of local music from such stalwarts at Rusty Maples, Same Sex Mary, Black Camaro, Mercy Music and more. Welcome home! $15/show, $50 for three-day pass, neonreverb.com

25 Kristin Chenoweth The Smith Center The actress and singer brings the pipes with a show of Broadway and Hollywood faves. 7:30p, $29-$115, thesmithcenter. com

Alta Ham Theatre, UNLV “A slacker version of Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh” — so say the drama critics at Wikipedia of Eric Bogosian’s 1994 drama about angsty twentysomethings in New Jersey. Sounds disturberrific! Through March 12. 8p, $16.50, unlv.edu

5 Dave Hickey Contemporary Arts Center He’s baaaack! The freewheeling art critic and erstwhile Las Vegan returns to his old stomping grounds to discuss and sign three new books of his work, one about women artists and two collections of his social-media apercus. 5p, free, 900

Breaking Silence: Women Writing on Crime, Conspiracy and Cruelty Tam Alumni Center, UNLV Three powerhouse writers — journalist and historian Sally Denton, poet and journalist Eliza Griswold, and acclaimed memoirist and critic Maggie Nelson — “explore the myths and untruths of society and culture through the stories of silenced women.” Presented by Black Mountain Institute, whose former director, Carol C. Harter, moderates. 7p, free, blackmountaininstitute.org

Las Vegas Blvd. S., #150, Facebook.com/LasVegasCAC

March 2016

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THE GUIDE

Channel 10

ART

IGNOMINIOUS REFUSE THROUGH MARCH 11

Brent Holmes’ collection focuses on the Latin ideologies of epicurean ideals through the philosophical views of Lucretius. Holmes will present Polaroid photographs and digital images and an installation of Doric columns. Free. Winchester Gallery, 703-455-7340

THE HUES OF SOULS THROUGH MARCH 19

Doc Martin Saturday, March 5 from 7-9 p.m.

Artist John Trimble’s collection of acrylic paintings illustrate the various moods and emotions one might experience in daily life, through the amplified use of color. This exhibition will encourage viewers to look at color in a non-traditional way. Free. West Las Vegas Arts Center, 947 W. Lake Mead Blvd., artslasvegas.org

2016 STUDENT ART EXHIBIT THROUGH MARCH 29

Clark County students from kindergarten to fifth grade were invited to submit drawings based on the theme, “Where I Live.” More than 1,600 entries from schools around the county were submitted. Free. Spring Valley Library, lvccld.org

THE PHILOSOPHY OF FORM AND COLOR THROUGH APRIL 2

A Year in Space Wednesday, March 2 at 8 p.m.

Great Performances: Andrea Bocelli: Cinema Monday, March 7 at 8 p.m.

Originally from Ethiopia, Eyob Mergia is a painter, filmmaker and photographer. His large drawings; colorful, multi-panel paintings and murals borrow from many different artistic styles — from the emotional realism of the Baroque period to cubism and expressionistic abstraction of the early 20th century. Free. Sahara West Library, lvccld.org

SCHOLASTIC ART & WRITING AWARDS THROUGH APRIL 3

Wings Over Grand Canyon

Downton Abbey:

Season 6 on Masterpiece

This exhibition features art and literary works from local students (grades 7–12) in a variety of media and categories that will be entered in national competition. The national awards are part of the longest-running and most prestigious recognition program for student achievement in the visual arts and creative writing in the United States. Free with paid general admission. Springs Preserve, artandwriting.org

WEST FROM HOME THROUGH APRIL 19

Wednesday, March 9 at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, March 13 at 7 p.m. VegasPBS.org | 3050 E. Flamingo Road, Las Vegas, NV 89121 • 702.799.1010

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Artist Valentin Yordanov’s mixed-media paintings depict non-spaces. His dynamic landscapes layer twisting graphic lines with boldly colored shapes to create a fa-

THE GUIDE miliar, yet abstract world. Free. Summerlin Library, lvccld.org

MUSIC

CABRERA CONDUCTS MOZART MARCH 5, 7:30P

Concertmaster De Ann Letourneau takes center stage for Brahms’ violin concerto, marking her solo debut with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, under the baton of music director Donato Cabrera. $26–$96. Reynolds Hall at The Smith Center, the-

smithcenter.com

CRAIG MORGAN MARCH 5, 9–10P

Morgan will rev up crowds for NASCAR Weekend with crowd-pleasing songs including, “That’s What I Love About Sunday,” “Almost Home,” “Bonfire” and other hits from his expansive song catalog. Free. Third Street Stage, Fremont Street Experience, vegasexperience.com

program. Free. Main Theater at Clark County Library, lvccld.org

GARY CLARK JR. MARCH 12, 8P

Austin-born virtuoso guitarist, vocalist and songwriter, Clark is an amalgamation of his myriad influences and inspirations. $30. Brooklyn Bowl at The LINQ, brook-

lynbowl.com

SPRING FORWARD — SINGING STRINGS MARCH 13, 3P

The Nevada Chamber Symphony celebrates spring with a selection of favorite songs and melodies from stage, screen and radio. A highlight of the program is the presentation of “Orquesta Futura,” featuring outstanding young musicians from across the valley. Free. Main Theater at Clark County Library, lvccld.org

WHITNEY PHOENIX’S “I LOVE A PIANO” MARCH 13, 3P

LAS VEGAS BRASS BAND IN CONCERT: SOUNDS OF SPRING MARCH 6, 2P

With a repertoire as wide and as varied as one’s imagination, don’t be surprised if their concert features music from The Beatles to a traditional Sousa march or even a jazz standard like “Satin Doll.” Free. Main Theater at Clark County Library, lvccld.org

THE RONNIE FOSTER ORGAN TRIO MARCH 6, 2P

The trio includes Jake Langley, guitar; Jess Gopen, drums; and Ronnie Foster, jazz organist. $19–$35. Cabaret Jazz in The Smith Center, thesmithcenter.com

REMINGTON RYDE AND FRIENDS

What sets Phoenix apart from so many other pianists is his depth of expression and his ability to touch hearts. During this performance, he will highlight the talent of one of the young Gateway Arts scholarship recipients. $20. Starbright Theatre at Sun City Summerlin, scscai.com

BEST OF KANDER & EBB MARCH 19, 7P

Composer John Kander teamed with lyricist Fred Ebb to forge one of the longest-running and most successful creative partnerships in Broadway history; their bold, brassy style giving rise to a series of enormously popular and provocative musicals including Cabaret, Chicago and Kiss of the Spider Woman. In this show, they are joined by some of Vegas’ finest dancers and singers. $20. Starbright Theatre at Sun City Summerlin, scscai.com

MARCH 7, 6P

Down-home bluegrass led by Ryan Frankhouser on guitar and lead vocals, Billy Lee Cox on banjo and bass vocals, Richard Egolf on bass and tenor vocals, and Greg Moore on fiddle and baritone vocals. $15. Starbright Theatre at Sun City Summerlin, scscai.com

JAZZ ENSEMBLE II AND THE CONTEMPORARY JAZZ ENSEMBLE

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YANNI

MARCH 21, 7:30P As a true global ambassador for peace, compassion and understanding, Yanni is one of the most recognizable composers and performers of our time. $29–$99. Reynolds Hall at The Smith Center, yanni.com

CRYSTAL TRIO: HARMONIC GLASS ENSEMBLE IN CONCERT MARCH 24, 7P

Igor Sklyarov, Vladimir Popras and Vladimir Perminov, master musicians from Siberia, are members of one of the first professional ensembles to resuscitate the lost art of making music from glass harp, verrophone, and glass pan flute. They have astounded audiences worldwide with their virtuosic renditions of wellknown classical and popular modern works, as well as tunes specifically written for glass instruments. Free. Main Theater at Clark County Library, crystaltrio.com

TONY DESARE: FROM SINATRA TO PRINCE MARCH 25–26, 7P

This jazzy singer-songwriter-pianist has a postmodern style that’s all his own, and his enthusiasm for music is infectious. From Sinatra to Prince, from Mercer to McCartney, DeSare mixes it up, handling every genre with a jaunty grace, unleashing just enough surprises to keep his audience on its toes. $39–$49. Cabaret Jazz in The Smith Center, thesmithcenter.com

UNDEROATH

MARCH 26, 6:30P

ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK MARCH 19, 7:30P

A legend in the international music industry for more than 40 years, this charismatic and consummate entertainer will please audiences with music from his vast catalogue, including hits such as “Quando, Quando, Quando,” “Release Me,” “The Last Waltz,” “Spanish Eyes” and many more tender ballads. $29–$85. Reynolds Hall at The Smith Center, thesmithcenter.com

MARCH 9, 7P

This concert is part of the UNLV Jazz Concert Series, which highlights the best students of the Jazz Studies

fused, 14-piece all-star band, you are in for an evening of rock, funk, original compositions and surprise guest stars. $15–$30. Cabaret Jazz in The Smith Center, thesmithcenter.com

LON BRONSON BAND MARCH 19, 8P

Featuring Bronson’s iconic, horn-in-

This Tampa-based sextet announced their reunion for the 2016 Self Help Festival in California, as well as a subsequent tour. Dubbed the Rebirth Tour, the band will play their albums “They’re Only Chasing Safety” and “Define The Great Line” in their entirety. $25. Brooklyn Bowl at The LINQ, brooklynbowl.com

FOUR BY FOUR MARCH 26, 7P

This concert is a one-of-a-kind tribute to the music of The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Bees Gees, and Motown by a stellar cast of four incredible performers

Entourage.

AT V Riding Trails, Pa

Alamo Amargosa Valley Ash Meadows Ash Springs Beatty Caliente Carver / Hadley Death Valley Delamar Gabbs / Berlin Gold Point Goldfield Hawthorne Luning / Mina Manhattan / Belmont Pahrump

hrump, NV

You wont see any high profile celebrities trailed by an entourage of limo’s out here, but that’s exactly the point. This is a whole other side of Nevada that’s rich in history, breathtaking scenery, wildlife, Sand Dunes, Off-road trails, Ghost towns and Hiking trails just to name a few. Best of all, you don’t have to break the bank, so drive out, explore and support travel within your state. You’ll find there’s a story in every small town,and an adventure around every bend.

SCENIC HIKING TRAILS

WILD FLOWERS (Beavertail Cactus)

Want to learn more about what’s in your back yard?

NevadaSilverTrails.com

Panaca Pioche Rachel Rhyolite Round Mountain Scotty’s Castle Shoshone Silver Peak Tecopa Tonopah Yerington

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TravelNevada.com

THE GUIDE celebrating the legendary artists and styles. $20. Starbright Theatre at Sun City Summerlin, scscai.com

ALAN PARSONS LIVE PROJECT MARCH 26, 8P

NEVADA PUBLIC RADIO

RECYCLING DAY April 23, 8 a.m. to noon.

• Shred old paperwork • Recycle glass, aluminum, plastic, cardboard • Bring your old computers, cell phones, appliances and more • Donate clothes, jewelry, housewares, home decor, etc. PILL TAKE BACK. Turn in your unused or expired medications for safe confidential disposal and destruction. We will even take the prescription bottle.

ALL FOR FREE! More information at knpr.org

From his beginnings with The Beatles and other megastars to his groundbreaking recording techniques on “Dark Side of the Moon,” Parsons is a true Renaissance man with his multi-platinum albums. Audiences can expect to hear the Project’s greatest hits. $35–$75. Reynolds Hall at The Smith Center,

alanparsonsmusic.com

GOLDEN ERA BANDSTAND MARCH 31, 6:30P

Las Vegas entertainers Art Vargas and Laura Shaffer, backed by a live swing band, take you down memory lane to the music and style of the great dance band days of yesteryear. $18. Desert Vista Ballroom in the Starbright Theatre at Sun City Summerlin, scscai.com

SERPENTINE FIRE: EARTH, WIND & FIRE TRIBUTE March 31, 8P

A full-bodied tribute that will bring you classic hits like “September,” “After The Love Is Gone,” “Let’s Groove,” “Reasons” and many more. $20-$35. Cabaret Jazz in The Smith Center,

thesmithcenter.com THEATER

THE NETHER

MARCH 3 & 5, 8P The Nether is a virtual wonderland that provides total sensory immersion. Just log in, choose an identity and indulge your every desire. But when a young detective uncovers a disturbing brand of entertainment, she triggers an interrogation into the darkest corners of the imagination. $16–$20. Cockroach Theatre, 1025 S. First St. #110,

cockroachtheatre.com

BAD JEWS

MARCH 3–5, 8P; MARCH 6, 2P PRESENTING SPONSOR:

A comedy about faith, family and legacy, it asks questions about how what you choose to believe makes one person better than another. $35–$45. Troesh Studio Theater at The Smith Center, thesmithcenter.com

RECYCLE SPONSOR:

PARTICIPATING SPONSORS:

ca e

PIAF: LOVE CONQUERS ALL

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sharing a cocktail with the icon as she shares anecdotes of her passion for men, music and morphine. Starring Naomi Emmerson as Piaf, this one-woman musical drama presents the life, loves and music of the legendary French singer. $15. Winchester Cultural Center, 3130 McLeod Drive,

piafloveconquersall.com

IN THE NEXT ROOM

MARCH 4–20, THU-SAT 8P; SUN 2P In a well-to-do Victorian home, proper gentleman and scientist Dr. Givings has innocently invented an extraordinary new device for treating “hysteria” in women (and occasionally men): the vibrator. Adjacent to the doctor’s laboratory, his young and energetic wife tries to tend to their newborn daughter while wondering exactly what is going on in the next room. $21–$24. Las Vegas Little Theatre, lvlt.org

A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE & MURDER MARCH 8–13, 7:30P; MARCH 12–13, 2P

A knock-’em-dead hit show that tells the uproarious story of Monty Navarro, a distant heir to a family fortune who sets out to jump the line of succession by any means necessary. $29–$139 Reynolds Hall at The Smith Center,

thesmithcenter.com

CHEYENNE JACKSON: MUSIC OF THE MAD MEN ERA MARCH 11, 7P; MARCH 12, 6P & 9P

Multi-talented actor, singer and songwriter Jackson will wow you with his concert that will include original songs from his new album and his one-man show. $39–$65. Cabaret Jazz in The Smith Center, thesmithcenter.com

THE SPEED OF DARKNESS

MARCH 11–27, THU–SAT 8P; SUN 2P Twenty years after they came back from Vietnam to less than a hero’s welcome, Joe and Lou are still struggling to come to terms with the trauma of their tour of duty. While Joe lives the American Dream, Lou lives a homeless nightmare. Their poignant reunion is haunted by the ghosts of the boys they were 20 years ago. $10–$15. Fischer Black Box at Las Vegas Little Theatre, lvlt.org

SPRING LOVE WITH ZIBA SHIRAZI

Village. Free. Ethel M Chocolate Factory and Cactus Garden, ethelm.com

This presentation celebrates the dynamic tradition of Nowruz through the story of three generations of Iranian immigrants experiencing love at first sight. While the story is fiction, many of the details are based on Shirazi’s own childhood memories or those of his immigrant friends. Free. Main Theater at Clark County Library, lvccld.org

EASTER FESTIVAL

MARCH 20, 3P

LECTURES, SPEAKERS & PANELS

LAS VEGAS STORIES: CHANGING THE GAME — WOMEN AT WORK IN LAS VEGAS MARCH 3, 7P

The growth of Las Vegas that began in the 1940s brought an influx of both women and men looking to work in the expanding hotel and casino industries. Joanne L. Goodwin discusses the stories of women who lived and worked in Las Vegas in the last half of the 20th century. Free. Jewel Box Theater at Clark County Library, lvccld.org

MARCH 26, 10A–3P

Bring the kids to jump in more than a dozen bounce houses, play carnival games with real prizes, join in the Easter egg hunt (with 50,000 eggs!), explore emergency vehicles and get pictures taken with the Easter Bunny. You’ll enjoy live entertainment and multiple food trucks. Free. Craig Ranch Park, 628 W. Craig Road, easterfestival2016.com

FUNDRAISERS

SAINT BALDRICK’S MARCH 5, 10A

Come “Brave the Shave” to find cures for childhood cancers. Whether you decide to shave your head, volunteer or donate, you’ll be a part of the excitement! Free, donations encouraged. McMullan’s Irish Pub, 4650 W. Tropicana Ave., stbaldricks.org

5K RUNDEAD ZOMBIE RUN MARCH 5, 2P

WHO CONTROLS OUR PRISONS? MARCH 29, 7P

Learn from wide-ranging moderated panel discussion on the growth of organized crime in U.S. prisons, led by experts Robert Marquez and Richard Valdemar. $25, 10% discount for members. The Mob Museum,

themobmuseum.org FAMILY & FESTIVALS

ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARADE & FESTIVAL

MARCH 11, 5–9P; MARCH 12, 10A–9P; MARCH 13, 12–6P (PARADE MARCH 12, 10A–NOON)

Celebrate the luck of the Irish at the 50th annual Southern Nevada Sons & Daughters of Erin St. Patrick’s Day Parade & Festival. This year’s parade theme is “50 years of Irish tradition,” and is accompanied by three days. Free. Henderson Events Plaza, 200 Water St., cityofhenderson.com

DECADENCE IN THE DESERT MARCH 17, 4–10P

Bring the kids to enjoy some of the most beautiful and cutting-edge local art, taste unique cuisine from local food trucks and enjoy samples of decadent locally-made chocolate. A portion of the night’s proceeds are donated to Opportunity

Test your speed, endurance and strength in this 5K run while trying to avoid ravenous zombies! Runners have flags representing their health while zombies try to steal those flags. 100% of proceeds will benefit scientific research on cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. $65–$75. Craig Ranch Regional Park, 628 W. Craig Road

RUN AWAY WITH CIRQUE DU SOLEIL MARCH 12, 7A

Mayor Carolyn Goodman kicks off this annual 1-mile walk and 5K run that allows you to get up close and personal with fully costumed Cirque performers. Take your picture with your favorite Cirque characters, listen to live music and enjoy complimentary refreshments. All proceeds support the Springs Preserve and Cirque du Soleil Foundations. $30-$40. Springs Preserve, bit.ly/1Rf2l6W

WALK FOR WISHES MARCH 12, 7A

This 5K run and 1-mile walk will include live broadcasts from KSNV Ch. 3 and Mix 94.1 FM as well as family entertainment, food and a post-event award ceremony. All proceeds from the event benefit Make-A-Wish Southern Nevada. $20 kids 4-17; $20 adults (Wish children free). The Green at Town Square,

snv.wish.org

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END NOTE satire

Welcome to the ShelDome

These are totally the real plans

B y A n d r e w K i r a ly & s c o t t d i c k e n s h e e t s

march 2016

DesertCompanion.vegas

ews item: Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands Corp. is leading a consortium of investors who propose building a $1.2 billion stadium in partnership with UNLV. Here are some of the features planned for the events complex.

How would you spend your share of a $3 million bonus dividend?

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It’s time for you to start banking with us.

When you open a CCCU account, you become a member/owner. Then, when the next bonus dividend comes around, you’ll get a piece of it. Better rates. Better service. Plus, bonus cash! It’s good to be one of us. For information and to open an account, call (702) 228-2228, or online at OPENCCCU.com. CCCU is a non-profit organization and shares excess earnings with member/ owners in the form of better rates, more free services, and/or bonus dividends. Bonus dividends are not guaranteed annually.

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