Levitt’s ‘dancing queen’: A retired tech inventor now loving Sioux Falls

Diane Olson sparks joy.

And she does it in a wide-brimmed hat, a safety vest and a pair of Bermuda shorts.

If you’ve been to Levitt at the Falls in downtown Sioux Falls, chances are you’ve seen Diane Olson.

She’s up front, in front of the stage.

And she’s dancing. She’s dancing by herself. She’s dancing with little kids and bubbles. She’s dancing with adults. She’s dancing with the entire crowd as she makes eye contact and beckons listeners to come up and join her.

“I just thoroughly enjoy doing that,” Olson said recently.

Olson, a volunteer and board member of the Levitt, started dancing in college at the University of Iowa, where she audited classes as a balance to her degree in computer science. It was 1980, and she was one of the first few women in the field.

“When I was dancing, dancing is to the body what computer science is to the mind,” Olson said. “There are some fundamental, structural things you have to do to keep your body safe, to keep your weight on your bone structure. With computer science, you have to do certain fundamental techniques, and you learn them inside out and backwards.”

Then, she said, once you learn all the basics in both fields, “what you do is limited only by your imagination.”

Olson spent her career at IBM, where she had so many patents to her name she was awarded the title of Master Inventor, one of very few women at the time to have that distinction. She credits some of what she learned in dance as influential in her approach to computer science.

“I kept that creative side of me,” she said.

But it was only in spirit – she wasn’t actually dancing for most of her career. She retired in 2016 and looked for somewhere to settle down, having narrowed her search to the Midwest.

“I was in Minnesota, and I really wanted a state that didn’t have state income taxes. I knew I wanted to be in the Midwest because it shares my values and ethics and principles,” she said.

Sioux Falls fit the bill, and she moved to town, bought a historic house in the Cathedral District and began renovating. To meet people and become part of her new city, she got involved with the Minnehaha County Historical Society and then the State Theatre, where she also serves on the board.

“I wanted to get involved and share my passion for historic homes, for people, with my new community,” she said. “But when the Levitt started, I started going. At first, I brought a chair, but I couldn’t sit still. The music was so great. There were other people up there on the dance floor.”

Another Levitt member, Apolonia Davalos, inspired Olson in 2019.

“She had such joy and no fear. She got me out there, and the rest is history,” Olson said. “My dancing had just lay dormant there for like 40 years.”

For a while, the two of them worked together, inviting others to dance.

“People in the audience felt so welcomed,” Olson said. Davalos is now in school in Florida, Olson said. “I’ve tried to step into her shoes and get out there. There are a lot of people I’ve been dancing with for a while. They know me. They can tell I just feel the joy of the music, and it gives them joy.”

She said getting others to move to the music and immerse themselves in the experience feels important.

“It’s clear I haven’t danced in decades,” Olson said with a laugh. “But you don’t forget the technique. You lose your muscle tone, you lose your flexibility. I can’t do the leaps and splits anymore. But I do it at my ‘old age’ level, and it’s still fun.”

Seeing someone dancing alone who makes eye contact to invite you to be her partner provides an opportunity. “People have told me they see me dancing by myself, and it takes away their fear, and they just want to come up and keep me company.”

At the Levitt, like many family events or wedding receptions or street dances, the movement often begins with kids. Another volunteer brings a bubble machine to the dance floor, which brings up the kids. Who then bring their parents.

“Together, we are creating that magic that makes people invited and un-self-conscious,” she said. Olson said she had to let go of her ego long ago. “One of the many things I learned early on is that I have so many bad ideas,” she said.

“I couldn’t allow my ego to get in the way. An ego was not something I could maintain in my professional career. We would come together, come up with great ideas we could patent. I would tell new inventors funny stories about my failure and make them less conscious of theirs. That’s how you have to approach life. You have to fall flat on your face.”

Her willingness to try anything has taken her to every continent – including Antarctica. “With all my travels, it was an attempt to get back to remembering the things about myself that make me human instead of being immersed in technology. I would hike, meet people, go to museums.”

Her interest in local culture combined with her desire to stay near her family in Iowa made Sioux Falls her choice. She bought her home in the 300 block of North Duluth Avenue and began renovating. “It needed a lot of work, but this home waited for me,” she said. “I’ve put my heart and soul into it. I know my neighbors and the names of their puppy dogs. I’m putting down roots.”

And people are responding. On any summer night, you’ll see her – head bobbing in her hat, sometimes with one side pinned up for “that sassy look,” she said.

She’ll make eye contact. She’ll move to the music. She’ll invite you in.

Rose Ann Hofland, the Levitt’s director of communications and community engagement, calls Olson a true champion of the Levitt’s mission to build community through music. “She is a shining example of this value in action. Diane actively and enthusiastically invites everyone downtown to the Levitt space in her role as greeter and community connector.”

When Hofland looks at her volunteer statistics, Olson has given about 100 hours of service at concerts every year since 2020. This year, she has exceeded it.

“I am joyful because people share themselves with me,” Olson said. “We are creating a magic energy here.”