New organizations expand Sioux Falls arts scene

When you’re a creative and find your happy place, you want to share it with others.

For Nancy Tapken, it’s the stage.

Diandra Hofer finds her joy in movement.

Bubba Startz is learning how to expand his love of music as a storyteller.

Each artist takes what they love and opens it to others, both audiences and performers. In doing so, they are expanding an already flourishing arts scene in Sioux Falls by creating organizations with unique niches.

Here’s a look at what they’re doing.

Theatre Lab

When Nancy Tapken attends a play as an audience member, she prefers to watch a heavier, more dramatic production.

But while the Sioux Falls arts scene offers multiple choices each season, they usually feature lighter fare: comedies, farces and musicals. The dramas that Tapken prefers to view — or act in — are offered only sporadically.

“For my druthers, there’s not enough of it,” she said. “I thought, if I want it done, I need to be the one who does it. … Everything has a place — farce, musical theater, comedy. I just thought this genre was a little ignored sometimes.”

That is why Tapken founded the Theatre Lab, which will make its debut with the Tony Award-nominated play “Other Desert Cities” from Thursday through Saturday in the Washington Pavilion’s Schulte Black Box Theatre. Tickets are on sale here.

It is directed by Jesse Jensen, who has worked with Tapken in two other productions and most recently directed The Mighty Corson Art Players. In addition to Tapken, the cast includes Erin Sharp, Alexondrea Thong Vanh, Josh Allen and Rose Rhead, all familiar to Sioux Falls playgoers.

Tapken was one of the founders of Broad Cast Theatre, a local female-founded group that closed in late 2023. She had started thinking about starting something like Theatre Lab before that. Tapken feels so strongly about the need for plays such as those Theatre Lab will offer that she is self-funding this first show.

“I don’t want to have any regrets 10 years from now, 20 years from now,” she said. “I don’t want to regret not doing all of these cool things running around in my brain, all these cool shows.”

Tapken’s experience on stage began when she was 10 years old at the Orpheum, part of what was then the Sioux Falls Community Theater’s program for young people. In the present day, she volunteers at every single theater in the area, she said.

She had no problem in casting the show, Tapken said. The biggest problem was finding a weekend that wouldn’t conflict with other offerings. She had hoped to offer a second production in February, but “the stars are not aligning.”

“I have people waiting in the wings to do whatever comes down the pipe next,” Tapken said. “There are a lot of actors and directors that want the challenge of doing some of this stuff.”

Jon Robin Baitz wrote “Other Desert Cities,” which also was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He has written for the television series “Brothers and Sisters” and “The West Wing.” The dialog in “Other Desert Cities” bears similarities to the rat-a-tat exchanges in those shows, Tapken said.

“It’s such a tightly written play,” she said. “It’s quite dramatic but also quite funny. It has a bit of a political thread in it … but it doesn’t really take sides. The parents are very old-guard Republicans, the kids are very left. It comes up in the play as a point of contention between parents and kids, but the kids are a thorn in parents’ sides as well.”

Theatre Lab’s mission statement is to bear witness to the human experience, Tapken said. At its essence, “Other Desert Cities” is about a family going through a difficult circumstance.

“Who can’t relate to that at the highest level?” Tapken asked. “If I can see myself or someone I know go through what’s happening on stage, it makes you feel not alone. You’re not the only one going through this, having to make that decision. I hope this will be our sweet spot in that theatrical environment that Sioux Falls has.”

Haven Arts Collective

When Diandra Hofer started dance lessons, she was determined she would not enjoy ballet.

“I said I would never be caught in a tutu,” Hofer recently recalled. “I started with hip-hop. But I fell in love with ballet. I took part in competitive dance in high school and in every style all the way through. Now, ballet is probably my favorite.”

For 16 years, the dance teacher has helped others — children and adults — learn which form of dance is their favorite way to express themselves. Last summer, she assumed ownership of the former Main Stage Dance and Ballet Academy from Michele Running and renamed it.

Now, she has expanded Haven Arts Collective to give others a place to pursue their passion. While it will function primarily as a dance studio, offering classical ballet, contemporary, hip-hop and jazz for those age 3 and older, the former church building now offers spaces for guitar and piano lessons and a sound studio for music and podcast production.

“Our building is an old church, and it’s only utilized afternoons and evenings,” Hofer said. “We asked ourselves what else should be happening here? We decided we’re open to hosting other arts in our studio as well.”

Hofer serves as Haven Arts Collective’s owner and director and is assisted by a small staff of part-time instructors. Her husband has no official title but offers his support in Haven’s operations, she said.

Main Stage had been in operation for 40 years, with Hofer as an instructor for 16 years. Hofer, who homeschools her two daughters, never expected to own her own dance studio but took advantage of the opportunity.

“It was kind of a whirlwind,” she said.

In the months since she took over, Hofer has had one fact reemphasized: the need to be versatile.

“I already knew going in there’s a lot more to it than people can see from the outside,” she said. “Owning a dance studio in general, you wear a lot of different hats. You have to dabble in everything.”

Every dance studio in Sioux Falls has a niche, Hofer said. Haven Arts Collective focuses on the artistic side of dance and offers a family feel. Now, that will incorporate with other arts to create a community. It also is Christian-based, focusing on arts in the kingdom, she said. It also offers a homeschool program.

“We focus primarily on ballet. I love having students start with that; it’s the foundation for all our dance styles,” Hofer said. “But ballet is a discipline, so that’s not every kid’s favorite. A lot of kids really like contemporary, jazz and hip-hop. It’s an even split.”

The music production space recently was finished, and the first guitar classes will join the schedule with piano lessons this fall. Haven’s student base is growing, and beginning ballet and tap classes for women in their 60s and 70s are offered.

“It’s been fun for me to have the choice to make it (the dance studio) what I want it to be and to focus on helping students grow from the inside out and to grow in confidence and to have a good perspective,” Hofer said. “Dance isn’t who they are, it’s something they do, and they don’t have to wrap up their identity in that. It’s a a fun growth point for me, too, to help students grow that way.”

The Scene Projects

Podcasts build relationships, Bubba Startz believes.

That’s why he has started a podcast that will feature musicians from South Dakota and around the Midwest.

“It allows the listeners to come in deeper to get to know these artists. It’s a very top level of getting to know someone. If you like a song, we want you to know the person, the people behind the song. We want you to know the stories,” he said.

Startz, founder of DBS Entertainment, started recording episodes for his podcast, “The Scene Projects,” last spring. He gathered much of the early content in one evening, when he attended the Midwest Country Music Organization gathering in Okoboji, Iowa. He set up his recording equipment in a corner and invited the artists to talk with him.

“I did 25 interviews,” he said. “I got to 50 episodes in seven weeks of collecting content. Some of those are a collection of three or four interviews in one episode.”

Startz also shared his QR code, offering more information. The next day, he found his email inbox filled with requests from artists wanting to be on his podcast.

After taking time out this summer to tour with his own band, Startz and Endz, Startz is ready to begin producing new episodes. His intention is to release three new episodes a week. “The Scene Projects” can be found on Spotify, YouTube or here.

Startz’s family moved from the Chicago area to Deadwood when he was 10 or 11. His father’s nieces and nephews all called him Uncle Bubba rather than his given name James. When James Jr. was born, his family passed the nickname on to him.

Startz spent from 2005 to 2009 on the West Coast, traveling from music festival to music festival and based in Bend, Oregon. He describes himself as a troubadour and built his life around music.

“It was me with a guitar on my back and really no plan,” he said. “I was just kind of in the flow of life. Because I wasn’t from there, I kind of became a chameleon and ran with a bunch of different groups of people.”

One day, he distributed flyers promoting an event to help another band. That night, he looked around and realized that of the 300 people in attendance, he was responsible for bringing about 65 of them to the show. That expanded the passion he felt for music to a passion for bringing people to live events.

Startz now lives in Tyndall but considers Sioux Falls his home base. He describes the music performed by Startz and Endz as modern gypsy rock with classic country and classic rock covers through alternative and ’90s rock.

“My style kind of encompasses everything that would be inside that giant arc,” Startz said. “There’s so much music out there. It’s hard not to pull from everything. We kind of grab a little bit from that and a little bit from this.”

The podcast, he said, “kind of came out of nowhere.” When DBS Entertainment started in March, the intention was to focus on live events and songwriter nights. Then, Sioux Falls podcaster Dave Holly invited Startz to his studio to talk about Startz and Endz. It was then that Startz realized that he had the equipment needed to start his own podcast.

“The Scene Projects” joined “The Dave Holly Hour” and Heath Johnson’s “The Heath Bar” podcasts, among others, but Startz doesn’t believe the field is overcrowded. If anything, the creators in the Midwest are underserved, he said, and his eventual goal is to set up hubs around the Midwest where they will have outlets to share their music.

“We know people are hungry for that kind of content,” Startz said. “We see a massive market in the Midwest that has hundreds of awesome venues and acts that are working and doing their thing, and nobody is covering all of it. There’s no overarching umbrella over the top covering the Midwest as a great region.”

Podcasts offer the chance to be part of a community, he said, engaging with others over multiple times. When a person listens to a podcast, they can be part of someone else’s world.

“I think people are hungry for the conversations I’ll have with other musicians,” he said.

Startz has divided “The Scene Projects” into three genres. One will be a review-style show, the second recorded live with a musician ala the “VH1 Storyteller” series and the third, the interviews.

As he prepares to release new podcast episodes, Startz is looking to the future. He wants to add content creators to his team, empowering others to do exactly what he’s doing.

“Musicians and others already have the equipment to do exactly what we’re doing,” he said. “If they have a passion for it, we want to empower those people to create their own legacy. That’s why we call it the ‘Projects.’ It’s not just one thing. At its heart, it is a podcast and community. Where it ends, we have no idea.”