Nevada Silver Tappers offering “A Tribute to the Big Apple”
The Nevada Silver Tappers are readying for an exciting Memorial Day weekend, with the nonprofit’s 2026 USO Benefit Show set to take to the stage for two performances that are sure to have audiences in awe of this dance troupe made up entirely of ladies age 50 or better.
This year’s USO Benefit Show, as with all of the Silver Tappers performances for many years now, is being produced and directed by Kim Cornell-Lyle, with choreography a collaboration between Cornell-Lyle and Ione DeSantis.
Meeting up with the Pahrump Valley Times on Monday, May 4, these two ladies were overflowing with enthusiasm for the upcoming show, which is being held in May for the first time this year.
“We decided to split up our major shows because it was difficult for the girls to go from the USO Show in the fall and roll right into the Christmas Benefit Show,” DeSantis explained.
Preparations for any show are a major effort, the two noted, with set design, costumes and accessories carefully thought-out, musical accompaniment selected and cut and dances choreographed, all before the individual parts are chosen for each Silver Tapper, depending upon her particular strengths.
“That takes a lot of time and it’s really the key, getting the right people in the right places,” Cornell-Lyle said.
The Silver Tappers hold regular rehearsals every week for months in advance, ensuring every lady has the opportunity to become comfortable with their role in each routine. Practice for the USO Show began in February and following a dress rehearsal Monday morning, Cornell-Lyle and DeSantis agreed that everyone is ready to put on a fantastic performance during their back-to-back shows this Memorial Day weekend.
“It’s going to be a knock-out show!” DeSantis promised.
“I’m very excited!” B.J. Hetrick-Irwin, the 100-year-young founder of both the Nevada Silver Tappers and Ms. Senior Golden Years USA, bubbled. “Just wait until you see the costumes!”
This year’s show is “A Tribute to the Big Apple”, a theme that DeSantis and Cornell-Lyle decided on due to the vast array of material that could be incorporated into it.
“We’ve done tributes to the movies, tributes to Hollywood and we came up with the idea of doing a tribute to New York City because there is so much to use. We’re going way back to when they did ‘On the Town’ and ‘On Broadway’, when they did ‘New York, New York’ with Liza Minnelli, ‘Chorus Line’. I mean, there is just a plethora of things to do!” Cornell-Lyle detailed.
Both the opening and finale routines for the “Tribute to the Big Apple” will be quite a bit longer than most, as they both have large numbers of dancers involved.
“The opening group has 15 or 18 tappers and we have a secondary number that goes into one of the older groups, so it’s a full opening. And for the finale, it’s going to be everybody. We’ll have 29 ladies on stage,” Cornell Lyle said. “And they are really enjoying working together in larger groups like that, I think that makes it a lot more fun for them.”
“We all have such a good time. We come, we dance, we laugh. And there are very close friendships that are built,” DeSantis remarked.
It’s not just fun and entertainment, either, although there is plenty of that. The USO show is one of the Silver Tappers’ two annual benefit shows and the funds raised at this year’s USO Show are destined for the American Legion Post #22 and the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post #10054’s food pantry.
“The American Legion are very big sponsors in the crisis hotline for veterans,” DeSantis said, with Cornell-Lyle adding, “We just thought they would be a great recipient.”
“And then, of course, because of the economy, people are struggling. The VFW’s Veterans Food Bank is such a good thing to have in town,” Cornell-Lyle continued and DeSantis chimed in, “We try to rotate the beneficiaries. But we always want the funds to go to a veterans’ cause, here in Pahrump, when we are doing our USO show.”
“If we had our own theater, which we are working on, we could so more,” Cornell-Lyle noted. “At Saddle West – bless their hearts, they do the best they can for us and we are very, very grateful – it’s limited, because they have other stuff going on. And there are only 220 seats. Whereas, if we had a proper community theater that sat 400, we could support a lot more. And everything we do is for our community, for the people here in Pahrump. It wouldn’t even be just us – we could bring in all sorts of things that raise money for the community.”
The two said they would love to see that future theater named in honor of Hetrick-Irwin, too, “Because she has raised over $1 million in 30 years,” Cornell-Lyle reported.
The first performance of the USO Benefit Show will take place Saturday, May 23 at 7 p.m. and the second on Sunday, May 24 at 3 p.m., inside the Saddle West Showroom.
Tickets are a $25 donation per person and attendees are encouraged to bring along cash to help when the ladies “pass the boot” to collect even more funds for this year’s causes.
To reserve tickets, contact Silver Tapper Jackie Greco at 775-751-3468.
Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com
