Send in the dancing girls

Eight Western Nevada girls will make the trip to Artown in Reno to perform with professionals in "A Night to Remember," 8 p.m. July 16 at Wingfield Park.

Carson City residents Kendra Krupp, 10, Katie Lauer, 12, Briana Neben, 9, Katie Paul, 12, and Danielle Williams, 13, Dayton resident Diana Sweeney, 8, Reno resident Emily Ann Graves, 11, and Sparks resident Maggie Tietz, 12, will perform with famed tap dancer Sam Weber and Sierra Nevada Ballet solo dancer Ananda Bena-Weber.

The first thing I noticed was two Webers in the same program. As it turns out, they are father and daughter. The person who brings them together for this show is Rosine Bena, who used to be married to Sam and is Ananda's mom.

Rosine has lived in Genoa for the past two years and is the artistic director of Sierra Nevada Ballet.

Sam may be her ex, but she has nothing but nice things to say about his dancing.

"He is one of the greatest tap dancers in the world," she said. "He is starring in a German movie about two tapdancers called 'Zwei in Frack'."

Ananda lives in San Francisco, where the family owns the Peninsula Ballet Theater School.

Rosine, 50, danced professionally for 28 years until she was 40 .

"I really wanted to direct and choreograph," she said. "I'd already had a fine career as a dancer and I was ready to do other things."

She was artistic director of the Reno Ballet for the two years it existed in 1995 and 1996, until the executive director was in a car accident.

She hopes she can appeal to people from all over Western Nevada.

"There are so many talented youngsters here, but because they don't have a chance they leave and go someplace else because there is nothing for them here," she said. "If we have a professional company, then they can work with and learn from professionals."

In addition to the July 16 show, the girls will be doing a demonstration for children 1 p.m. Tuesday at Wingfield Park.

I spoke with Gina Lauer, whose daughter Katie is one of the dancers headed to Reno.

Gina is a former South Lake Tahoe Tribune reporter and wife of Nevada Press Association Director Kent Lauer.

Gina and I have both worked with one person in common, that's sports reporter Davie Price, who went to work at the Tribune before he graduated from high school in 1972.

He and I have been working together since I sat next to him at The Record-Courier in 1989.

Sportstalk with The Pearl is off the air, or as off the air as you can be on community access cable.

The long-running sports show taped from the Carson Nugget was hosted by Chuck Pearl.

Dene Chabot-Fence and Gloria May came in fifth in the 2002 Air Race Classic.

Dene won the Classic in 2001 and did very well in a field of 40 aircraft this year.

She and Gloria had to fight headwinds in her 1966 Cherokee Piper 180C . Dene owns the Vitamin Villa in Carson City and is a naturopathic doctor.

Today is the first anniversary of the death of Dr. Dick Bentinck, who worked for the Nevada Department of Health until he retired in 1986.

He came to Carson City in 1973 and purchased the Bliss Mansion, where he lived for a few years until he decided they weren't going to let him convert it into a bed and breakfast.

Dick purchased the house partially furnished, including many antiques. Wife Edwina still has a china cabinet, dining room table and the piano from the mansion.

Edwina was married to Dick for 11 years. They were introduced by mutual friends and shared an interest in mining.

His friend for 27 years, Don Schulz, said Dick was a true friend.

"You knew when you had him as a friend," he said. "There was a deep trust between us."

Dick was a tinkerer and researcher. Edwina says she still has one of the solar energy projects he was working on when he died.

"There are no plans for it," she said. "He would just get an idea and go out and work on it."

Dick published a book before he died called "Verity, Naked Truth is Dangerous," a summary of his 81-year lifetime.

Kurt Hildebrand will be on vacation this week, but that doesn't mean he won't be writing his column. Leave a message for him at 881-1215 or e-mail him at hildebrand@nevadaappeal.com