Barb Stanley helps run a radio station as a job and a calling and she dances with horses to feed her soul.
With her husband Will, Stanley resides in Rhinebeck. The couple co-owns radio station 98.1 WKZE, based in Red Hook and broadcasting throughout the mid-Hudson Valley and into eastern Connecticut and western Massachusetts. (Aug. 17 HV Biz profiled the business.)
Business savvy with an open door is the ethos the Stanleys have brought to WKZE since they purchased the station in 2005 and moved it to Red Hook to be closer to its main audience and advertising base. The station was not profitable under its old ownership, but it is now in the black and, even more importantly in Barb Stanley”™s view, has created a community.
As “a very involved co-owner,” Stanley shares all the major decisions of running a progressive, acoustic-oriented world music station that does not take national advertising. “My major role is one of the key sales people and as a station manager,” she said, She is involved in hiring sales and radio staff and shaping advertising. The station doesn”™t accept “screamer” ads ”“ “They”™re prices are INSANE!” ”“ she said, even if they derive from local businesses.
She cites Gandhi”™s famous axiom to “be the change you wish to see in the world” and said, “I think the station brings a very important change to radio. We”™re a community that”™s the best way to describe it. We want to serve the community of listeners, the community of advertisers and the community of our staff.”
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She said even more than black on the bottom line, the feedback from listeners, advertisers and employees is most rewarding. “The station is very important to a lot of people and that means a lot to me. To be able to affect peoples”™ lives and make them feel good is a wonderful thing.”
Under the regimen of horse trainers Pat and Linda Parelli and their “natural horsemanship” approach to interaction with the equines, Stanley will take part in the Dances with Horses performances September 11-13 at the Dutchess County fairgrounds in Rhinebeck.
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JoAnna Mendl Shaw is creator and director of Dances with Horses, and also teaches choreography at the Julliard School of performing arts New York City. She has been working with horses since 1997, combining the horses interacting with the dancers to give new meaning to the old vaudeville term hoofers.
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The Dutchess County performances will involve four dancers, one from Spain, one from France, one from western Massachusetts and one from New York City and some of Stanley”™s own steeds. They have practiced together in the past and the dancers do performances and clinics all over the country, but as to exactly what moves will be on display, viewers and performers will just have to await the experience.
“They practice every week and JoAnna has a broad set pattern in mind what will happen, but the relationship between horses and dancer just happens naturally at the performance,” said Stanley. “We don”™t micromanage what will happen; we let the horse engage with the dancers naturally, so it becomes very beautiful and very interesting.”
Stanley said that a key is the natural horsemanship approach that creates a partnership of horses and humans. “It teaches people to achieve success without force and harmony without coercion,” she said.
The regimen involves playing with horses as well as riding them, “So you very quickly realize that a horse is an extremely intelligent really playful animal that really wants to engage with you,” said Stanley. “They don”™t need to be micromanaged which is what traditional horsemanship does.”
“The rider does not dictate what the horse is going to do, and it brings out a play drive in the horse,” said Stanley. “The horse is almost naturally drawn to that direction.
The energy will push the horse in a certain direction. So the horse will literally dance. It”™s magical, its really magical.”
Stanley and some of her horses will be performing as part of the Dances with Horses troupe at the Hudson Valley Wine and Food festival at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds on Sept. 12 and 13. They will greet arriving visitors at noon each of those days and then do a performance on the triangle green at 2 pm. More information is available at www.Hudsonvalleywinefest.com
