Happi Deason Byrne, was officially announced as the 8th director of the Apache Belles on Jan. 23 in the Wagstaff multi-purpose room.
“When the position first opened up, I just kind of sat back and thought about it for a while, because, you know, this is the kind of job that you don’t expect it to come available in your lifetime,” Byrne said. “I had never really even thought about it before, and then whenever the position became available and I saw the job description, I thought, well, that’s me! You know, I’m not a choreographer, and I’ll never pretend to be one. If I had to, I could do it, but that’s not my strong suit. Mine is people. I’m a people person.”
In her free time, Byrne is getting to know the Apache Belles on a personal level while becoming their director.
“I want them to know that my door is open for them if they ever need me, I’m there,” Bryne said. “I want people to know that I care about them, not just that they’re a good dancer, but I want them to know that I truly do care about them and their future beyond Apache Belles.”
As every Apache Belle director leaves behind their legacy of work at TJC, Bryne wants to be remembered for her compassion toward the people around her.
“People still know that my dad thought that they were the most important person in the room, and that’s what I hope people will remember about me is that, ‘no matter how much stress she was under, she always had time for me, and I was always the most important person in the room,’ just like my dad always does,” Byrne said.
Before becoming director, Bryne worked with the Apache Belle Gold Alumni Association for the past 10 years, reorganizing, regrouping and finding ways to be more involved with the program.
“The girls, once they finish up at TJC their sophomore year, they can come back and volunteer as much or as little as they want to,” Byrne said. “There’s a lot of opportunities for the girls to come back…They can, you know, participate in the rim walk, at Homecoming, that kind of thing.”
She created successful programs like “Letters from the Line.” In the first year of the program, current members received not only a letter from the previous line but a letter from the oldest living Apache Belle from the second line.
“The first year we did this, whenever we had the [Apache Belle] from 1948 when we had her write a letter, we actually sent it to everyone. So that year, the girls got two letters. They got the letter from, you know, a more current gold, and then they got the letter,” Byrne said.
The letters are given to the new Belles upon moving into the dorms to welcome them to the line and their new home. These letters provide wisdom and guidance to the newly appointed Apache Belles.
“Mine, I believe, was from Analaura, who was our head dance captain last year, and that was really special for me, because she’s like, a huge mentor for me,” Mallorie Clifton, head dance captain for the 77th line, said. “It was just talking about how to enjoy every moment that you have here, which is really special, because it does go by so fast, and you don’t have a lot of like opportunities with the people you’re with, and you’ll never like be in a position like this ever again, living with your best friends and seeing them every day and dancing and traveling, like we’ll never have this time again, and so it was just really special to remember to soak it all in and make sure that I was living in the moment and everything.”
The Apache Belles have many upcoming events like Belle Babes on Feb. 15, and Spring Show on April 3, 4 and 5. In the upcoming years the Apache Belles will be celebrating their 80th anniversary.
“It’s an exciting time to be here at TJC, and I’m looking forward to a lot of just, you know, getting out there, making our name a little bit more well known amongst the community,” Byrne said.