Columnist Susan Snyder: Painter takes us backstage

Friday, Jan. 24, 2003 | 4:04 a.m.

What painter Edgar Degas did for ballerinas in the 19th century, Terry Ritter hopes to do for Las Vegas showgirls in the 21st.

With candy-colored swirls of paint and an Impressionistic style, the Henderson artist tries to give people an idea of what it's like to be backstage and onstage.

She would know. Ritter was a dancer and singer on Las Vegas stages and in Las Vegas-based traveling shows for nearly 25 years.

Her paintings are on display in the Old Town Gallery in downtown Henderson until the end of the month. She also has a website, terryritterart.com. And her newest exhibit is set to open in the next week in the rotunda of the Lake Las Vegas Reflections Bay golf clubhouse.

Although Ritter's art just emerging in the mainstream arena, she says she has been painting for many years.

"I used to paint backstage all the time, in between shows and in between numbers," Ritter said. "People would bring in pictures, and I painted their cats and dogs. I was always running down the hall at the last minute to get onstage. They called me 'Renoir Ritter.' "

Her last gig was as a Reba McEntire impersonator for the "Legends in Concert" show at Imperial Palace. Five years ago she stopped performing and picked up the paintbrushes full-time.

But the leap from dancer to painter hasn't been too much of a stretch. The mother of two says it's the same shtick, different medium.

"You're painting a picture when you're onstage," Ritter said. "You're setting a mood. You're creating an image."

Her images also sell as prints in some Las Vegas-area Jitters coffee houses. They depict dancers primping in a mirror, sitting around a table in costume playing poker or grinning in anticipation just moments before the curtain rises.

"I really want to portray what goes on backstage. There's a lot of fun stuff that goes on," she said. "It was like a family."

Ritter and husband Dusty moved into their Henderson home 20 years ago when she was six months pregnant with their first son. That son now is a sophomore studying business at the University of Nevada, Reno. Their other son, 15, is a freshman at Green Valley High School.

Ritter first moved to Las Vegas with her family in 1969. Her father was in the U.S. Army, and the family moved a lot. Las Vegas was the final stop. At 21 she landed her first job as a dancer at the Holiday Casino, which is now Harrah's.

She recalled how the Holiday's entertainment director and producer Rocky Sennes threw a wedding reception for her, just as he did for all the dancers. He treated them as daughters, Ritter said. And the dancers, in turn, were more like sisters than coworkers.

"We only had one day off, and we'd all spend it together," Ritter said. "We'd go to the lake. We did our children's birthday parties together."

She recently spent a few nights backstage at "Folies Bergere," taking photographs from which is now creating a series of paintings.

"Some days I'll paint morning until night," she said. "I just want to represent how it felt -- the light on your face. The exhilaration.

"You forget about everything that moment you're onstage," she said. "You just want to be the best you can be."