Mikki Stevens has a creative and merry spirit.

It is no surprise that this joyful soul created the Red Hot Mamas more than 20 years ago, and the dancing, prancing, laughing group of choreographed and colorful ladies is still going strong and headed to New York City to perform in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade this November.

Stevens was born and raised in Coeur d'Alene and has traveled the country to follow her dreams of acting and theater. She has been an actress, dancer and voice animator and worked in Hollywood for a time. She explored kinesthetics and studied fitness and bodybuilding in Seattle. Stevens also has experience in another field she loves: teaching. She has been a dance, exercise and theater teacher and she was a faculty member for 12 years at North Idaho College, working in culinary arts and teaching communications. She is proud she began her educational journey at NIC, where she earned scholarships and guidance to boost her forward.

"It was fabulous," she said. "I had really great teachers there that encouraged me."

Stevens has a close relationship with God and one of her favorite quotes is from Psalm 61:2: "Though my heart grows faint, I reach to the rock that is greater than I." She is the Lord's humble servant as well as a humble leader, one who knows how to create dance routines that are seen around the world. Stevens has survived two somewhat miraculous encounters with cancer: a malignant melanoma in 1978 that abruptly went away and stage 4 level 4 follicular lymphoma discovered in 2010 for which she receives monthly treatments, but her recent PET scans are showing no cancer activity.

"The one before that showed my insides lit up like a Christmas tree with activity," Stevens said. "Our God reigns! He is bigger than medically incurable cancer. He can kick it to the curb."

Stevens falls in love with people and is elated when she sees them smile, from the poorest of the urban impoverished to the most elegant of foreign dignitaries. She is an animated speaker, smiles a bright smile and sees beauty in everyone she meets.

Through love, faith, determination, kindness and laughter, Stevens seizes the day, shows others the way and proves that women of all ages are still beautiful - that they are worth more than they can ever imagine and they are capable of shining (and sparkling) from their heads to their toes, no matter how many rhinestones they're wearing.

Why did you create the Red Hot Mamas and where did you get the idea?

I moved back to Coeur d'Alene from being away for 20 years and was looking for something to do with my big, bad, musical-comedy self and not really finding the venue that was suitable to where I was at in life ... I wanted to do musical comedy, see people laugh, create something that would help people to laugh, not serious. There's no deep message. Don't try to figure it out. Don't try to think about it. Don't think too hard. Just go ahead and let yourself spit it out and laugh, just because it's funny and it's OK, you can laugh at us. So, I wasn't finding what I wanted to find in musical comedy around town at that time, and I thought, 'Well, maybe I'm just done. Maybe the Lord just wants me to sit back and not do this anymore, maybe this part of my life is over.'

So, then, I was getting kind of frustrated because I am a creative soul, and needed an outlet of some sort, so, as a woman of big faith, I was praying all the time and talking to God all the time, 'What do you want me to do? Just show me your will.' And this idea came into my head. The way God works with me is He just dumps the whole thing into my head, everything all at once. I'll see the picture of it, the choreography, costumes, the administration, the bookwork, left and right side of the brain at once, it's all there. I couldn't write fast enough.

How do you feel about being in the Macy's parade?

Having the producer come to Coeur d'Alene and take me out to dinner to ask me for ideas for the parade was a validation of my quirky theatrical ideas that are not so eagerly embraced by other theatrical venues. Having him phone asking me to please bring a group to the parade because they needed a grassroots group run professionally and couldn't find such a combination anywhere else gave me personal satisfaction in the out-of-the box development of the Red Hot Mamas. I did not ever think this would be happening. I feel like I am walking (and dancing) in impossibility. This is a miracle orchestrated by God. I thought I would be dancing in the heavenly parade by now at the end of an icky disease and here I am leading the sweetest group of loving women in the world on a New York performance adventure. I'm excited to see what God is going to do through us in the Big Apple. It's going to be BIG!

Why/when did you bring the Red Hot Mamas back?

I had accepted a diagnosis of "incurable cancer" and given up ideas of directing a musical-comedy group ever again. When Macy's phoned this year with an invitation, my first thought was, 'That is not possible. There is no way. I'm in chemotherapy right now and my immune system is shot and I need to rest.' Stress is my enemy and preparing gals for the Broadway show performance is STRESS. But, I decided not give a knee-jerk "no" and to talk with God about it. It soon became clear that it was His will to use me to bring this ministry back in an even more loving, caring, people focused manner than before. There are women out there who need this so badly. They need to believe in themselves. Part of the RHM mission is to find value in 'self, each other and clearance sales.' So many women of a certain age feel beat down physically and/or emotionally by what has happened in life. Much of it is about what others have led them to believe. This ridiculous group setting helps them do 'impossible' things such as perform for the President of the United States and be in the Macy's Parade as part of a very good precision performance team. Women come, conquer and are never the same. The underlying life-changing Spirit is amazing. Women start new businesses, earn new degrees, catapult from the RHMs into going after other dreams they had previously given up. Ha!

Short story: I brought it back because God opened the doors. Also, I was living from one PET scan to the next in a world of chemotherapy treatments and incurable cancer. He pulled me out with the Macy's invitation."

What are your hobbies? Are you currently working anywhere?

I work full time-and-a-half for the Red Hot Mamas. It's exhilarating to get to use God's gifts of creative talents and is fulfilling to get to see women blossom, love on each other, and grow through this experience. I enjoy watching my flowers grow, writing, and I collect glass slippers. I call it my Cinderella collection.

As a young girl in a challenging home environment, Disney movies inspired me. I believed Cinderella could happen and I might be pulled out of a sad place into a sparkling gown place. I believed I could wish upon a star and my dreams would come true with Jiminy Cricket. Somewhere ... out there ... I got older, but still believed in things like, "there's a dream out there with your name on it." I thought I could do a Liza Doolittle.

If there is a key to a better life other than being in the presence of God, it is education. My best advice to everyone is: Know God and learn new things all the time. Stay open minded. Don't judge lest you be judged. Love people over projects.

What are your goals from here on out, personally and for the RHM?

Personally, I will be looking for God's purpose in keeping me on this earth. If I have one more breath to take, His purpose is in it. As odd as it might seem to people, I need to find a job with a paycheck. For the Red Hot Mamas, I am curious as to where He will lead it. I won't turn my back on it. It's a beautiful thing now. Sweet and meaningful. It's also much work and requires much time and patience to manage a company of hormonal, shall we say, 'vintage' women. He fills me with a plethora of ideas. Silly, unique, fun, laughable ideas. Soooo funny. I'd enjoy developing a chopper-walker team without the intensity of meeting Macy's performance levels. The main thing I would like to see happen is a musical movie around the true story of the 20-plus years of RHM. It's just such a great vehicle for the amazingly talented 'vintage' musical/comedy actresses to get together and star in a blockbuster classic forever feel-good movie. I have the storyline and even already have it cast: Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, Cyndi Lauper, Queen Latifah (if she can do a movie without dropping the F-bomb), Barbara Striesand, Dolly Parton, Reba, Meryl Streep, Susan Sarandon, Patty Duke, Tyne Daily, Ann Magaret, Olivia Newton John, Jane Fonda, and on and on. Of course, they'd have to do it as a labor of love and not a big ol' paycheck. A lifetime dream of mine, since we were both 12 years old, has been to do a scene with Patty Duke, aka Anna Pearce. More realistic goals are to love my family thoroughly. Become a better person. Love people. Write articles and books. Keep my insurance."

What motivates you?

It's God. I buy into the whole concept of the Bible and the messages there and doing good and encouraging and helping people. I'm not always successful at it, but that's the person I want to be, is someone who is encouraging and motivating to people. As a child, I did not experience that a lot from people ... as a child, I saw my mom abused often and I felt her pain and it really went into me about not being valued and being told you're nothing ... these women of my mom's generation had men who beat them up. Even as a little kid I thought, 'This isn't right, these women are valuable and they do have a lot to offer.' People shouldn't be told that they don't have the ability, 'Oh, you can't do that,' you know. And the only thing that helped me was education, which taught me, 'Oh yes, I can do that.' Education makes a difference and pulls people out of that ... I've changed a lot during my lifetime, but what motivates me is God and wanting from the bottom of my heart and soul for people to believe in themselves and to believe that one person can make a difference and that one person can be you. And why not?"