Life is a dance: How City life helped Lisa Joseph overcome life’s greatest challenges

Her journey to the theme park didn’t start with an audience ovation on a grand stage. It began with doctors telling her parents she’d never walk. Her early life was filled with challenges—multiple health issues, including being completely blind in her right eye and wearing braces on her feet as a child.

“It’s hard to forget what you couldn’t do when you were little,” she recalls. “But my mom and dad kept pushing me.”

Lisa’s parents, Rex and Helen, refused to let doctors’ predictions dictate their daughter’s dreams. They worked with her every day, and through determination, physical therapy and a whole lot of love, Lisa proved the world wrong.

Her family moved to Branson from Minnesota when she was three. Her dad Rex had grown up in the area and was a clogger who performed with a group called The Promenaders at The Ozark Jubilee with Red Foley.

“That’s where he met my mom. They both loved dancing—square dancing especially—and started teaching it at the community center.” It wasn’t long before Lisa and her siblings wanted in on the action.

Dancing turned out to be more than just a fun family hobby—it helped Lisa overcome a lot of the physical challenges she’d been dealing with.

“Dancing really helped me with walking, balance, and stamina,” she says. “Dancing helped me overcome so much, all while having fun.”

By the time Lisa was four, her family had started working at Silver Dollar City. It was there, during the Mountain Music Festival, that Lisa had her first experience performing.

"We started performing in the festival in 1976 all the way until 1991,” she remembers. “But it wasn’t just the festival where they were dancing—they were also teaching the history of dance in local schools, showing kids everything from polka and waltz to square dancing.”

When Lisa was five, she got an exciting opportunity: Bob Mabe, who had just started his own show, picked the Burdette family to be the square dancers in Bob-o-Links.

“We danced six days a week for ten years,” Lisa says. “I was the smallest dancer, so I got thrown around a lot! But after being told I wouldn’t walk; I was amazed by how much I was able to do.”

In 1990, Lisa met her husband Mitchell at Silver Dollar City. They were married at the Gazebo on Town Square just a year later. After their wedding, Lisa decided to step away from The City for a bit and try something new.

“I was just looking for a change,” she says. “I worked other jobs for a few years, but I didn’t feel fulfilled.”

In 1997, her dad asked her to come back and help with World Fest.

“It was only for a month, so I didn’t have to commit,” she says. “But the moment I walked through those gates again, I knew. I knew I was home.”

Lisa started back at Silver Dollar City working in merchandise. She stayed in that department until 2013, then switched to Entertainment as an usher. Her husband worked in Merchandise at The City for 37 years, retiring in 2021, so the two of them had spent 30 years working side-by-side at the place they both loved.

“Silver Dollar City has always felt like home,” Lisa says. “I can’t walk down the street without people stopping me to say hello or hug me. And, it’s still like that."

Of course, behind Lisa’s sparkle is a man who shaped her life in ways that no stage lights could ever. Her father, Rex, taught her how to lead, how to rise above fear, and how to handle life’s unpredictable twists and turns. And what better training ground than Silver Dollar City’s World Fest, where Lisa oversaw hosting more than 400 international guests.<

Even though her father retired in 2020, Lisa continues to embrace the park with the same passion and commitment she had on her very first day.

“Every day when I walk through those gates, I’m not thinking about anything outside this place,” she says joyfully. “It’s magical here. It’s my family. And yes, after all these years and countless hours commuting an hour each way, it never once feels like a chore. When I can make someone’s day better, it’s the best feeling in the world. And I plan on being here until they decide to kick me out!”