Water show giving Hancher a splashy season opener

If you grew up with Bugs Bunny cartoons, you most likely remember Bugs and Yosemite Sam scaling an impossibly high ladder time after time, where one of them ends up diving into a bucket of water over and over again.

“That’s kind of what we’re gonna be doing there in Iowa City,” said Dana Kunze of Burnsville, Minn., creator of Dana Kunze’s Watershow Productions. He and his team will present eight free high-diving shows outside Hancher Auditorium from Aug. 26 to 28.

The spectacle originally was slated as part of The Big Splash! in August 2020, a three-day celebration focusing on the Iowa River and the 100th anniversary of the University of Iowa’s world-renowned IIHR — Hydroscience & Engineering program on the banks of the river, downstream from Hancher.

As reported in 2019, the million-dollar festival was going to feature entertainment on land and water, from the Flying Wallendas walking a tightrope above the Iowa River and a parade on the river, to high divers, dancers and bands frolicking around Hancher Auditorium.

With pandemic shutdowns and looming budget cuts, the extravaganza was postponed, then canceled. But it’s not washed up.

Hancher opening

Hancher is launching its 50th season with its own Big Splash, courtesy of Kunze. His water show includes a team member diving from 90 feet into a 9.5-foot-deep pool that’s 26 feet in diameter. “So it’s a small little circle that we’re diving into,” Kunze said.

His four or five divers also will be clowning around with comedy and acrobatic springboard diving, as well as tower diving and a “human torch” fire dive where the performer will have 15- to 20-foot flames coming off his back. Everyone is trained to execute every act.

“It’s a nice little performance,” Kunze said. “It’s got exciting stuff and funny stuff and dangerous stuff, so it’s got a lot of elements to it.”

The 10-story-tall high diving show fits into one 26-foot leased truck, carrying two 3-meter springboards, a 10-meter platform, the pool and the 80-foot high tower that stands 90 feet from the ground — as well as the trappings of the show, including backdrops, staging, sound and lights.

“We stack it and pack it well,” Kunze said. “ … We’re a lot like a concert, except we can be in more than one place at the same time.”

Pre-COVID, he might have as many as 50 divers on the road for various performances, but since the pandemic, he has more like 15 or 20 divers out at any given time.

“What happens is that at the same time I’m doing a show at Hancher Auditorium this year, I’m also doing a show at the Illinois State Fair and I’m doing a show at the Michigan State Fair and I’ve got (a show at) an amusement park down in Alabama with something running,” he said.

“In a busy year, I’ve had as many as seven units out at the same time. Seven different teams, and not necessarily like Hancher, which is only a three-day event. A lot of the state fairs and county fairs are seven to 10 days, so every seven to 10 days, they’re moving.

“There’s a lot of moving parts, a lot of logistics and a lot of stuff like that,” he said. “It just makes things change from time to time.”

Background

Now 61, Kunze doesn’t dive in the shows, but he brings nearly 50 years of experience to producing the venture, as well as a slew of world records.

The stars aligned just right for the Minneapolis native, who grew up playing baseball, basketball, football and hockey. The week before he would attend an open house at his new junior high school across town, Kunze watched Acapulco’s cliff diving championships on television’s “Wide World of Sports.”

Thinking that was “pretty cool,” he said, “It kind of really sunk in to me. And then fast forward a week, I go to the open house at Phillips Junior High School, and there’s one of the guys I just saw on ‘Wide World of Sports,’ who they hired as the (physical education) teacher.”

The school built a new gymnasium and pool, and instructor John Tobler built up the sports program, including gymnastics, swimming and diving, all of which would play a pivotal role in Kunze’s life. The teen started in gymnastics, but quickly transitioned into diving.

Tobler recognized his talent, and said they could spend the next eight to 12 years turning him into an Olympic diver, or Kunze could turn pro “right now,” and work in live diving shows and compete in televised diving contests.

So at age 13, Kunze left to join a pro team on the Wildwood, N.J., boardwalk, bypassing the Olympics path. That decision worked out just fine. At age 16, he became the youngest pro to dive off the Acapulco cliffs. He came back to Minneapolis in the winter months for school, but left for good around 11th grade — with no regrets.

Diving opened a world of opportunities for him, including eight world championships. In 1983, he set the world high diving record with a dive from 172 feet, and in 1993, he set the world record for highest dive from a helicopter, at 135 feet.

Speaking of feet, Kunze said his high divers hit the water with their feet, since going in headfirst would break their necks.

In 1984, he created his Watershow Productions. And in addition to the on-land shows, he also created “Splish Splash” on Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas, the world’s first aqua theater at sea on the world’s largest cruise liner. Married for 38 years, his wife, daughter and son have traveled the world with him. His son, now 29, has performed with him a bit, including a stint on “America’s Got Talent.”

Kunze is in the process of writing a book and moving his base of operations to Naples, Fla. He has several projects in the works in that area, including rebuilding the International Swimming Hall of Fame straight across what he called “Alligator Alley” to Fort Lauderdale. Ironically, with all of his world records and charitable deeds, he’s not yet landed in the Hall of Fame.

“Eventually, I imagine they’ll remember me,” he said. “I hope so.”

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