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129 East 7th Ames, Iowa 50010 voice 515 232-7374   fax    515 233-9290 Email for more info

Kids' Co'Motion
Harmony

July 14-August 2, 2008
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Kids' Co'Motion is an annual program designed to train children ages 8-18 in modern dance technique, composition theory and practice and production. Each day students spend an hour on technique, an hour on composition and improvisation and two hours rehearsing for a final, fully produced dance performance.

The first two weeks of the workshop take place in the beautiful Betty Toman Dance Studios at Iowa State University's Forker Building. The third week is spent in the Ames City Auditorium. The day begins at 10:00am with a technique class taught by a professional dancer/teacher. The students learn more about dance technique as well as gaining strength, flexibility, coordination and control. At 12:00 we break for a half hour to eat lunch and relax minds from the rigors of the morning. At 12:30 we reconvene for two hours of rehearsal for the final performance.

Harmony will inspire our dances in 2008. We will be working with composer Paul Micich who will create music that develops with our dances.

The Kids' Co'Motion performance workshop teaches more than dances to students: Kids' Co'Motion builds choreographers, helps students gain confidence in their own ideas and teaches them to organize those ideas and structure them into dance. Students not only study with master choreographers and teachers, but compose dances by themselves and with other students, taking advantage of everyone's ideas.

This year's Kids' Co'Motion workshop is July 14-August 2, 2008. KCM will meet from 10am-2:30pm Monday through Friday, July 14-August 1, with performances at 7:30pm on Friday and Saturday, August 1-2, 2008.
For more information contact us at dance@comotion.org or by calling 515-232-7374 or by writing to us at 129 East 7th, Ames, Iowa 50010

Kids' Co'Motion is supported, in part, by grants from Ames Commission On The Arts (COTA).
Thanks to ISU Department of Kinesiology

Past Productions:
*WORLDSCAPES (2007)
Physical environments, emotional environments, camouflage, video games. How do you react to and behave in different environments? Music by Beatles, Dead Can Dance, Eiffel 65, Glennie, Lams/Richards/Moriya, Levin, Orbital, Rachel's, Radiohead. Video and costumes designed by Valerie Williams.

*MAGIC CARPET RIDE (2006)
If you could transform yourself into anything, what would it be, and why? Who is your favorite Superhero? Sheherazade? Flying is Valerie's favorite desire, so there is a dance. Zow is a dance in honor of all those comic books that rotted your mind as a child. Stories from the Arabian Nights Entertainments rounds out the concert. Music by Donizetti, Rimsky-Korsakov. Video and costumes designed by Valerie Williams.

*PORTRAITS (2005)
Dances based on self-portraits, portraits of families and neighborhoods, portraits of society, music, paintings of land by Grant Wood, and portraits of famous choreographers. Music by Bach, Boccherini, Mozart, Part, Traditional. Set and costumes designed by Valerie Williams.

*KALEIDESCOPEA (2004)
Dances based on color: the rainbow, kaleidoscopes, the color of feelings, feelings from color, the color of music. Music by Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Pontiac Blues Band, Paganini, Morton Gould, Beethoven. Set and costumes designed by Valerie Williams.

*DIMENSIONS (2003)
Investigation of form will inspire our dances this year. We will be working with forms in space, the forming of dances in time, and two stories: "Flatland", by Edwin Abbott, and "In the Land of the Perpendicular", by Susan Cantine. Music by Bach. Set and costumes designed by Valerie Williams.

*CONNECTIONS (2002)
Families, DNA, physical and emotional connections inspired the dances for Connections. How do you dance with someone who isn't there? Music by Reselman, Partch, Motion/Potter. Video, set and costumes designed by Valerie Williams.

*SPHERES (2001)
Balls, planets, the circle of life, spheres of influence are among the ideas that will inspire the performance this year. Spheres is about round objects and round thinking. Music by Bach. Set and costumes designed by Valerie Williams.

*FUTURE VISION (2000)
What are our dreams for ourselves and our future? What place will machines have in our lives? This concert was inspired by thoughts of who we have been as a people and visions of who we want to become in 1000 years. Robots, travel to outer space, aliens, the evolution of human society and other ideas will inspire the dances. Students followed their imaginations to the future, creating a vision in dance of what may lie in store for us. Music by Art of Noise, Bellinati, Madredeus, Riley, Suso, Tippet, Torf, York. Set and costumes designed by Valerie Williams. Video by Gerry Sheble and Valerie Williams.

*METAMORPHOSIS (1999)
A spectacular, abstract, and artful concert of dances based on man-made patterns and patterns found in nature. Dances inspired by seashells, snowflakes, splash and wave patterns, by locomotor patterns and sung rounds, by Escher prints and Art Moderne. Music by Reich. Set and costumes designed by Valerie Williams and Susan Norris. Video by Gerry Sheble and Valerie Williams.

*SUPERHEROES (1998)
Based on Homer’s Odyssey, this production follows the structure of the Odyssey, but the dances come from the characters and qualities in the stories: leadership, responsibility, Shades, Wind and Storm, war and confrontation. Director Valerie Williams, assistant director Lana Lyddon Hatten and company member Amy Snoddy assisted with the dances for scenes including the sailing boat, the giant Cyclops, Circe and her wine, the Sirens, Odysseus and the shades, Euryclea recognizing the disguised Odysseus by the scar on his leg, Penelope and Odysseus reunited, and Anthena preventing war with the suitors families. These scenes among others formed our version of Odysseus' travels. Music by Holst. Set and costumes designed by Valerie Williams.

*ONCE UPON A... (1997)
Dances that tell stories: fables with a twist. Fables by Thurber, Aesop, and our own. Music by Nuclear Whales, Us3. Design by Lonna Nachtigal.

*IMPACT! IOWA HEROES (1996) 70mins
Dances inspired by Iowans of note: James Van Allen, Kate Shelley, Victor Atanasoff. Music by Beethoven, Adrienne Torf, Dvorak, Bach, Vivaldi. Set and costumes designed by Valerie Williams.

*IOWA TALES (1995)
In preparation for Iowa’s Sesquicentennial celebration, dances with made with an Iowa connection: all composers and visual artists are from Iowa or Iowa based. Music by Dan Hunter, Jerry Owen, Robert C. Fuller, Greg Brown, Meredith Willson, Glenn Miller, Peter Schickele, Traditional. Sections were entitled: Land and Pioneers, Picture Postcard Musicale, Basketball, Whooping It Up. Set by Ted Lyddon Hatten.

*THE RING (1994)
An epic dance based on the epic The Ring of the Niebelungen. Music by Richard Wagner. Set designed by Paula McArthur.

*GAMES (1993)
Four types of games inspired dances: Games of Skill, Games of Chance, Games of Childhood, Games of Ego. Music by Bizet, Faure, Debussy, Satie. Set design by Lonna Nachtigal.

*BEE’S KNEES (1992)
Nonverbal communication was the theme for dances choreographed by students and director. Music by Hamish Moore and Dick Lee. Set by Steve Brownless.

*WATERWORKS (1991)
Water above ground, at sea level, and below the waves inspired dances with images from nature, Botticelli, and water sports. Music by John Adams, Handel. Set by Steve Brownless.

*PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION (1990)
Dances based on the music of Rimsky-Korsakov and the paintings that inspired him. Design by Steve Brownless.

*SORCERER’S APPRENTICE (1989)
Magical dances opened the program which included Fireworks and spooky dances. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice concluded the program. Music by Stravinsky, Saint-Saens, Bach, Dukas. Set by Steve Brownless.