..to 2nd graders learning the Virginia Reel with PROPS
Why Spotlight "The Tennis Dances"? Our work with children (about 27,000 each year) and families is often narrative & always interactive and super engaging- but we decided to show you "The Tennis Dances" because in schools we combine with:
1- "Bluegrass Demo" about where dance moves come from-
2- "Tanko Bushi", "Kol Do Di" and West African Lamba so audience can learn words & movements from these-
3- and weave in narrative's from "The Tennis Dances" that relate to each student.
AND WE WANT YOU TO ALSO CONSIDER THE TENNIS DANCES FOR YOUR GENERAL SERIES!
Since the San Pedro Festival of the Arts in Sept, we have worked with 10 schools and now in 11 more residencies.
Come visit our company news page to see the details. We are excited to be a member of the Arts Community Network of the Los Angeles Unified School District .. Come read where!
Yes- please continue to bring in our dance/multimedia/interactive narrated works like "The Patchwork Girl of Oz" and "The Better to Bite You With" that many of you have had at your theaters-
And we have a new piece with 2 versions- Part I: The Roses on My WallPaper- a Dream is about my dreams when I was a child, and includes both biblical characters and ones popular at the time- K'ton ton, Wonder Woman, and of course a ballerina. My own grandparents were immigrants, and the story is again unfortunately topical. Part II is a work about the holocaust and more appropriate for older students. The complete work has just been performed for the City of Culver City, & also been selected for the HHII Festival on March 4 in Santa Barbara.
We decided on "The Tennis Dances" as excerpts from this early signature work with thousands of performances
(really) and the full 30 minute version is provocative and cinematic for general or dance series not necessarily for children. Also, as much as we love interactive performances ("The Patchwork Girl of Oz" and "The Better to Bite You With" about Little Red Riding Hood, we didn't know if we'd have young ones in the audience at the Prince Theater for the Spotlight, so this excerpt was chosen.
If you want more than a preview of our work, check these complete videos.
Like our other pieces for families/children, this one has interactive components. Before the audience members enter the theater, we take photos of their smiles (teeth part of face) which we put into a computer so we actually see these toothy smiles projected during the finale of the piece. Just before the show, we also select children that all illustrate how L'il Red (our Red Riding Hood) loved everything red as she was growing up, and they join us in that section. In another part, the whole audience is given the opportunity to contribute movement themes to the section where we see amazing teeth on the screen, and two of our characters lead them in a Dixie-land jazz number.
Your support keeps us moving!
Thanks to our major sponsors that make this possible! Our non-profit Tax ID is 95-3509028.
