City in Motion Dance Theater History

City in Motion Dance Theater has been part of the cultural fabric of Kansas City for over 20 years. Incorporated as a Missouri not-for-profit institution in 1985, its mission is to foster the development of high-quality, contemporary dance programming, and expand the dance audience in the Kansas City metropolitan region.

City in Motion builds bridges in the community with a school of dance, a professional modern dance company, and a performing series that includes “Dance in the Park,” a free, outdoor concert, held annually in Kansas City's Roanoke Park, and “A Modern Night at the Folly,” which presents some of the best local and regional choreographers’ work at the historic, yet state-of-the-art, Folly Theater in downtown Kansas City.

The founding artistic directors of City in Motion were Randy Barron, Kathleen Kingsley, Arielle Thomas Newman, Rick Hillis, and Jean Dickinson. These five choreographers dreamed of bringing together modern dancers from all over Kansas City, to provide a laboratory for professional modern dance in the Midwest region. The company’s first public performance was May 17, 1985, at Arts Fest ’85 in Crown Center Square, before an audience of over 400 enthusiastic dance fans.

Former artistic directors have included Harlan Brownlee, who was instrumental in bringing contact improvisation to Kansas City, and Ann-Marie Draeger, who taught Limon technique. Harlan Brownlee has made significant contributions in the area of arts education and currently works at Young Audiences of Kansas City. Both artists taught at the City in Motion school of dance and choreographed many new works for the company.

The City in Motion Dance Company currently comprises eight professional dancers, who demonstrate remarkable chemistry on stage. Under the artistic co-direction of Donna Frogge and Andrea Skowronek, an environment is created that supports the evolution of original and unique dance pieces that appeal to an expanding audience base.

City in Motion Dance Theater has toured regionally in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska and Oklahoma. In 1992, the company was chosen to perform at the World’s Fair in Seville, Spain. In 1999, the company was awarded a Special Opportunities Grant from the Missouri Arts Council to create and perform “Kansas City Celebrates Lyman Field: A Portrait in Dance, Music and Spoken Word." City in Motion receives frequent commissions for new work, including choreographing and performing Johann Sebastian Bach’s monumental Clavier Ubung III for the Country Club Christian Church in 2001 and William Bolcom’s “ The Garden” for the Hillside Arts Fellowship Concert Series at Hillside Christian Church, in 2002. The City in Motion Dance Company performance of “On The Move," presented in the spring of 2004, was listed in the Kansas City Star as one of the top 15 performing arts events of the year.

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Our New Dance Series is available as a theater to area dancers and choreographers for experimental works, works in progress and previously performed dances of special merit.

Schoolage children have already experienced the joy of moving with City in Motion Dance Company, performing under the auspices of Young Audiences, all across the metro area. We offer scholarships for disadvantaged children. This fund has helped create the Children's Dance Theater, made up entirely of scholarship students.

Adults can join classes by enrolling in our regular sessions, which include modern dance, ballet, jazz and creative movement, or in workshop sessions, which include West African dance, Belly dancing, Tango, East Coast Swing and Contact improvisation.

City in Motion is eager to hear from you. Please call about information on schedules, events, Friends in Motion, etc. Please use the address below for mail correspondence.

City in Motion Dance Theater
3925 Main St.
Kansas City, MO 64111-1916

Phone: 816-561-2882

or just leave us email, in care of Regina Compernolle, School Director, at cityinmotion@aol.com. When requesting any class information, please including your mailing address in your email message, so that schedules and other information may be sent to you, when available.

Or, click here for a registration form. (When printing, only the form will print.)

City in Motion is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation.

Webmaster: Russell Farley