Hello again!  It’s spring at MADCO which means Books in Motion, Books in Motion, Books in Motion!

Last week the company started the first school of 2010, Conway School in Ladue.  Claire, Kari Ann and I have been working with the 5th graders on creating their own production of The Invention of Hugo Cabret.  So far, so good!  The kids are very excited and have A LOT of great ideas. 

It’s always fun to go to a school where the kids really take the project and make it their own.  Out of nowhere today one of my students in the ‘Magic’ group did a big roll downstage and whipped out some flowers from his sleeve.  It was hilarious and way better than anything I had planned.  Plus, no one could even tell he had the flowers in his sleeve; it was a complete surprise.  It really made his part more exciting and further emphasized the idea of tricks and illusions.

Some of the other company members just started Ladue Middle School.  They have a slew of kids.  Unlike our group of about 75, Ladue has almost 300 kids!  It will be really cool to see the difference between the two schools and I wish the company members well in working with such big groups. I am sure it will be rewarding…but definitely challenging.

In the meantime, MADCO is still working on our spring concert.  It’s March 19-20 at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.  Expect to see a lot of variety including some premieres as well as a couple old rep pieces that we missed. And of course as always, expect a little MADCO humor along side some more serious, intense dancing. For tickets visit touhill.org.

We also just had a photo shoot with our booking agent, Debbie Corson of Arts Core Productions.  Make sure to check our our website and Facebook page soon for new pictures!

And last but not least, congrats to company member Monica Alunday for landing one of the new Weissman’s Dancewear model positions! She will be shooting a TV commerical for the company as well as modeling leotards for their catalogs. Congrats Monica!

- Keli

Company Member