Music in Motion® was conceived sitting around a table with a bunch of people including Hugh Copeland, Nancy Ayers McClees, Bob Fischbeck, Glenn Graham,Skip Newton, Bob Teilebaum and Barb Thuesen and a guy from a broadcast company in Portsmouth planning a dance concert at the Center Theater in Norfolk Virginia March 1966 as a benefit fund raiser for the American Cancer Society. The other goals were to give dancers a performing outlet, to do diverse styles of dance including ballet, jazz, modern and ethnic.

Music in Motion® was chosen as the title for the production. The logo was designed and the trademark was filled in 1970 for dance presentation services. The 1966 Performance included a modern scultured piece, a white ballet, classic solo, and story character ballet, using numerous ethnic dances. It made money for the American Cancer Society and covered costs of rental, program and costumes by Mary Duckworth and Pam Luttrelle. Music in Motion was off and running.

Concerts followed in the park, on the beach, in the Alan B Shepherd Dome; Compositions by Tom Rice; Music by Bruce Roberts, the Chesapeake Bay Bearcats, Sets by Stan Fedezyn, Lighting by Bob Teitelbaum, Photography by Bob Fischbeck.

Incorporated as the Tidewater Dance Guild, Inc., a not for profit corporation doing concerts under the Music in Motion® name and dance classes under the Tidewater Dance Guild it has had many directors, many teachers and many locations: Vija Cunningham, Barbara Thuesen, Era Warner and many dancer who went on to careers around the country. Judith Hatcher, a talented author and choreographer; Elbert Watson performed with Alvin Ailey and returned 20 years later to head up the Norfolk Academy program.

Nancy Cuthbert and Nancy Mc Clees wrote and spoke to the State of Virginia legislature on the importance of a state arts council, Barb got involved with the Association of American Dance Companies and the Regional Ballet movement and the Virginia Commission of Arts and Humanities, Inc. was formed.

In New Orleans Barb was involved with the Louisiana Council for Music and the Performing Arts which carried the Music in Motion name further. She organized a company to perform in high schools and theaters, working with the News Orleans Repertory Theatre, La Petit Theatre de Vieux Carre (discovered lighting designer Beth Hudson), Loyola University, and worked with teachers Gail Parmellee, Harvey Hysell and Valerie Smith. Music in Motion® dancers won scholarships to the American Dance Camp in Gulfport, Mississippi, and Barbara became the Associate Director.

The company continued in Virginia, too, and expanded into Northern Virginia with tours around the state with Old Dominion Symphony Association performing with nine symphony orchestras in schools, at arts festivals, community concerts series, and Young Audiences. In-service teacher training was provided throughout the state and enabled the establishment of the State of Virginia’s Grant program (under Frank Dunham). The creation of Youth on Stage, a statewide music/theater group of thirty-six high school age students, were auditioned throughout the state, transported, trained, packaged and toured throughout the commonwealth during the summers of 1969 through 1973.

During this time the Music in Motion® trademark was filed and awarded in 1972 to cover dance presentation services, a book “The Choreographer©” was published, copy righted and marketed. Based on American Dance Camp sessions. Process, class techniques, it was a successful, well-received addition to the then-sparse library of dance literature and found its way into many college curriculum’s and the Ballet Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. “The Choreographer” is available from BarnesandNoble.com.

Music in Motion® did the opening show for Virginia at Wolf Trap Farm Park for the Performing Arts, Inc. Filene Center in 1972. In 1973 the Music in Motion® Support Organization, Inc., a non-profit corporation was formed in Hawaii to give performances, classes, and begin work with a younger company of 10 to14-year-olds and 15 to 17-year-olds working with professional dancers in the Music in Motion® Series (eighteen per year in schools and concert halls). The sold out performances of the Nutcracker instigated research, documentation and statistics done by Barbara led to the establishment of the Honolulu City Ballet using CETA funding. Some of the dancers involved were Stephanie Wing, Louise Kawabata, Ernest Morgan, Bryan da Silva, Chandra Tanna, Joel & Margie Gaglio, Faye MacPhee. Younger dancers who got their first taste of dance went on to New York City: Julie Bickerton the ABT, Lisa Viola to the New England Dinosaur Company, Chandra Tanna to Broadway in The King and I.

In Ithaca, New York Music in Motion® was designated for the centennial celebration in 1988 performing and choreographing the centerpiece. Nancy Thuesen Gell was awarded the medal of appreciation from the city as an International Principal Dancer.

Involvement in the restoration of the historic Strand Theatre and the Tompkins County Center for Culture and the Performing Arts, Inc. was successful, but the theater was closed in 1982 due to lack of support by the city. More successful ventures in central New York included work at Keuka College; the Groton, New York, Festival; Ithaca Festivals, Greater Ithaca Activities Center; Southside Community Center and the Mohawk Valley for the Performing Arts in Utica, New York.

Exchange continues between Music in Motion® members in Maine, Texas, California, Hawaii, Virginia and Georgia. A 30-year reunion held in 1996 and the establishment of a Foundation/Trust 2000.

In addition to dancers mentioned earlier in this piece, Music in Motion®dancers include:

* Darlene Kelly/Stephens
* Victoria Vaslette, principal Hartford Ballet
* Mike Saunders and Kathy Fitzgerald, Netherlands Dance Theatre
* Nichols Pacana, Atlanta Ballet
* Richard Rein, American Ballet Theatre
* Pat Delleney, Sharon Dwinnell, Kenneth Hughes of American Ballet Theatre, Feld Ballet
* Judith Hatcher, Elbert Watson of Alvin Ailey Company and Nancy Thuesen (Mrs Gell) (North Carolina, Joffery, Feld, Contemporary Ballet, Louisville and guest artist around the world including China)
* Luanne Aronson, David Barton, Ted Coach and Christing Williamson, Youth on Stage© on Broadway

We have been blessed with many great participants and remember them all.
Come Join us! We continue to grow and expand opportunities for dance.