Touring performances

School and Community Arts Education Program

National studies show that the arts can make a positive impact on student performance. Through the School and Community Arts Education Program, COCA can enable your teachers to provide culturally rich programs to their students.

See the Touring Performances details below or click on other School and Community Arts Educatioin Program for more information: Arts Enrichment Residencies, After-school Classes & Workshops and Professional Development.

Touring Performances

From the stage or studio – direct to your school or community center, COCA's professional touring artists will delight and inform students with 45-minute performances adaptable to your setting. COCA's Touring Performances may address Missouri performance standards for language arts, fine arts, foreign language and social sciences.

Supplementary educational materials accompany each performance with information about the performer and the program, and with ideas for teachers to provide curricular connections and extended learning experiences. The following are some examples of Touring Performances available:

Jadoo

Outside a storm is raging. Jadoo, a traveler, seeks shelter in the warmth of an old vaudeville theater and then the magic begins. Using masks, mime, comedy, magic, juggling and amazing stunts, Joshua Routh inhabits the role of Jadoo – Juggler, Magician, Chef, Clown and much more! His characters may live only for a moment in a shuffle of the feet, or the angle an arm is held, or they may take over and bring the show right into the audience's lap. Come along as Jadoo discovers, through his wild misadventure, where he really belongs.
$500.00 (back to back performances $750)

Storytelling Through the Ages

Travel through time to meet heroes, heroines, giants and ordinary folk whose stories stretch across continents and centuries. From ancient Greek myth to Africa, Ireland and American tall tales, experience the voices and images of different times and cultures. This animated and engaging program, featuring storytellers Gale Rublee Portman and Karen Young, is filled with adventure, life-lessons and laughter.
$550.00 (back to back performances $750)

African Storytelling & Percussion

An integrated storytelling and musical performance with audience interaction. Mtendaji has been teaching music, storytelling and dance throughout the St. Louis area for 16 years through Springboard to Learning. He is also an accomplished musician and performer of West African and Caribbean percussion instruments. Mtendaji spent 21 years as the founding director of Taifa/Afi Ama Folkloric Productions, a company which integrated storytelling and music in performance. Their recording “Stories From the Heart” won the Parent’s Choice award in 1992.
$500.00 (back to back performances $700)

Banyan Dance Theatre – Nous Prale Ayiti! (Let’s Go to Haiti!)

Artistic Director Kimberly Anderson invites you to experience a performance that takes you to Haiti where the cultures of the native Caribbeans, Africa and Europe combine. This adventure fills the senses with the melodic sounds of Haitian folk songs performed with live drumming and the captivating dances of this island nation. The audience becomes part of the celebration, joining in the music and movement and even learning to speak some Haitian Creole. Don’t miss this journey – “Nap we ou pi ta!” (We’ll see you later!)
$700.00 (back to back performances $900)

Pages to Pirouettes

Pages to Pirouettes, performed by COCA’s talented faculty, is a perfect mix of storytelling and classical ballet. Prior to each performance, dancers read a condensed version of the story to students, followed by the ballet, moving from the “pages” of books to the “pirouettes” of dance. These educational performances incorporate literacy, music and dance. Story ballet options for 2008-09 include The Nutcracker, music by Peter Tchaikovsky and Cinderella, music by Sergei Prokoviev.
$700.00 (back to back performances $900)

Touring Performances are a great way to introduce many students to the arts. Pricing is determined by type and length of program. For more information or to reserve a program, contact:

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