Dance Project Will Put Kids on Center Stage : Performing Arts: ‘City Moves’ will give 250 schoolchildren a chance to study modern dance, culminating in public performances at the San Diego Convention Center.

The San Diego Foundation for the Performing Arts, San Diego’s leading modern dance presenter, will move into the vanguard of dance education next week when it launches “City Moves,” an ambitious dance education and performance project for San Diego schoolchildren. The program was outlined at a press conference Monday.

“City Moves” will involve 250 children ages 8 through 18, as well as 50 local dancers, in its inaugural year. It will include a nine months of auditions at schools and community centers, master classes, rehearsals and public performances.

“I think what we’re doing is unique in the country,” foundation director Fred Colby said. “This is the first (educational program) organized and run by a presenter.”

The school year will culminate with five performances of “The Terrible Tale of Ringmaster Twigg,” a new dance-theater piece commissioned for the project. The work will be choreographed by project director William Conrow, who wrote the show, and other area dance makers, including Three’s Company artistic director Jean Isaacs; Patricia Sandback, director of SDSU’s dance program, and Stage Seven artistic director Katherine Irey.

Performances are scheduled for Memorial Day weekend at the San Diego Convention Center.

About 2,000 students from the San Diego Unified School District’s “Young at Art Program” will help create the sets, costumes and music. Five visual artists from the “Young at Arts Program” were commissioned to work with the students on that portion of the project.

San Diegans Bob Willey and Christopher Penney will compose the original music, and Philip Matzigkeit of the “Young at Art” program is charged with designing the decor.

“ ‘City Moves’ will be one of the largest theatrical events ever presented in San Diego,” Colby said. The project is meant “to significantly raise San Diego’s appreciation and support of dance and dance education.”

“During the first three weeks,” beginning in early October, “we’ll be putting on presentations to show the kids what it’s all about,” said Albert Rodewald, a foundation spokesman. “That ought to get 7,000 or 8,000 kids exposed.”

Half the young dancers for “City Moves” will be selected by audition from among the 20 schools participating this year. The remaining students, as well as the adult dancers, will be chosen through auditions at eight participating community centers throughout San Diego.

A quarter of the cast will be culled from high schools and another quarter will come from junior and middle schools; the remaining half will come from elementary schools. There will be no tuition charges for any of the participants.

The foundation, known for presenting well-known dance companies from out of town, plans to use this program as a means of nurturing San Diego’s own dance community.

“There’s always been that concern that we’re importing dance, and not part of the local dance community,” Colby said. “But we’ve always seen the value of bringing in the greats like the Joffrey, ABT, Martha Graham. Now you can see the results in the growth of the dance community.

“We came to the conclusion that we had an obligation to the community,” he said. “It was important for us to give something back, and there’s been no real programs to educate children in dance in the San Diego schools. I personally have strong political and social concerns, and I believe (this project) is a valuable tool for solving some of our social problems. This will bring people together--black, white, brown, whatever. There’s only two ways to do this: sports and the arts.”

Funding for the project will come from a variety of private and public sources, including Pacific Telesis Foundation, which provided the seed grant of $25,000, and the San Diego Unified Port District, which is kicking in $46,000 to underwrite the commissioned work that caps off the first year of the project.

However, Colby said, “we still need to raise an additional $60,000 in contributions before all aspects of the project can be realized. We have three other grant applications out now, and we’re very confident we’ll achieve that goal, because the response so far has been ecstatic.

“We want the community to come to those performances,” he said. “That’s why we’re keeping the ticket costs down to $5. We’re also trying to get more corporate support” for free tickets, he said.