A Production Built on Dreams : Theater: A community-outreach project combines the talents of students, as well as parents and professionals.

Ladieeees and gentlemen! The big top goes up at the San Diego Convention Center this weekend, but watch out! This is no ordinary circus!

It’s “The Terrible Tale of Ringmaster Twigg,” a monumental dance-theater production with Gypsies, clowns and acrobats, with a diabolical mesmerizing machine, a haunted house and a factory that turns village children into dolls! Gasp!

But wait! It’s a story of courage, too, the courage and compassion of orphans to overcome the wickedness of the mean, embittered Mr. Twigg. The village is saved!

This terrible tale with a happy ending is the work of CityMoves, an ambitious community-outreach program launched this year by the San Diego Foundation for the Performing Arts.

More than 300 performers, third graders to adults, are presenting performances of “Ringmaster Twigg” today (7:30 p.m.) and Sunday (at 2 and 7:30 p.m.).

The CityMoves project is a tale unto itself. Beginning last fall, thousands of students citywide participated in dance workshops to try out for a part in Twigg’s circus story, which was written and directed by choreographer-playwright Bill Conrow. Months of rehearsals followed, with hundreds of parents pitching in to work on the project at every level, and in the performances some parents--dancers themselves--will perform with their children.

Yet another story is how Conrow, a newcomer to the San Diego dance community, worked with a large group of local choreographers, dance instructors, artists, composers and costume and set designers to create the production.

What CityMoves means to the children involved, and what effect it’s having on dance and the arts in San Diego are stories that are still unfolding.

“Dancing in CityMoves makes school seem like vacation,” said 9-year-old Meagan Marshall. “It’s been fun, but it’s pretty hard, because you have to be quiet when you’re not dancing.” To Meagan, dancing takes a lot of energy; more than the energy it takes to sit and think in school.

As one of Twigg’s dastardly “men,” she is disguised as a ghost in the “Haunted House Dance” and her job is to “run around chasing and scaring orphans” so Twigg can catch them. “I’ll be the one who is dragging an orphan with red hair,” she said with amusement.

Meagan has made friends with other dancers, she said, since beginning weekly sessions last November with CityMoves dance teachers and choreographers, and she’s learned “how you have to act when you dance, some positions you have to take, and where to look,” by watching the adults, notably her mother, Margaret Marshall, who is director and founder of the dance program at UC San Diego.

“I got involved with CityMoves just as a parent,” Marshall said, but she said she was encouraged by director Conrow to dance, too. “So I auditioned along with my students and got one of the leading parts. It’s been a kick.”

The dance in which her daughter performs was choreographed by one of Marshall’s students, Melissa Cottle. Cottle has won awards for choreography at UCSD and graduated from the university this year.

“The circle was closed for me,” Marshall said. “As a parent, I take my daughter to rehearsal, and she’s in Melissa’s work. I think that’s what the project has tried to create--dance in education that works for your whole life. Parents, the community, and professionals are involved.”

As a choreographer, Cottle said working in CityMoves has been “eye-opening.”

“It’s been a tremendous learning experience, to work with kids this age, this extensively.”

Choreographing her dance for 38 children, most of whom have little technical training and who range in age from 8 to 14, is a challenge and has its artistic limitations. But Cottle points out that “what it’s really all about is starting at the grass roots. These are the kids who are going to grow up and not only be the dancers, but also the patrons of dance.”

“I’ve been watching the rehearsals, and the sheer energy that comes from 300 kids on stage is astounding,” she added. “Unless you are completely closed off, you can’t help but be excited about it--maybe not as an artist, but as a human being.”

Conrow, who has organized similar dance-theater projects in Oklahoma and Utah, although on a smaller scale, believes that young people are capable of doing “wonderful work on stage as long as you give them the amount of rehearsal time that’s required.”

Twenty weeks of Saturday rehearsals has created some scheduling problems, but the long hours have not burned out the kids, according to Marshall. “One of the magic things that’s happening,” she said, “is that most of the kids are getting more and more enthusiastic.”

Having access to accomplished adult dancers, an exposure that accelerates learning and retention, Conrow noted, may account for the sense of growing enthusiasm among the young ones, increasing their confidence.

The 16 dances for “Ringmaster Twigg” were choreographed and taught by local dance professionals, including Jean Isaacs, artistic director of 3’s Company & Dancers, whose daughter, Liv Isaac-Nollet, is also performing. Patrick Nollet, choreographer with California Ballet, will dance as Ringmaster Twigg; also involved in the project are Donald Robinson, with the School for Creative and Performing Arts; D. Amelia, who is also CityMoves’ community outreach coordinator, Patricia Masters, from the Institute for Arts Education, Katherine Irey, Stage 7, Bill Cratty, and at least half a dozen others.

The score for the dances was created by Bob Willey and Christopher Penney. Some of the music will be performed electronically by the composers, and some will be played by the Mira Mesa High School Band.

Willey, who teaches electronic music at San Diego State University and is a researcher at UCSD, said he also got “quite an education” this year, learning the vocabulary of movement and how it translates into music.

“I hadn’t written for dance before, but I thought (CityMoves) would be a good use of music . . . for all these kids.”

Dance has hardly been included in the school curriculum in San Diego, which is essentially the reason CityMoves was born.

Fred Colby, executive director of the San Diego Foundation for the Performing Arts, believes CityMoves was fated to be. Three years ago Danah Fayman, the organization’s president and founder, began researching possibilities for a community dance program for children.

“What we wanted was an ongoing program that would grow and grow,” he said, one that was “not just dance, but social, educational, and multicultural.”

Nothing was suitable that could be brought in from other cities, so the foundation voted to create its own program, and a week later Bill Conrow “showed up on our doorstep,” Colby said. CityMoves “was meant to be.”

With $25,000 in seed money from Pacific Telesis, and planning grants in place, Colby said, Conrow’s and the foundation’s ideas evolved together to create the huge project. CityMoves is designed to quadruple in scope in four years, so that 1000 students can perform together.

Colby hopes a local ethnic dance festival can be instituted alongside the performance project. “We see the arts as a means of bringing the community together.”

Garry Rollins, who is a facilitator and resource teacher with the San Diego Unified School District’s Race and Human Relations program, is dancing in “Ringmaster Twigg” with his son, because he feels the goals of CityMoves fit the goals of his own work.

“CityMoves is doing many of the things we ask the people in the community to do--to enhance student’s involvement in a positive manner, and give them goals, direction, and guidance,” Rollins said.

CityMoves, he said, is “good for kids who don’t have a lot of activities. It keeps them off the street, gives them positive interaction with other students, a lot of diversity, and growth. I’ve seen students’ self-esteem explode--from very little to none, to a great deal.”

Rollins performs as one of the villagers hypnotized by Twigg’s magic mesmerizing machine. His son, fourth-grader Garry Jr., is one of Twigg’s men.

“It’s a real fun activity, dancing, getting to learn about the show, seeing all the props and costumes, getting to meet everybody,” said Garry Jr. He especially liked being one of the “bad guys.” Dancing together with that group was fun, too. “When you’re doing something yourself, trying to learn the dance, they cheer you on.”

Fitting the 20-week rehearsal commitment into an already busy schedule for both father and son was problematic, Garry Sr. said. Considering the number of people and schedules involved, he was impressed at how smoothly it went.

That smoothness over many months of coordination has been a pleasant surprise to Conrow. “The involvement of the families has been terrific. I expected that, but I’ve been surprised at how many have gone way beyond, as far as volunteer work--helping to build sets, create costumes, sell advertising and generally create an atmosphere of excitement for the young dancers.

“But I guess the biggest surprise,” he adds, “is how it’s all coming together the way it’s supposed to. It looks like we’re going to have a happy ending our first year out.”

Performances of “The Terrible Tale of Ringmaster Twigg” are at 7:30 tonight and 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday. At the San Diego Convention Center, 111 W. Harbor Drive. Tickets are $5 in advance, $7.50 at the door.