Take the Lead: Celebrating City in Motion's Artistic Directors
- Kelsey Vetter
- Apr 15
- 4 min read
As City in Motion prepares for its Company Concert this weekend, we reflect on our leaders from past to present.
Good teams need good leaders. Someone with a vision, who recognizes talent and strength (and weaknesses), and who knows how to implement their ideas. That’s what the Artistic Directors of City in Motion’s dance company provide, and have been providing since 1985.
Our Artistic Directors help our company discover its artistic identity. On April 18 & 19, 2025, City in Motion will present “Past Present Future,” our company concert, at Union Station. It reflects our diverse company and highlights the many skills and backgrounds of our performing artists. The hard work of our dancers, choreographers, and ADs will be on full display.
Kathleen Kingsley Báez, founding member of CIM, says that for her generation of ADs, “City in Motion was our Big Chill.”
When the five founders first started the company, every one of them was an AD: The result? Everyone gets a say, everyone’s creative vision is respected, and everyone brings their best game to their performances.
“I’d ask Randy [Barron], why am I an artistic director?” Kathleen says. “And he said, ‘Because you see the whole picture.’”
Randy, who was co-directing Westport Ballet Theater in the early 1980s, already had some experience as a director. “Following the example of Pilobolus and some other avant-garde dance companies,” he explains, “we decided to set up a cooperative Artistic Director structure.” Pilobolus was a dance organization where dancers learned an improvisational technique that focused on dancers making contact with each other. This helped the CIM company form its identity as a home for cutting-edge modern dance.
“We all had such a different dance aesthetic, it made for a rich program with a variety of movement for the eye,” says Arielle Thomas Newman, who performed and presented workshops through the Artist in Education program while dancing with CIM.
Although predominantly a modern dance company, the influences of several dance styles have been featured throughout the years, showcasing our unique company members. In the past this has included classical modern as well as contemporary, influences of different ballet and jazz styles, cultural dancing such as Flamenco, Balinese and West African, tap, partner dancing, hip-hop, and most recently aerial dance. Each year CIM aims to present a variety of pieces, including new choreography as well as past works of our repertoire.
The influence and legacy of former Artistic Directors can be seen in the pieces performed onstage - but also in other aspects of the company. Dale Fellin, who joined CIM in 2004 after moving to Kansas City, bought costumes for the dancers that were so sturdy and high in quality that they’re still in use to this day. Harlan Brownlee choreographed a piece, “Generations,” that incorporated CIM’s young dancers - foreshadowing the ways present-day CIM incorporates apprentice dancers and students in the Young Choreographers Showcase.
“It’s been great watching the organization adapt and change over the decades, and I feel like a parent in many ways,” says Randy.
In many ways, the sense of camaraderie that develops among Artistic Directors throughout the years reflects the community that CIM provided. “I wish I had been more grateful at the time, in recognizing what it was,” says Harlan, who began dancing with the Susan Warden Dancers in 1984 (where he met Randy, who along with Kathleen asked him to come on board as an AD).
“We were pioneers,” he says, in Kansas City’s modern dance scene, but his marriage to Linda Putthoff stands out as its own legacy. “By the time we became romantically involved, we’d already been working together.” In the end, “we came through for each other.”
ADs were also forming connections to future ADs without evening knowing it! Current Artistic Directer Bobbi Foudree recalls first being asked to dance in 2011 in one of Dale’s pieces, but being unable to join the company due to her pregnancies. When Bobbi was next available to dance with CIM, then-AD Stephanie Whittler created a piece inspired by … pregnancies.
“We have dancers who were so willing to work with me and be part of the creative process,” says Bobbi, who had choreographed for a variety of local companies before joining CIM. She and Ann Shaughnessy have been “able to develop our artistry” together, demonstrating the importance of the “co-” in “co-artistic directors.” Of her partnership with Ann, she says, “We fill in each other’s gaps.”
We all need someone to lean on - sometimes literally. Arielle shares that Kathleen once caught her hand as she nearly lost her balance while taking a bow at the Folly Theater. Randy remembers “looking for creative ways for income,” which at one point included posing as living statues at a corporate event (poor Kathleen learned that it’s not great to play the Wicked Witch so close to Kansas). Harlan reflects, “I choreographed a piece called ‘Get A Real Job’ - on the dilemma of trying to get work as a dancer.”
“The people who came after us really took up the mantle and sustained the organization,” says Kathleen, who emphasized Andrea Skowronek’s role as AD. “Without Andrea, there wouldn’t be a fortieth anniversary.”
CIM provides a place in Kansas City for dancers looking for a home. Our ADs have consistently spotlighted the special talents of our dancers and helped develop a unity and cohesiveness that makes our company like a family.
OUR ARTISTIC DIRECTORS:
Randy Barron: 1985-1995
Jean Dickinson: 1985-1987
Ric Hillis: 1985-1987
Kathleen Kingsley: 1985-1995
Arielle Thomas Newman: 1985-1987
Harlan Brownlee: 1987-2000
Andrea Skowronek: 1995-2017
Ann-Marie Draeger: 1995-2000
Donna K. Frogge: 1995-2005
Penelope Hearne: 2005-2008
Dale Fellin: 2007-2015
Stephanie Whittler: 2008-2016
Tracie Jensen: 2017-2021
Marisa MacKay: 2017-2021
Joanna DesMarteau: 2017-2021
Ann Shaughnessy: 2022-present
Bobbi Foudree: 2022-present
