This page was retired on May 15, 2024. Follow our history of performances on our new page at packdance.org/concertarchives and see what we’re doing in the community on our Instagram page @packdancestl.

Dance Unplugged

Our kids had their first ever student choreographed and produced dance concert on May 18 & 19. The concert graphic above was created by Junior Company artist Alexa Parsons-Mentel.

CKDC Founder, Arica, featured in CanvasRebel

Recently CKDC’s founder, executive and artistic director, Arica Nyamsi, was interviewed by CanvasRebel. Read how Arica got into dance and founded CKDC.

“My third semester in college, I took Dance Composition and I was like “wait a minute, I can create any move I want? There are no rules? No guidebook?” I completely fell in love with choreography and I knew that this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I switched majors, started playing catch up and taught myself how to dance at age 21.”

Making Dance Accessible to Everyone - Arica Nyamsi

“I was an undergrad and an English major. I always joke, "because you know you have to go to college to be a writer, you know?" but I don't think anyone gets it. I just wanted to go to college, and I loved writing. I went to the University of Missouri-St. Louis because it was affordable and accessible, and I didn't have any support from my family to attend higher education. I was signing up for my classes and saw that there was an Intro to Dance class. It was listed as a lecture, and I had some high school experience on the "danceline," so I thought it might be an easy way to complete a fine art credit and learn about dance. Shockingly, this was NOT a lecture course, it was an overview of Ballet and Jazz, and I had to buy a leotard and tights, and I was NOT happy.”

CKDC Performes for the Village Aglow

CKDC will be performing for the St. Louis Village’s Share the Light event, a virtual village aglow. They will be part of the entertainment along with local music, dance and spoken word artists like Red and Black Brass Band, Prison Performing Arts, Phillip Graves (keyboards) with Ronni Gee (vocals), Jane Ellen Ibur (Poet Laureate City of St. Louis) and Asako Kuboki (violinist) SLSO.

View this event for FREE online on Tuesday, Oct. 12 on Vimeo.

https://vimeo.com/582227360

To donate, visit stlvillage.org or use Venmo @stlvillage

An Artistic Mother's Gift to the CWE's Consuming Kinetics Dance Company

Several weeks ago when I reached out to Consuming Kinetics Dance Company’s Founder & Artistic Director Arica Brown to get more infomation about the artist working on a mural on the Taylor side of the building, she asked if I could wait to publicize it as the artist wasn’t quite finished with the piece. When word arrived that it had been completed, it was accompanied by an artist’s statement from Chalk Artist Maria Knecht, shown above and below, which follows:

CKDC's sponsor, Wellbeing, makes headlines as nation's leading non-alcoholic beverage

ST. LOUIS – On hot days, you might want to crack open a cold and frosty one, but it’s almost too hot to drink alcohol. 

Jeff Stevens has the perfect solution, a line of nonalcoholic beers he brews with his wife, Genevieve. They are the owners of the WellBeing Brewing Company.

Jeff was out on the Lakeside Renovation and Design Weather Deck explaining his nonalcoholic alternative.

The beverages from WellBeing Brewing Company has more electrolytes than Gatorade.

Rising Stars: Meet Arica Brown

Check out interview with CKDC founder, Arica Brown, as she explores her life and the founding of CKDC.

“In 2009, I was the first student to graduate from University of Missouri with a dance degree. I took a full-time job in IT right out of college but also bartered teaching dance classes for rehearsal space so that I could start Consuming Kinetics Dance Company.”