Louise Reichlin & Dancers specializes in educational performances and workshops, presenting thousands of interactive shows and residencies since 1980 as part of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Intergroup Cultural Awareness Program (ICAP), the Arts Community Partnership Network (ACPN), and Partners for Student Success. It has performed at the Los Angeles Zoo, XXIII Olympics, and in 22 states, Mexico and Taipei. Its sponsors include the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Mark Taper Auditorium, Young Audience’s “Share the World” project, Orange County Performing Arts Center, and Las Vegas Cultural Affairs, receiving repeated funding from the California Arts Council, Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Dept. All dances support the current State of California Content Standards.

In Dance! with LA Choreographers & Dancers, students learn to turn ordinary moves into dance by using space, time, and energy.  The Tennis Dances shows how dance expresses moods, atmospheres, and feelings. From their seats, students take part in a multi-ethnic dance that teaches words and gestures from Japanese, Israeli, and West African cultures. Some are invited onstage for the closing Let’s All Dance to a Bluegrass Beat. An engaging and interactive show!

Adapted from the 1913 children’s classic, The Patchwork Girl of Oz tells of Ojo’s quest to restore his uncle from marble and, along the way, make new friends, including the marvelously contemporary Patchwork Girl. Ten fantastical dances, woven together with music and narration, help tell the story filled with cooperation, family, friendship, forgiveness, respect for all life, and ultimately, self-reliance—values that are still important more than 100 years later.

Based on “Little Red Riding Hood,” The Better to Bite You With weaves the theme of teeth in an interactive multimedia show filled with technology inspired by fascinating colorful digital dental x-rays of teeth, gums, and bones; narration, music (from Dixieland to vaudeville to Tchaikovsky to King Crimson) and dance! The dance begins with a vaudevillian collage of mouths and toothbrushes. As we enter the storyline, we meet Lil Red and her Mama Blue and discover where she got her name and the dilemma she has, a toothache to be precise. Sent to see her Grandmother who is to take her to the dentist, Lil Red must travel through a park where many different animals live. Afraid and reluctant to go through, she dances with a flock of birds in front of the park. Later Lil Red meets the infamous Wolf who has very bad tooth hygiene, and the story builds to an unexpected and creative conclusion.

“An Immigrant’s Child’s Story” premiered as “A Jewish Child’s Story, Part I:  A Dream—The Roses on My Wallpaper” and the concert version has been performed in Las Vegas, Santa Barbara, Culver City, New York, and Los Angeles. An autobiographical dance multimedia work of early dreams from a granddaughter of Jewish immigrants, it is both empowering as well as entertaining. It has archetypal and personal characters from the ‘40s, including Wonder Woman, K-ton, a ballerina, and biblical figures from the storyteller’s own and other cultures including Rebekah at the Well, and Miriam with her cradle holding Moses. It is particularly relevant today with the immigration focus.