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Keene’s MoCo Arts is vibrant with creativity

By George Pelletier - Milford Bureau Chief | Jun 19, 2021

KEENE – The dance steps, high notes and soliloquies are back and as vibrant as ever at MoCo Arts, 40 Roxbury St., as their summer season begins with music and theatre performances, dance and youth camps.

A highly regarded favorite, MoCo Arts is a family-centric non-profit arts education organization in downtown Keene. The multi-faceted MoCo Arts offers classes in dance and theatre, as well as multi-arts camps for children. It was established in 1991, (then, not a non-profit), as the Moving Company Dance Center, now known as MoCo Arts.

Their mission is stirring but simple: “Transforming lives through movement and creative expression.”

MoCo Arts Executive Director and Artistic Director for dance, Reagan Messer, has extensive experience in the world of the arts. He is a former Boston Ballet soloist and has danced as a guest artist throughout the United States, South America and New Zealand; he also served as Ballet Master for Boston Ballet from 2000- 2002. He is an accomplished jazz tap dancer, educator and coach.

When Messer stepped into his role as executive director, the goal was to stretch the boundaries of what MoCo Arts is about, not only teaching children from 18 months to 18 years of age, but also extend that teaching to adults as well.

MoCo Arts doesn’t really have a busy season – their offerings are available throughout the year.

“We stay pretty busy year-round,” he said. “We run different semesters- our fall semester ties in with kids who are going back to school. That fall semester runs from late August, early September through January.”

From there, there is a spring semester which runs through June, and then the summer camps and classes kick-off at the end of June.

As for what makes an ideal student at MoCo, Messer said that circles back to their mission statement.

“We feel that the arts are important, and every child should have the chance to experience an arts education,” he stated. “Obviously, the arts don’t just teach you how to dance and sing and act. They teach you so many life skills that are crucial regardless of what life path you go down.”

As a non-profit, MoCo’s goal is to ensure that the arts are for everyone and not just the “haves.” MoCo awards up to $80,000 a year in scholarships for students, and tuition assistance is also available.

MoCo generates revenue through class tuition, camps and tickets to their performances, Messer said, which is about 65 percent.

“We do about 25 productions throughout the year between all the programs,” he explained. “The other 35 percent of our revenue comes through donations.”

MoCo christened a new building in 2018 and went from 7,700 square feet to 17,000 square feet. The old building had MoCo’s “Black Box Theatre.”

“In the old building with the ‘Black Box Theatre,’ but it was one of the studios,” Messer said. “If we had classes going on in the week and a show this weekend, we’d go in late Thursday night or early Friday morning and we’d flip the studio and set it up as a theatre with risers, chairs, everything, and then Sunday night, everything would have to come down.”

Messer estimates that at any performance, seating can range from 116 to 145.

“We could get up to seat 200, but that would be just you and me talking at a podium,” he said. “One-hundred forty-five we run as our annual fundraiser.”

Between all the programs, classes and camps, Messer said the dance program is the largest program with the most students.

“For our dance program, we offer five disciplines,” he shared. “We have ballet, which is the basis of everything. We have jazz, we offer tap – and within jazz, you can break it down to Broadway jazz, street jazz, lyrical jazz, etc. We offer modern dance and also have hip-hop.”

The second-biggest draw is the young arts program, which focuses on young toddlers and above.

“At age three, children begin to learn basic movement and go off into a class of their own,” Messer said. “In the young arts program, they have dance classes and story time theatre, which is a theatre class where they put on musicals. You have five or six-year olds are doing little one act musicals and it’s amazing. You never know what you’re going to get with them. Are they going to remember their lines? Are they going to do the steps? They make stuff up and you say, ‘We’re just going to go with this.'”

MoCo’s theatre program begins at second grade, which is made up of musical theatre and straight plays, with an elementary school level, a middle school level and a high school level.

Messer said the camps are made up of two different camps: C.A.K.E. (Creative Arts at Keene), which is third grade and up, and the other is Cupcake, which is the mini-version of C.A.K.E., geared towards children four years of age through second grade.

“They’ve got artwork that they’re doing,” he said. “They’re dancing, they’re putting on shows where they’re singing and dancing in musicals. The camps really broaden out what we teach during the year and become really more multi-arts.”

As a dancer, Messer said that MoCo was a natural fit, as was the western corridor of New Hampshire.

“My wife was a dancer as well,” he said. “We met at Boston Ballet, and she grew up in Peterborough, New Hampshire. So, we came back to this area to be closer to her family. And I started teaching at MoCo, and I was still guesting. When we came here, I didn’t think this would be forever and I’ve now been with the organization since 2002.”

Messer acknowledged that while musicians, singers and actors don’t necessarily have a shelf life, dancers do.

“As a dream job, I knew that even in my early 20’s at Boston Ballet, that you can’t dance forever,” he said. “Now with technology and the training that is available to athletes, they’re going later and later. For me, I knew I couldn’t dance forever, but I wanted to stay in the arts and pass this along because that’s how the arts are passed on- through the studio, person-to-person.”

Messer has danced and performed with iconic figures through his illustrious career but reiterated that it’s all about passing the torch.

“You have to pass that knowledge in order to keep it alive,” he said.

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