Reed Intermediate School students participating for in Pilobolus At Newtown, an After School Arts Program (ASAP), will offer a public performance with members of the professional company on Friday, December 19, at 7 pm.

Pilobolus Dance Theatre, a unique and very contemporary modern dance company based in Washington (Conn.), has been performing around the world for more than 40 years. ASAP, also based in Washington, has been providing workshops and school programming in northwest Connecticut for 16 years. The Pilobolus collaboration is a first for Reed school, however.

On December 2, about two dozen of the 34 students who signed up to participate in the program were in one of the school gyms, warming up under the guidance of Pilobolus Education Coordinator and dancer Emily Kent. Joined by fellow Pilobolus dancers Sayer Mansfield and Matt Del Rosario, Ms Kent was encouraging the students to work through a number of exercise that were fun to them, and good for their bodies.

Stretching and twisting combined seamlessly with giggles and laughter, as the professional dancers and children smiled, skipped, and flexed their way through warm-ups movements.

Ms Kent, Ms Mansfield, and Mr Del Rosario took turns suggesting different moves for the children to try. All students seemed very happy to try anything that was recommended, from walking in circles without bumping into each other and then moving only in right angles to sliding on their backs across the glossy wooden floor.

The dancers have been with Reed students since near the start of the 2014-15 school year. The program, which runs for 90 minutes each week, began October 7. As the youngsters warmed up they broke into groups and returned to exercises they had done in previous sessions.

With music playing in the background, modern dance segments began to be realized, but only in short segments. Eventually some children were leap-frogging over each other, while others held their arms out to their sides and twirled in circles. The words that continued to come from the adults were always encouraging.

The final presentation - what the public will see next week - is a continuing work in progress.

Ms Kent said she and other Pilobolus dancers encourage creative thinking.

"There is a lot of 'Let's try something new, or something different,' every week that we're here," she said last Tuesday afternoon. "We don't come in with an idea of a dance. The students come up with ideas and we start building together.

"We work as outside eyes," she said of the adults. "This is really about the students creating as a group, learning how to make something, in this case a dance."

Watching the children work and play so well together, it is surprising to learn that many were not close friends before the beginning of the school year. As they roll and climb over each other, seemingly without hesitation or fear, Ms Kent smiled and said, "They were much more tentative the first week.

"This really requires that they work together," she said.

The public program will have three elements: there will be "several different dances we have created with the students," according to Ms Kent; there will be a demonstration of how some of the dances came together; and the audience will also be treated to a performance of "Alraune," a classic Pilobolus duet from 1975, performed by Ms Mansfield and Mr Del Rosario.

The performance is open to the public, and will last approximately one hour.

Tickets are $10 if purchased online at afterschoolartsprogram.org/asap-events/pilobolus-at-newtown or will be $15 at the door.