Iowa Public Television

Living in Iowa

Iowa Dance and Drill Cmpetition (#1615)

For more than three decades the Dance and Drill Championships have showcased the state's highest ranked high school teams. Today the competition is the largest in the nation. From a modest beginning in 1974 when nine teams competed, the event has grown to 250 teams and 5,000 competitors. This week, Living in Iowa and the Iowa State Dance and Drill Team Association explore the evolution of the competition, including changes in costumes, pom poms, and dance technique. Though much has changed, dance and drill continues to help participants gain self-confidence, learn to work as a team, and be proud of their accomplishments.
Also on Living in Iowa this week, the Iowa Artists series continues with a look at the work of Lee Emma Running. Nature and its fleeting character inspire Running fullest moment of spring, and uses paint, wallpaper paste, and handmade paper to express it on the walls of art galleries. She also enjoys putting Yak hair and mohair on domestic items like scissors and brooms. She says she started her 'domestic animals' series after seeing wild animals in the middle of town and says our taming of the prairies has forced wild animals and plants to grow in a more compressed, man-made environment. Since completing her MFA degree at the University of Iowa, Lee has moved to Grinnell, where she is on the faculty at Grinnell College.
On this week he really digs fossils when he visits Fossil and Prairie Park, one of only three known public fossil collecting sites in the nation, located just outside Rockford, Iowa.
In this week itar Shop on Des Moines' East Side provided the backdrop when Living in Iowa was treated to a private recording session with The Soul Searchers. Playing music that's rooted in traditional blues with healthy doses of rockabilly and even he hardest working blues band in Des Moi [27 minutes]

This episode has not aired in the past few months on Iowa Public Television.