HISTORY

Music 'n Motion began serving Florida Visual Performing groups and their youth performers back in 1978 with the creation of Cathy's Crew, a baton twirling ensemble with over 400 students in the Broward County area. Cathy Kersten, the director and founder of Music 'n Motion, first called the business Auxiliaries in Motion, and began teaching Majorettes at local high schools. Her husband, Jon, joined in and became involved as a marching band show designer and color guard choreographer with local high schools during 1980.  Jon and Cathy were instrumental in the development of the SFCGA at this time and they both became active band and auxiliary adjudicators for FBA and the local circuit. Jon expanded to teach percussion and was the Director of Florida Wave Drum and Bugle Corps from 1980-1982. That corp's membership included Mike Green, Tommy Santino, Bruce Henderson, Gino Cipriani, Paul and Art Corbierre among others that went on to become successful pageantry arts instructors, designers and choreographers.  Instructors included Mark Tatum and Chris Sharp.  Auxiliaries in Motion then began selling footwear and equipment to performance groups and continues today as Director's Showcase Distributors.

In 1984, the Kersten family and business relocated to the Orlando area. A new twirling ensemble, The Florida Twirling Academy (FTA), was Cathy's endeavor, and Jon began to write more drill and choreography for leading groups across Florida. A name change was called for, and in 1986  "Music In Motion" was the official listing for their pageantry arts service business.  Jon and Cathy arrived in the area in time to help develop the Florida Federation of Color Guards Circuit which had been started the previous year by John Harlow and Roanna Combs in the Lakeland area. Jon saw a need for the training of pageantry arts judges and founded the Florida Federation of Judges Association. Cathy instituted the "Flag Exchange"  in 1987 to create a way for color guards and dance teams to sell, trade or borrow used equipment. This is still the name of her Uniform, Flag and Equipment Company. Cathy's direction as a chief judge for the FFCC drew her National attention and she began judging DCI and WGI in the late 80's into the early 90's . The Kerstens then opened a studio, "Kids in Motion" for training auxiliaries and gymnastics in the Orlando area.  After five straight State NBTA Twirling Team Titles with FTA and 2 placements at USTA Nationals with her team, Cathy said goodbye to the twirling end of the activity as Color Guard started to take over as a dominant force.

In 1989, Music in Motion began teaching their "Summer Tour" training camps. The initial staff was Jon and Cathy, Cheryl Wimberly, Michelle Dershimer (Gustafson), Jeff Welch, and a few others. One Orlando camp at UCF with 49 kids has now developed into 5 states, 13 camps and over 700 kids participating each summer. This continues to be the foundation of our business with it's service to Florida bands.

"Beyond", an Independent color guard, was created by the above staff to give the older performers out of school a chance to keep competing in the world of WGI. It was promoted to Open Class at it's first regional and went on to win 9 local circuit championships in FFCC and the Gulf Coast Circuit, with 19 WGI Regional Championships in three classes over the next 10 years. "Beyond" also was the 1994 Independent Class A Bronze Medal at the WGI  Olympics in Dayton, Ohio. Many of the premiere instructors of todaygot their start with "Beyo nd" including; Adam Sage, Scott Beck, Michelle Stissel, Daniel Helton, Mark Dwyer, Sean Bennett, Shawn McCaig, Jenn Kersten, Sandie Kersten-Rosenblatt, Kevin Griner, Barry Artis, Bobby Hazelton, Chris Martone, Regina (Byrn) Knabe and many other successful instructors across the country. Cathy was determined, with a strong 1990 proposal to WGI, to create a third level class which could exist between the A and World Class performance and design levels.  She also lobbied hard in 1997 to make WGI take the same amount of guards (15) to finals in Open Class as the other levels, instead of only 12 initiated for this class in it's first 5 years.

2001 saw the name drop the "I"  and become "Music 'n Motion" and in 2002 it legally updated again to "Music 'n Motion Productions" after producing three college bowl half-time extravaganzas, the Florida Marching Band Tournament,  The National Show Choir Championships at Universal Studios, commercial television motion choreography, The African American Extravaganza in the Orange Bowl, and many other large events.  Cathy is currently the Tournament Director for the FMBC, and for 20 All-Star Music Festivals held in Georgia an d Florida each Spring. Jon, and UCF Marching Band Assistant Director, Ron Ellis have now formed " 'NSTEP " which is a musical / visual design team programming over 50 marching band shows for high school bands and drum corps in 14 states and Japan.  Jon is a National level marching band adjudicator with the CSJA, FBA and FFJA and judges  many State Championships events throughout Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, South and North Carolina, Georgia and Missouri.

The Kersten Kids, Jenn, Sandie, Stephanie, and Bill, have been very helpful and understanding with the business and they are developing into the roles of leaders, managers and designers as we progress into the next 25 years. Music 'n Motion has been dedicated to providing training and educational performance opportunities to the youth of the pageantry arts activity. Thank you so much for your support to all those we have come in contact with and we hope you will continue to let "Music 'n Motion" serve you.

Contact cathy@musicnmotion.org for more details.