Karen Aqua (1954-2011) was a New England-based filmmaker and animator who graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1976. She began producing animated shorts for Sesame Street in 1990 and had produced, directed, and animated 22 segments for the show since then. She passed away in May of 2011 after a decade of fighting ovarian cancer.
She wrote the lyrics and melody for the majority of her animations. Her husband, Ken Field, collaborated on the melody for some pieces, as well as providing chords and arrangements for most of them. Any exceptions to this are noted below.
Standalone Segments[]
| Picture | Description | |
|---|---|---|
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Animals on Parade (First: Episode 2794)
(alternate title: "Tempo & Rhythm: Animals on Parade")
| |
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Dance to the Rhythm (First: Episode 2795)
A dog watches a girl and an alligator dance and then joins them.
| |
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Imagination: Jungle Fantasy (First: Episode 2808)
(alternate title: "Imagination") | |
 |
Tempo Fast/Slow (First: Episode 3072)
(alternate title: Fast/Slow) | |
 |
Number Dance (First: Episode 3079)
Masked figures dance around numbers from one to ten. Both English and Spanish language versions were created.
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Samba Line: Forward/Backward (First: Episode 3083)
(alternate title: Forward/Backward) | |
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Outdoor Letter "N" (First: Episode 3377)
A woman dances around a stone structure which looks like a lowercase "n". This live-action film is shown backwards, and the "n" was found near Roswell, NM. | |
 |
Move to the Beat (First: Episode 3387)
A girl dances with an animated tiger.
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Family Dance (First: Episode 3487)
A cut-out family dances together. | |
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Dancing with Elmo (First: Episode 3505)
A dog (referred to as Dash by composer Ken Field[1]) dances with cut-out photographs of Elmo. | |
 |
Building a Rhythm (First: Episode 3747)
Animals dance in unison and then in contrasting rhythms, accompanied by bottles, percussion instruments, and a clay drum. | |
 |
Pass-Along Alphabet (First: Episode 3740)
Cut-outs of kids and animals pass letters around to do the alphabet. | |
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Ten Dancing Kids (First: Episode 3902)
Animated cutouts of ten kids dance and "freeze". | |
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Animal Dance Duet (First: Episode 4015) (elephant) (First: Episode 4030) (octopus)
A girl, Lisa, dances with an elephant or octopus.
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Rhyme Time (First: Episode 4045)
A frog and his friend hog go for a jog. A quail with a purple tail meets a snail on the trail. | |
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Jumping J (First: Episode 4051)
A jaguar, a jackrabbit, a jaybird, and a jackal jump with a jumping J.
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Dancing with the Flowers (First: Episode 4058)
A girl dances with flowers, trees and the sun. |
Animated Series[]
Sources[]
External links[]
- Official site (archived)
- Ken Field Official Site
- BMI Repertoire