Brenna McCarthy

Brenna began dancing at an early age after falling in love with Ballet while watching her older sister and brother in their classes at Ballet Barre in Fairbanks, AK. She danced at several dance studios in Fairbanks until Northland Dance (now Dance Theater Fairbanks) was formed by Patricia Sims. Northland Dance provided Brenna with opportunities in studying multiple styles of dance and theater as well as opportunities to work with various local and international instructors. Brenna’s introduction to Modern and Contemporary styles of dance came with her yearly involvement with the Fairbanks Summer Fine Arts Camp and Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival from 1994-2001. In 1999 she also attended the Summer Dance Lab at Whitman College, and in 2000 and 2001 Brenna had her dance, performance, and choreographic skills adjudicated at Dance Excellence in Los Angeles, CA which came with performance opportunities at Disney Land.

Brenna attended the Art Institute of Seattle in Seattle, WA where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design and Illustration. During her first year of college Brenna took public ballet and modern classes at Pacific Northwest Ballet School where she met Sonia Dawkins of SD Prism Dance Theatre and was invited to dance and perform with her company for a short period of time. Brenna chose to focus on her studies and put dance on the back burner. She moved back to Alaska in 2005 and began training as a Massage Therapist. She has been a Practicing Licensed Massage Therapist since 2009. In 2015 she began taking ballet and modern classes at UAA and performing in UAA Dance in Performance 2016, and UAA New Dances 2007 and 2017. Brenna joined Momentum Dance Collective in 2017/2018 and has enjoyed growing as an artist and a human amongst these brilliantly creative dancers. In 2019 Brenna became a mom and she revels in sharing her love of movement with her daughter.