Season 7

IMPACT (2015)

IMPACT was an investigation, a dialog, a performance, and celebration of local people. A multimedia, contemporary dance production, IMPACT reflected on different social issues and landscapes centered around our local Anchorage community. Working with composers, projection artists, filmmakers, and photographers, the Momentum dancers built a production that drew from local stories, observations, and their own experiences living here in Anchorage. IMPACT was designed and built on a traveling stage and set that the company presented to 6 Anchorage neighborhoods at the end of April of 2015.

The stage and set that feature this work became a giant screen for filmmaker Bryan Pentecostes and lighting designer Melissa Jabaay. Utilizing both the beauty of our natural surroundings, and the sometimes gritty juxtaposition of our urban landscapes surround by it, the universal themes that the dancers present became entrenched in Anchorage as a very specific ‘place’. Technical Director Ryan Anderson provided the foundation for this new world by designing a web of projection mapping that utilized six, high luminosity projectors. IMPACT also featured composer Christopher Jette, whose score wove its way through the piece.

IMPACT was meant to strip away the superficial layers that cling to us as definitions; race, gender, economic status, education, or background, and looks at common issues that we face in our communities that cross those borders: the strengths and struggles we all face irregardless of where we come from.  Our message was one of choice. How do we choose to interact with each other? What is our impact on the people and community around us? What is our part in promoting a culture of helping others? IMPACT is about reminding ourselves that we have to constantly re-engage with the larger community or we risk allowing its darkest sides to become normal.

IMPACT Community Performances & Partnering Organizations - To collaborate with our community even further, we have speakers, poets, singers, dancers, activists and passionate community leaders who will be taking the stage at the beginning of each show. Audiences will be able to learn a little bit about each neighborhood IMPACT performs in. Present at each location were our community partners; Covenant House Alaska, AWAIC, and Green Dot Anchorage. IMPACT touches on themes relevant to the work of each of these organizations. Each audience member will get the opportunity to engage with them if they wish, as well as place their IMPACT ticket in box, $5 of which will benefit these nonprofits. Our version of a live pick, click, give program.