Night at the Tower: A huge success

The final stage of receiving an LCC grant in Massachusetts is to document the event we produced by providing proof of its completion (and in this case, it's overwhelming success!) via supplying the council with images, videos, testimonials, and press. Normally, this is a fairly simple step, and serves as a clean wrap-up to the community outreach event we've just completed. This time, we have been so inundated with materials surrounding Night at the Tower that Merli instead decided to gather them all up in one place: Both for the council to review (hello, ACC!), and for our friends and supporters to enjoy as well. After all, why not celebrate the conclusion of our very successful 2014 Cultural Community Outreach Program with everyone?


NIGHT AT THE TOWER

Due to an epic storm on our scheduled date of Saturday, Sept 6, this event was ultimately held on Sunday, Sept 7 from 7-9pm at the water tower of Park Circle in Arlington Heights, MA.

Creator: This project was created and led by Merli V. Guerra, local Arlington resident and Artistic Director/co-founder of Luminarium Dance Company.

Performers: Luminarium Company Members Rose Abramoff, Melenie Diarbekirian, Nikki Girroir, Merli V. Guerra, Jessica Jacob, Amy Mastrangelo, Katie McGrail, Gabby Pacheco

Choreography: Merli V. Guerra and Kimberleigh A. Holman

Dance-on-camera films: Merli V. Guerra and Kimberleigh A. Holman

Special thanks: This program was made possible thanks to grants from the Arlington Cultural Council and The Bob Jolly Charitable Trust. Special thanks to the Arlington Center for the Arts for providing 75 images from the Images of Arlington collection, featuring images of Arlington by Arlington children and adults over the past 10 years. Thanks also to Zebbler Studios and Ben Rudnick & Friends for projector and sound equipment.


PHOTOS

Many thanks to Maria Fonseca for the following gorgeous images of our event:

CLICK HERE TO VIEW

Thanks also to Kathleen Fink for capturing our event through her beautiful photos as well:

CLICK HERE TO VIEW

VIDEOS

Below are a few small samples of what the evening had to offer...

Sound effects - Audience participants created sound effects over the speakers as our dancers interpreted:

Numbers Game: Our youngest volunteers enjoyed acting as "directors," shouting out numbers that set the dancers into different patterns of motion:

As the night grew dark, the dancers paid homage to the aquarian nature of the water tower in Guerra's newly created work, The Paint Piece (shown here is the final excerpt):

PRESS

Throughout this entire process, we were fortunate to receive excellent press both from regional papers and the local television station. Check out our interview on APN below and enjoy these articles previewing and reviewing the event!

Preview Article: Lighting up the night

Eileen Kennedy

Front page article, Arlington Advocate

August 24, 2014

Review Article: Dance performance an inspiration

Eileen Kennedy

Front page article, Arlington Advocate

September 12, 2014

Review Article: Water tower goes widescreen: An Arlington first
Bob Sprague
YourArlington.com
September 10, 2014

TESTIMONIALS

We cannot thank the community enough for being so supportive of this project. We are so grateful to all who sent us their thoughts after the production. Below is just a small sampling of what we received:

"Thank you for bringing an excellent event, at the water tower, to the community of Arlington!"

John C., Arlington MA

"truly an amazing combination of creativity!"

Rebecca C., Arlington MA

"Last night was truly magnificent! I was amazed, awed, inspired and entertained. Your vision was truly manifest and the fact that you had to hold to that vision as all manner of obstacles came your way is even more impressive. So much strength. And it was so special the outcome. The images so big and beautiful, moving, gorgeous and so perfectly projected onto the water tower had an epic feel. The dancers, the choreography, the art, the music, the stars all came together to create beauty. And it was just so fun sitting outside, enjoying the fun of seeing the children and your company members share movement and spontaneity. I love the way you not only included the children but the entire community both as creators of the art you projected and honoring the town of Arlington in such a creative fun way in the projections. It was a feast. Bravo!"

Deborah A., Lexington MA

"What a crowd you gathered for your water tower performance! I loved how you used the water tower as your venue--beautiful! My favorite part was the work you created for the water tower--when the paintings went up and you danced in front of them . . . What an impressive community builder you are! Another highlight for me was overhearing a tiny little girl running up to her mother after the shadow dancing and saying "Did you see me?! Did you see me?!" Adorable. That was one happy little girl!"

Hadassah S., Cambridge MA

"Last night's event at the water tower was spectacular. I found myself gasping when the artwork was projected onto the tower as the dancers were performing down below. What an innovative idea! I hope this gets repeated again."

Maria F., Arlington MA

All materials © Luminarium Dance Company 2014.

Supported in part by a grant through the Arlington Cultural Council, a local agency, which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.