Luminarium Dance Company’s celebrated feature production The Sleeprunner is going on tour...

...and we’d like you to be a part of it.

Experience a surreal take on the land of dreams through this modern/contemporary dance production, appropriate for all ages and all appreciators of depth, humor, and theatre.

the Sleeprunner

WHO WE ARETHE COMPANY

Founded by Merli V. Guerra and Kimberleigh A. Holman, Luminarium Dance Company is now celebrating its fifth season, uniquely combining dance and light in Boston since 2010. By the end of its first full season, the company had received over a dozen invitations to present new work across New England, and has since been invited to perform its repertory in venues ranging from New York City to California. Key venues include: American Repertory Theater’s OBERON, Boston Center for the Arts, Mobius Alternative Arts Space, UMass Fine Arts Center, Mount Holyoke College, the WGBH Boston Summer Arts Week-end (MA); Seacoast Fringe Festival (NH); Ithaca College, Jennifer Muller/The Works (NY/NYC); and the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles (CA). After a highly successful second season, Guerra and Holman began 2013 being praised as “unsung heroes” in the Boston arts scene, with Luminarium featured as one of ten “stellar organizations that may have slipped under your radar” in the Spring 2013 issue of Improper Bostonian magazine. In its third year, the company was invited to showcase its work at the prestigious Fine Arts Center Concert Hall (Amherst MA), whose 2013–14 professional dance series was comprised solely of Kyle Abraham, Parsons Dance, Time Lapse Dance, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, and Luminarium Dance Company.

In total, Luminarium has presented 13 major productions in addition to hosting and making guest appearances at dozens of yearly events. The company regularly conducts arts-based community outreach projects: Several for underserved youth throughout the city, including the company’s new DANCE+ Series merging dance with other fields such as science, technol-ogy, music, and light; an annual Cultural Community Outreach Project using dance as a means of highlighting a local histori-cal or cultural landmark; and produces Boston’s only 24-Hour ChoreoFest each season, giving emerging local choreographers an opportunity to create new work overnight in a supportive and mentored environment. Luminarium is proud to support its six company members and many guest artists who join the company from Greater Boston, while its artistic directors act as panelists, judges, and guest lecturers at colleges and art institutions throughout New England.

“It’s no secret that Luminarium Dance Company is one of the most intelligent and innovative dance troupes in Boston.”

BOSTON ARTS REVIEW

THE DIRECTORS

Merli V. Guerra is a professional dancer and award-winning interdisciplinary artist with talents in choreography, filmmaking, and graphic design. As a member of Deborah Abel Dance Company (Lexington MA) and Nataraj Dancers (Amherst MA), Merli has studied dance and performed lead roles on international tours to India (2007, 2012) and Japan (2009), with Brazil on the horizon. Since graduating Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in Dance and Studio Art from Mount Holyoke College in 2009, Merli’s choreographic works, dance-on-camera films, and video art installations have been selected for presentation across the country, from New England to New York to the West Coast. Her two 2013 films Threading Motion Project: Quilt Vignettes and The One I Keep were most recently selected for this year’s Glovebox Short Film & Animation Festival. She is also fortunate to design the region’s leading periodical in contemporary arts and culture as Production Manager of Art New England magazine, and recently replaced Debra Cash at The Arts Fuse as its weekly dance picks contributor (Boston MA). Merli’s work with Luminarium extends beyond the traditional stage, leading the company’s annual “Cultural Community Outreach Project,” backed by her decade of work as an historical interpreter. Her most recent Cultural C.O.P., titled Night at the Tower and held in Arlington, is Luminarium’s largest outdoor community event to date and was recently chosen as one of three projects (out of 10,000+) across the state in 2014 for the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s prestigious Gold Star Award.

Kimberleigh A. Holman is a freelance choreographer and a lighting designer. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College with a BA in Dance and Theater in 2009, having also had the opportunity to study with several prominent lighting and sound designers. Since co-founding Luminarium, Kimberleigh has been invited to show work at venues including the Boston Center for the Arts, UMass Amherst’s Fine Arts Center, mobius, OBERON and many more great spaces. Kim loves community-based projects and sharing the arts with youth; she, with Luminarium, was awarded the Presidents Innovation Fund award for an outreach program merging the company with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston in 2011, dreamt up the 24-Hour ChoreoFest to build and develop community, and most recently collaboratively developed the DANCE+ Series to engage children in creative movement. Kim frequently enjoys working with college students; recent projects include a modern dance/orchestra collabora-tion with composer Justyne Griffin at Ithaca College (with Luminarium), creating work as a guest artist at Providence College and choreographing musical the-ater at Babson College. She’s currently making a living as a freelance choreographer, having just finished work on a national commercial and working on several Boston-area musicals and productions.

OUTREACH EFFORTS & EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMINGLuminarium’s Arts Enrichment Community Outreach Project brings professional performing arts experience directly to local youth. Completed annually, the company designs a series of workshops appropriate for Boston’s youth participants. These pro-grams not only include dance technique classes (ranging from modern to hip-hop to classical Indian dance), but also includes in-depth workshops in production and choreographic composition.

In 2014, the company debuted its brand new DANCE+ Series, offering an engaging, family-friendly class each Saturday morn-ing in April, that explored weekly themes of dance intersecting other fields: technology, science, music, and light. Each class is strongly movement based, while led by an expert teacher from outside the world of dance. The program was so successful that Luminarium was invited to teach a DANCE+Light (and color) class at Temple Shalom’s Shine the Light Festival in Newton, MA, in December 2014, and have been hired to design a new class for the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, MA, entitled DANCE+Bugs for June of 2015.

As part of the company’s tour package, the [venue] can opt to have Luminarium Artistic Directors Guerra and Holman present their popular DANCE+Light class. Through the use of light-making devices (projectors, lamps, handheld lighting) and shad-ows, participants will dance through light and dark and control how a body in motion is perceived.

For images, testimonials, and a short video showing the classes in action, please visit luminariumdance.org/programs. As you’ll see, the classes attract a wonderful range of students with boys and girls from ages 6–12 (and some as young as 3!).

Out of 5,000+ government-funded projects across Massachusetts in 2014, Luminarium’s outreach event “Night at the Tower” was selected as one of three projects to receive the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s prestigious Gold Star Award.

“Luminarium’s SLEEPRUNNER is a drop-everything-and-run-for-tickets show. Sleeprunner is something different than your usual dance performance. It’s a journey through our unconscious, through our imagi-nations, to the dream world that we always experi-ence but rarely remember....This is a dream you won’t forget.”

TRENDS & TOLSTOY

PROJECT DESCRIPTIONFive years ago, Artistic Directors Merli V. Guerra and Kimberleigh A. Holman reconnected in Boston for the first time since their time training together, and discovered that both (while grateful for their experiences thus far) still hadn’t found an orga-nization that embodied all of their goals: A company that was both topnotch in its professional performance quality while also being selflessly accessible to the greater public. In June 2010, the two founded Luminarium Dance Company, committed to always paying their dancers and collaborators, offering exciting free arts workshops for local underserved communities, and bringing a unique combination of dance and light to the professional stages of New England. Now, the company aims to share its mission with cities beyond its home base in Greater Boston.

The goal: To take Luminarium’s 2014 feature production The Sleeprunner on tour to three cities outside Boston. At each loca-tion, the company will offer a three-part package to reach all members of the community: An open talkback with the directors for artists seeking advice, a DANCE+Light class for underserved youth in the community, and a professional performance of The Sleeprunner for all to enjoy.

Guerra and Holman work each day to better their company and the impact it has on the Greater Boston area. Running Lumina-rium isn’t about personal gain and advancement, it is about believing in the company’s mission to build and improve commu-nity through the performing arts. The company has traveled with smaller works before, performing in New Hampshire, Maine, New York City, and Ithaca, NY, and each time was a success. Now, with this three-part package, the company aims to educate, inspire, and perform its largest work in five years to further its community outreach beyond the state of Massachusetts.

PERFORMANCE DESCRIPTIONThe Sleeprunner will transform Philadelphia’s [venue] space into a dynamic dream world, while featuring the company’s sig-nature imaginative choreography, lighting, and scenic design. Created by Artistic Directors Merli V. Guerra and Kimberleigh A. Holman, The Sleeprunner is a fulllength continuous exploration through the world of dreams. Watch as the company’s nine performers guide the constantly evolving production from the moment of drifting off to sleep and what happens once one’s eyes close, through a boundless and vivid dreamscape. Sensible to quirky, humorous to dark, come engage in a full night’s journey told through dance.

Scene I: To Sleep!The show opens briefly with the sensation of drifting off to sleep and quickly explodes into a vibrant and free dream world. With flying sheets and fleeting absurd moments, the dancers welcome the audience into their anything-goes evening while foreshadowing things to come.

Scene II: InsomniA solo that shifts into a quartet, Insomni follows the struggles of quieting the thoughts that keep one up at night. Do we succumb to the tasks preying on our minds? Or do we calm them, conquer them, and find a peaceful rest?

Scene III: Idle ReverieThis quirky, edgy, and oh-so-relatable duet follows the inner musings of what could be described as “platonic pillow talk.” From moments as domestic as taking out the trash to humorous ponderings on the sleep patterns of squirrels, this scene offers both levity and sincerity in its mirth.

Scene IV: An Obscure JourneyThe dancers are thrown into the midst of a dark journey masterminded by an obscured manipulator. They must trust in their trek, each other and their ultimate destination. Upon arrival they’re required to address the idea “what comes next,” as a group at odds with their former controller.

Scene II: The WoolgathererThat surreal, symbolic dream that, when we wake, we scribble down in the hopes to better interpret with time, The Woolgatherer toys with the continues motion of time and the inevitable loss of one’s childhood.

Scene VI: Highest MoonThe finale to the show, this scene exists as an unexplainable lucid dream; a rowdy happening under the moon as it treks through the night sky. Set to an Ella Fitzgerald tune full of modern-day mischievous modifications, the dancers scheme, frolic, and hoist each other skywards in attempts to conquer the moon.

“The audience is perched on the edge of their chairs as we watch the company make their way across the floor. Their trust in each other is profound.”

NEW ENGLAND THEATRE GEEK

GRANTS & AWARDSAward Winner – Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Gold Star Award (1/2015) In January 2015, Luminarium was awarded Massachusetts Cultural Council’s prestigious Gold Star Award for its 2014 Night at the Tower event for being an “exemplary cultural program” that “showcased artistic excellence.” Luminarium was one of just three companies given the award out of 329 arts councils and over 5,000 LCC-funded events statewide.

Grant Recipient – LCCs: Amherst & Boston MA (1/2014)Awarded a grant through the Amherst Cultural Council (part of the MCC) to create a community outreach project in collabo-ration with the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, and the Boston Cultural Council for Luminarium’s 2015 programming.

Grant Recipient – The Bob Jolly Charitable Trust (7/2014) New to Boston, the Bob Jolly Charitable Trust bestows select Boston theater artists and organizations with grants for the devel-opment and presentation of new works of theater, while providing “access to, appreciation of, education about and exposure to the work of the greater Boston theater community.” Invited by a Trust board member as one of the first companies to apply, Luminarium received additional funding for its production Night at the Tower, and became the first dance company awarded the grant.

Grant Recipient – LCCs: Arlington & Boston MA (1/2014)Awarded a grant through the Arlington Cultural Council (part of the MCC) for Luminarium’s Night at the Tower event, and the Boston Cultural Council for Luminarium’s 2014 programming.

“Unsung Heroes” – Improper Bostonian Magazine (3/2013)Guerra and Holman are praised as “unsung heroes” in the Boston arts scene, with Luminarium featured as one of ten “stellar organizations that may have slipped under your radar” in the Spring 2013 Issue of Improper Bostonian magazine.

Grant Recipient – LCC: Lowell MA (1/2013)Awarded a grant from the Lowell Cultural Council (part of the MCC) to go towards a collaboration between Luminarium Dance Company and the New England Quilt Museum.

Grant Recipient – LCCs: Boston, Concord, Somerville, & Watertown MA (1/2012)Awarded four Local Cultural Council grants through the MCC to produce new work throughout 2012.

President’s Innovation Fund – Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston (3/2011)Luminarium Dance Company was awarded a grant to introduce underprivileged city children to the arts through a series of workshops on visual art, dance, film and choreography, which culminated with a community performance.

PRESSLuminarium’s annual feature productions, outreach projects, and work in the greater Boston community are continuously applauded in the press. The company has been favorably reviewed and profiled by noteworthy publications including The Boston Globe, Boston Arts Review, Mount Holyoke Alumnae Quarterly magazine, Improper Bostonian magazine, MetroWest Daily News, Boston Events Insider, Art New England magazine, and South Shore Critic among them. Press highlights include:

• Improper Bostonian: Guerra and Holman are hailed as “unsung heroes,” with Luminarium featured as one of ten “stellar organizations” in the Boston arts scene.

• The Boston Globe: The Sleeprunner is featured as Critic’s Pick, and additionally featured in the Globe’s arts section “G” (2014)Secrets & Motion is highlighted as Critic’s Pick twice and is featured in the annual Fall Arts Preview (2013) ChoreoFest is featured as Editor’s Pick (2012) and Critic’s Pick (2013)Mythos:Pathos is featured twice as Editor’s Pick (2012)

• Television Interviews: Guerra and Holman are interviewed by host Glenn Williams on BNN’s “It’s all about arts” to discuss The Sleeprunner (2014)Guerra is interviewed in a profile on Night at the Tower on APN (2014)

We welcome you to peruse our press coverage at luminariumdance.org/press to read recent reviews of The Sleeprunner’s debut performance in Boston, and to learn more about Luminarium’s work in the greater Boston dance community and beyond.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYLuminarium Dance Company, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization, strives to produce high quality dance that combines the innovative use of light with choreography. The Company dedicates an equal commitment to using dance and the performing arts to build community throughout the Greater Boston area. By producing annual community outreach programs, free to Boston-area youth, Luminarium hopes to provide equal access to unique art and enlightening art opportunities.

COST & BUDGETLet Luminarium’s staff create a customized budget specific to your city. Reach out by phone or email, and we’ll gladly help you secure your venue’s place on The Sleeprunner’s 2015 National Tour.

Email: info@luminariumdance.org (Subject: Sleeprunner National Tour)Phone: 617.477.4494