REVIEW: Arlington Advocate
Dance performance an inspiration
By Eileen Kennedy
Arlington Advocate
Front page featured story September 12, 2014
Several hundred people turned out for Sunday’s dance performance at the water tower on Park Avenue, and they were treated to a multi-sensory experience.
Boston’s Luminarium Dance Company, run by Arlington resident Merli Guerra and Kimberleigh A. Holman, projected artistic images of Arlington on the curved surface of the water tower and performed in front of them.
They also engaged the children in the audience early in the show, inviting some to come up and perform with them.
"It was just wonderful, I’m just so thrilled with how it went, it was even better than I imagined it would be," Guerra said. "People got here an hour early with their lawn chairs, a ton of families came and the kids responded it very well."
The energy, excitement and cheering from the crowd as images from the past 10 years of Arlington Center for the Arts’ "Images of Arlington" flashed onto the water tower made the night special she said.
As MBTA buses let people off at Eastern Ave and Park Circle, many of the people getting off made their way over to the performance and took seats on the lawn.
For nearby resident Kathleen Fink, who walked to the water tower, said the space was such an appropriate venue for the performance, and the lighted buses along with the colored light show, the Arlington images, the simple and the sophisticated performances that made for "a magical environment."
"It was such a cool, inspirational moment," she said. "You know, sometimes you have those moments in your life that are truly special and this was one of them."
Guerra said she truly feels part of Arlington now, and has been overwhelmed by the response from those who attended.
"Parents of the kids are saying say their kids having been talking about if for days," Guerra said Tuesday. "One couple after the performance said they had driven five hours from Maine for another reason but as they drove by, they decided to pull over and watch. They said it was a wonderful welcome to Massachusetts."
Many people took photos and have been posting them to social media, she said, and one person wrote a poem and sent it on to her. As it was funded in part by the Arlington Cultural Council, residents have shared their comments with council members, who have passed them on to Guerra.
Perhaps the biggest change to come from the performance may be the way people look at the water tower, a structure many in town may have been taking for granted.
"I think we’re going to see more people there now," Fink said. "I think this may have broken the barrier."
