MOMO MIXED ABILITY DANCE THEATRE - ANNULA REPORT 2015

Report from the Board Chair

MoMo’s Board of Directors has had a challenging but fruitful year. We had two new members join the Board at the beginning of year – Deanna Holt and Pam Boyd, MoMo’s founding Artistic Director. Norma Lock, long time MoMo advisor, joined us part-way through the year. Along with the Artistic Director Mark Ikeda, the Board worked to strengthen our fundraising base, increase the reach of our programs and performances, and consider a restructuring of our staffing model. Many thanks to all our Board members who worked so diligently this year.

Our Friend and Fundraising Committee began working on a toolkit which would include an elevator speech, important talking points and FAQs, a marketing video, photos & name tags for board members. Work on this will continue next year. This committee also coordinated a silent auction at the Spring Show, which raised almost $2,400! Thank you to everyone who donated auction items, to those who bid on those items, and especially to Deanna Holt for organizing it all.

This year’s Spring Show I Didn’t Wear My Raincoat was a strong performance that received a lot of print and social media promotion, and increased attendance. This year we added an extra performance on Thursday night. Congratulations to the Ensemble and a big thank you to everyone who supported them through all four performances.

The Board also formed an HR Committee to provide support and oversight to the Artistic Director. At the end of May the Board’s contract with Mark Ikeda concluded, resulting in a number of staffing changes. Pam Boyd left her position on the Board to step in as Interim Artistic Director, with instructors Jade Benoit and Yvonne Anderson acting as associates. Long time Administrator Catherine Coutts moved into a Bookkeeping role, and Talia Potter became MoMo’s first General Manager. Talia comes to us from the Calgary Folk Festival where she’s worked for the last 12 years. The General Manager will be responsible for the day to day operations of MoMo, revenue generation, marketing and promotions, and community relations. In 2016 MoMo will begin its search for a new Artistic Director and our team will be complete.

And now it’s time for me to say farewell – I’ll be leaving the Board at the end of this term. I’ve been fortunate to work with a dedicated group of people who believe in the power of the arts to give voice to everyone. I’ve been grateful to have Nicky Peeters step into the role of Vice President and provide seamless leadership from this year to next. And most of all I’m thankful to MoMo for the important work it does in the lives of people with disabilities, and the equally important work it does in the lives of everyone around them.

Looking forward,

Donna McBride

Board Chair

2014 - 15 Season Program

11 Performance Events

July 11, 2014 - Pushing Forward Pushing Back - Feats Festival, Edmonton

September 27 - Culture Days - Ensemble performance - InDefinite Arts, Calgary

October 15 - Thrive with a Disability - Ensemble Performance - Kahanoff Centre, Calgary

November 21 - Pride and Disability Day - Ensemble performance - SCOPE, Calgary

December 3 - IDPD - Ensemble Performance - Jack Singer Hall Lobby, Calgary

Dec 3 - 6 - Fully Functional - Pumphouse Theatre - MOMO & Inside Out Theatre Co-Production

March 26 - 28 - I Forgot to Wear my Raincoat - Vertigo Studio Theatre - MOMO Production

May 6 - Pro Arts At Noon - Ensemble - Church of the Redeemer, Calgary

May 7 - Animate the Avenue - Mr Geppetto (Thomas and

Mark) - Stephen Avenue, Calgary

May 23 - Fairy Tales Film Festival - The Hat - The Plaza Theatre

Calgary

June 5 - Speak Out - Ensemble - EauClaire Market, Calgary

Weekly Classes

Summer Fun classes - July/ August - Hillhurst United Church

3 Community Classes - Tuesday am, Tuesday pm, Thursday am, - September to December and January to March

1 Youth/ Between Friends Classes - Saturday am - January to March

1 Ensemble Performance Class - September to December and January to March

Workshops and special events

Wheel Chair Dance Workshop - collaboration with Cripsie, Edmonton

- Feb 14 & 15

Airdrie Abilities Society - one demonstration class - June 18

New Initiatives

Fully Functional

In collaboration with Inside Out Theatre we produced Fully

Functional, a text based show about sexuality and disability. This

show involved collaborations with Calgary Sexual Health Centre

and The Disability Action Hall’s Right to Love Group. This was a

successful and very popular venture, sections of which were later

performed at events in Edmonton and Lethbridge. In Calgary the

show was performed at The Pumphouse Theatre, a new venue for

MoMo.

Outreach

With a grant from The Calgary Foundation we launched an

Outreach Program to bring four introductory classes to the following

five organizations: URSA –CSHS –Vecova –CASS –CareWest. The

classes were well received.

2015 - 16 Season Announcement

Due to recent and up coming staff changes we will be putting a strong focus on stabilizing and strengthening the company this year. Our new General Manager has many ideas for moving the company forward and increasing capacity and we are very excited about the road forward.

Reduced resources mean we will not be producing a full scale, spring production this season, but looking to smaller, existing and new performance opportunities in the community. The ensemble will be focusing on skill building and repertoire development and will also be doing two studio Lab performances, one at the end of the fall term and one in the spring. These events will be pay-what-you-can, work-in-progress, presentations which will include discussion, socializing and celebrating with our audience an our community.

All classes have strong registration and will be running as usual - three adult community classes, one youth class and one ensemble class per week.

As the area in our organization the most in need of attention is teachers and teaching, our special event this year will be teacher training. We have applied for Canada Council funding to run a five day (20 hour) inclusive dance teacher training program, which will be headed by Shara Weaver and Renata Soutter from Propeller Dance in Ottawa and assisted by Naomi Brand from All Bodies Dance in Vancouver and MoMo’s Pamela Boyd. The workshop is being advertised nationally and is open to teachers from across the country. If all goes well and there is a demand for this training beyond our current capacity, we are considering running a second, larger training a couple of years down the road, possibly at The Banff Centre. We, MoMo and our collaborators, see this as a significant initiative towards developing a specific, Canadian school of thought and training in this discipline.

Prepared by;

Pamela Boyd

Interim Artistic Director.