We performed at Arts on Foot Saturday. And yes we were literally on foot. Exercise in staying open and flexible: We were supposed to be in front of the Martin Luther King library at 4pm but there was no crowd. The booksale had finished 15 minutes earlier. So we called our terrific organizer, Damian Sinclair, who moved us to the center of the action: F Street between 9th and 8th Streets. It had been closed off to car traffic. And there we were. Small problem: the boombox they had for us didn't work; the replacement was small and quiet. So we could barely hear our music. We are sure the audience couldn't hear it at all! Fortunately they scrounged up a larger, more powerful boombox and we did the piece over again. That's the fun of live performance: you never know what's going to happen!!

Sometimes it's great to be on a stage with all the conditions controlled. And sometimes it's interesting to take a risk and perform "without a net": without a stage or ideal conditions. Kudos to Company members Damien Carter, Aquiles Holladay, William Neal and Meryl Shapiro for being professional and adaptable.

Roberta Rothstein
Momentum Artistic Director

PS: I just wanted to name and thank the Board member whose suggested us doing this blog: Brian MacIan, our Web Master, who is also an accomplished actor in the Washington area.

Hello all. This is is the first posting of Momentum Musings. I am Roberta Rothstein, the Artistic Director of Momentum Dance Theatre, a professional jazz, Latin and hip hop dance theater company in Washington, DC. I started this in response to a Board member's suggestion. I will share news of Momentum, our hopes, our frustrations and what it's like to be a performing arts producer now.

Good news on audition front--We just held Company and Apprentice auditions for the 05-06 season and we had 6 people and FOUR men! What is it with men and Momentum? (We already have 4) Must be my ferromones! I put them through some pretty intense paces and everyone did quite well.

Associate Director Kim Curtis was on hand to give everyone a thorough stretch before I sunk my claws into them.

And we rehearsed for next Sat--Arts on Foot. Momentum will be performing in front of the Martin Luther King Library at 4pm. We will also be performing in next year's Fringe Festival. Please check out at our site: www.momentumdancetheatre.com or www.capitolfringefestival.org.

I'll keep you posted about the ups and down of running a company, especially as we put together our annual Jazz, Hip Hop Nutcracker. We welcome feedback from the universe out there.

Roberta Rothstein