Hi, my name is Laura Cannon and this is a campaign to raise funds for an interactive site-specific dance performance called IMPACT that is happening on August 25th at the historic Zidell Yards in Portland, OR. IMPACT will be opening Dance Wire’s MOMENTUM performance, an open-air celebration of Portland’s dance community.

The full story: The many uncertainties of this past year have made planning a performance event challenging to say the least. Dance Wire has been a core collaborator on Old Moody Stages - an outdoor pop-up venue created as a community effort to give artists the opportunity to safely reconnect with audiences. As a 2021 Ambassador of Dance Wire (Portland's Dance Hub), I was hired to participate in this community-building event for a small stipend. I was both thrilled for the opportunity and deeply inspired by the space. Zidell Yards - the location of the venue - is architecturally and historically fascinating and a welcome antidote to the gloomy isolation of Zoom meetings and creative stagnation of the pandemic. 

Originally asked to do an improvised solo, the site got me so fired up my vision quickly scaled to include a team of 8 dancers, 6 artists (all under the age of 11 who will be creating found-object mandalas during the event), and 2 blessed volunteers (to wrangle the artists). As an aerialist, my vision requires equipment, which I begged and borrowed as much as possible from small non-profits with really big hearts (thank you Echo Theatre). But I still need funding to support rehearsal and performance pay for artists as well as equipment that can't and shouldn't be borrowed (for the safety of the dancers).

This entire event is about building community and bringing the arts back to life and it has been a gift to feel my energy, creativity, and sense of community springing back to life as well! As a bonus, this event will be live-streamed so I am happy to share the link to view the performance for free to all who donate!

Thank you again and I wish you love, health and happiness. Be safe and remember, EVERYTHING HAS AN IMPACT!

Laura Cannon

she/her

Founder and Director of ProLab