Dance in the Fells Gold Star Award

Photograph of Monkeyhouse's Nicole Harris by Wanda Strukus

Today's Against the Odds Rockstar of the Day, the Medford Arts Council, just wrote a piece for their blog about Dance in the Fells winning the Massachusetts Cultural Council's Gold Star Award. Knowing that many of Monkeyhouse's supporters relished Dance in the Fells, we thought you would enjoy reading it as well. We are so proud to have been a part of this festival and are grateful to have had the chance to work with Wanda Struckus and Kyna Hamill.


Cross posted with permission from the Medford Arts Council

Congratulations to Dance in the Fells, 2011 Gold Star Award Winner
Dance in the Fells, which the Medford Arts Council helped fund in October 2010, is receiving a prestigious 2011 Gold Star Award from the state. Local cultural councils like ours fund over 5000 projects and events around the state each year, and only 6 of those projects are chosen by the Massachusetts Cultural Council for Gold Star Awards for excellence in community cultural programming. We are really proud that Medford was home to a project that ranked in the top 1/10 of 1% state-wide!

The Gold Star award is based on "artistic quality, success in reaching out to underserved constituents, extent to which the project highlights a unique quality of the community, and ability to engage with the community." Dance in the Fells was a perfect example, bringing dance lovers into our tremendous natural resource in the Fells and bringing a day of performances to hikers and dog walkers and bikers.

Dance in the Fells was created and organized by Two Roads, a performance project company founded by Kyna Hamill and Wanda Strukus. On a sunny Saturday afternoon in October, the Middlesex Fells were filled with new outdoor, site-specific work by EgoArt, Inc./Nicole Pierce, Joan Green, John Kramer, Monkeyhouse Dance, and Sara Smith. Performances took place throughout the Fells at Wright’s Tower, Panther Cave, South Reservoir, The Sheepfold, Molly’s Spring, and Bellevue Pond.

Thank you to everyone who joined us in supporting Dance in the Fells: Springstep, Friends of the Fells, our colleagues at the Winchester Cultural Council, The Boston Foundation, and many more. And a huge congratulations to Kyna Hamill and Wanda Strukus for organizing Dance in the Fells, and to the choreographers and performers, the many volunteers, and everyone who came and made the event such a success!

The official presentation of the Gold Star Award to Dance in the Fells will take place later this spring.