We had the good fortune of connecting with Mary Anne Fernandez Herding and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mary Anne, can you talk to us a bit about the social impact of your business?
Movement Source dance company is a resource for dancers – who want to create, perform, take class, teach, and dance in our community! We are a non-profit, professional contemporary dance company active in Arizona for over 30 years. We continue to serve the community by creating a space for dancers and choreographers to produce work, by doing outreach (commitment to PDSD/Hearing Impaired community and various schools) and creating innovative work each season for audiences in formal theater settings and non-traditional venues. We continued to dance through covid and brought Arizona’s first Parking Lot Dance Project to audiences in Scottsdale and Phoenix. We created Arizona’s first Trolley Dances in Scottsdale this past Spring and will be expanding it next season! We bring joy, life, dance into our community on many levels. Art inspires, moves people. lifts spirits, and adds flavor to our world. Movement Source collaborates with various musicians, video artists, film makers, poets, artists each season to generate exciting dance works! We are passionate about what we do and continue to thrive and evolve with our community.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Establishing Movement Source has been a life line for me as far as an artistic outlet, a way to connect with other dancers and artists, and a way to continually create – find new aspects of myself through my work with the company. Each season brings different collaborations, venues, serves various needs of dancers, choreographers, students, artists, and community. We have created a dance family – a grassroots, collaborative group of dancers that teach, perform, create and actively participate as artists in our community. I teach full time at Xavier College Prep where I established the dance program in 2002 – Chairing the dance program there has been very rewarding and I love connecting the dots with the work I do with Movement Source – bringing opportunities to students through professional dance relationships. My passion for collaboration and innovation is fed through directing the company and creating new programming each season. The vision has grown naturally each year and I am proud of the work we do in the community and I am excited to continue to grow as an artist, educator, producer and leader. I love the freedom that I find in dance and the opportunity to generate new programs to serve our community. It has been a lot of work but when you love what you do – you are never really working they say! I do love what I do and appreciate the life I have been able to live.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Love taking friends to the Phoenix Art Museum and Pemberton downtown (we have done performances both of these places) I like the Botanical Gardens for an outside activity – and Postinos is a staple for bruschetta and wine! Seeing a show at Gammage or the Orpheum, Scottsdale Center for the Arts – all great parts of our home here in AZ!
I am a native Arizona girl – there is always something fun to do in this vivacious city of Phoenix!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
We would like to give a shout out to Dance Theater West who has given us a home for many years! Susan Silverman is generous and so supportive of our work.
We want to thank ASU Beyond for collaborating with our mentorship program, guiDANCE connecting young dancers with professional touring artists. We Want to thank Dancetalk101 – Frances McMahon Ward and Jordan Kriston who collaborate to create this online dance education platform with me. We want to thank our dancers for their endless devotion and energy and creativity and passion for dance.
We want to thank POAC and Arizona Commission on the Art and Scottsdale Arts for supporting our season.
We Want to give a shout out to our board members, patrons, friends and family who always believe in us and support our vision!

Website: www.movementsourcedancecompany.org

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/movementsource/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/movementsource/

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