Mission
Impulse Dance Company’s mission is to engender a universal appreciation of the art form of concert jazz dance.

The ultimate goal of Impulse Jazz Dance Company is to ensure respect and appreciation for jazz dance as an art form. In order to achieve this, the Company believes it is important to educate the general public as well as the arts funding organizations and other artistic foundations of its importance in American culture.

History
Impulse Dance Company has for over thirty years trained, educated, supported and inspired thousands of dancers. Formed in the early 1970s under the direction of Consuelo Atlas, a long time soloist with the world-renowned Alvin Ailey Dance Company, Impulse began performing and attracted a loose-knit group of women students and instructors of jazz dance. Later in the seventies the Company was taken over by Adrienne Hawkins, a seasoned performer and the first Artistic Director of The Joy of Movement Center.

Impulse has influenced the careers of many outstanding professionals in the medium of dance. Jeremy Allegier, Artisitc Director of The Dance Umbrella, began his career in the dance world as Impulses second technical director. Christopher Huggins from the Ailey Company, as well as Mark Davis, Josie Coyoc and Larry Coldhuber from Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, have been feature performers and choreographers with Impulse. Much of the performance history of the Company is linked to the internationally renowned choreographers who have set their works on the Company. Fred Benjamin, head of the Jazz Department of the Ailey School, Warren Spears, former soloist with the Ailey Company and current Artistic Director of the Nyt Danish Dance Theatre in Copenhagen, Rael Lamb, choreographer, and award-winning choreographer Adrienne Hawkins, are a few of those who have choreographed for the Company.

Impulse has performed for hundreds of audiences locally, nationally, and internationally. The Company has danced for audiences in both urban and rural communities from Boston to Arizona and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Impulse has represented Boston and Massachusetts in Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, Japan and the Netherlands. Performances have been viewed and experienced by students of all levels and ages from public schools to colleges and universities, as well as by inmates at correctional facilities in Massachusetts.