Celebration Arts Live: The State of Black Dance in America 2020

Celebration Arts (CA) is a 501(C)(3) non-profit educational and performance organization providing performing arts training and opportunities to underserved communities, particularly African American residents in the Sacramento Metropolitan area. CA provides drama, dance, and music productions and classes, allowing aspiring black artists and communities to experience the performing arts where they are the central subjects. Check outhttp://celebrationarts.net/for more information.

Celebration Arts

It is not an overstatement to proclaim we are in crisis with two pandemics in 2020. What do these times mean for black dance in general?

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It is not an overstatement to proclaim we are in crisis with two pandemics in 2020---Covid-19 and a 2nd Civil Rights Movement protesting historic black inequality and police brutality. This panel of dancer-choreographers, artistic directors, administrators, and dance scholars tackle the issues of how this crisis is affecting black dance. As we witnessed with “The Ailey Spirit Virtual Gala, Still, We Dance,” we can even create passionate dance online with dancers sheltering in their own space, and not dancing together on stage. But what has the quarantine meant for the real survival of dance companies and dancers? What does the George Floyd “lynching” and resulting global protest movement mean for the dance field, and for the black dance field in particular? How are dancers processing these times? What do these times mean for black choreographers and black dance in general? These and other questions will be tackled in this historic virtual panel with dance thinkers from all over the country.This event is sponsored by Celebration Arts (CA), the historic 34-year old Sacramento black theater company. CA provides drama, dance, and music productions and classes, allowing aspiring black artists and communities to experience the performing arts where they are the central subjects. (<a href="http://celebrationarts.net/about.html" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">http://celebrationarts.net/about.html</a>).

DR. LINDA GOODRICH, Co-Convener, Professor Emerita, Theater &amp; Dance, CA State University, Sacramento

DR. HALIFU OSUMARE, Co-Convener, Professor Emerita, African American &amp; African Studies, UC Davis

PANELISTSBernard Brown (Sac/LA) – Dancer/Choreographer Ronald K. Brown (NY) – Choreographer/Artistic Director Dr. Brenda Dixon Gottschild (Philly)– Dance Scholar Omar Ingram – (Wash DC) Dance Administrator (IABD)Naomi Johnson-Diouf (Oakland) - Choreographer/Artistic Director Amara Tabor-Smith (Oakland) – Dancer/ChoreographerLula Washington (LA) - Choreographer/Artistic Director

BERNARD BROWN is a Lester Horton Award and Westfield Emerging Artist Award recipient, and has performed with David Rousseve/REALITY, Lula Washington Dance Theatre, Doug Elkins Dance Company, Shapiro and Smith Dance, and TU Dance. He has also danced with Mikhail Baryshnikov in Robert Wilson’s Letter to a Man, with choreography by Lucinda Childs. In addition, he has also danced with Donald McKayle, Rennie Harris, Rudy Perez, Louis Johnson, Nike, Aveda and Tamica Washington-Miller. Brown earned his MFA from UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance and BFA from SUNY Purchase. As artistic director of Bernard Brown/bbmoves, a social justice dance theater company, Brown’s choreography has been presented with acclaim in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas, Minneapolis, Phoenix and New York City. He has published in the peer-reviewed dance journal, Dancer Citizen and The Activist History Review. He is currently Assistant Professor of Dance at Sacramento State University and a Certified Dunham Technique Instructor candidate. <a href="https://www.bbmoves.org" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://www.bbmoves.org</a>

RONALD K. BROWN is the Founder/ Artistic Director of Evidence, A Dance Company that started in 1985. Previously, he worked with Mary Anthony Dance Theater and Jennifer Muller/ The Works. Brown has choreographed for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, Cleo Parker Robinson Ensemble, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Jennifer Muller/The Works, Jeune Ballet d’Afrique Noire, Ko-Thi Dance Company, Philadanco, Muntu Dance Theater of Chicago, Ballet Hispanico, TU Dance, and MalPaso. He won an AUDELCO Award for his choreography in Regina Taylor’s award-winning play Crowns, received two Black Theater Alliance Awards, and a Fred &amp; Adele Astaire Award for Outstanding Choreography in the Tony Award winning Broadway and national touring production of The Gershwin's Porgy &amp; Bess, adapted by Suzan Lori Parks. He has won a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award, as well as The Ailey Apex Award. Brown is a member of Stage Directors &amp; Choreographers Society. <a href="https://www.evidencedance.com" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://www.evidencedance.com</a>

BRENDA DIXON GOTTSCHILD is the author of Digging the Africanist Presence in American Performance: Dance and Other Contexts; Waltzing in the Dark: African American Vaudeville and Race Politics in the Swing Era (winner of the 2001 Congress on Research in Dance Award for Outstanding Scholarly Dance Publication); The Black Dancing Body–A Geography from Coon to Cool (winner, 2004 de la Torre Bueno prize for scholarly excellence in dance publication); and Joan Myers Brown and The Audacious Hope of the Black Ballerina-A Biohistory of American Performance. Additional honors include the Congress on Research in Dance Award for Outstanding Leadership in Dance Research (2008); a Leeway Foundation Transformation Grant (2009); the International Association for Blacks in Dance Outstanding Scholar Award (2013); the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus Civil Rights Award (2016); and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts (2017).A self-described anti-racist cultural worker utilizing dance as her medium, Dr. Gottschild is a freelance writer, consultant, performer, and lecturer; a former consultant and writer for Dance Magazine, and Professor Emerita of dance studies, Temple University. As an artist-scholar she coined the phrase, “choreography for the page,” to describe her embodied, subjunctive approach to research writing. Nationwide and abroad she curates post-performance reflexive dialogues, writes critical performance essays, performs self-created solos, and collaborates with her husband, choreographer/dancer Hellmut Gottschild, in a genre they developed and titled “movement theater discourse. <a href="http://www.bdixongottschild.com" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">www.bdixongottschild.com</a> and Facebook

Photo: Ryan Collerd for Pew Center for Arts&amp;Heritage

OMAR INGRAM is an advocate, enthusiast, friend and patron of the arts from Atlanta, Georgia. With his work mostly focused on theater and dance, he is dedicated to championing programming and policies that are authentically diverse and show culture organically. Before assuming the role of Programs Director for the International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD), he worked extensively as the association’s Production Manager of their annual conference and festival. Omar has experience in company management, general management, production management, and stage management for projects and companies of varying sizes. With experience in both the commercial and not-for-profit arts sectors, he has worked for iconic companies (The Public Theater, STOMP/NYC, Woolly Mammoth Theater Company) and living legends (Debbie Allen, George Faison, and Phylicia Rashad). Omar is a graduate of Howard University with a BFA in Musical Theater, and minor in Arts Administration. When he is not working, he enjoys exploring new countries, beaches and cooking. <a href="https://www.iabdassociation.org/page/omaringram" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://www.iabdassociation.org/page/omaringram</a>

NAOMI JOHNSON-DIOUF, M.A.O.M., Artistic Director of Diamano Coura West African Dance Company. She is coordinator of Collage, an annual international festival in Oakland for 25 years, and Diamano Coura’s repertory concert. She is an expert in West African dance and culture, and has done extensive research and comparative analysis of dance forms from around the world. Along with Dr. Zakarya Diouf, Naomi Diouf has consulted and choreographed for numerous performing companies including the Dutch Theater Van Oosten in the Netherlands and Belgium, and has served as guest lecturer in Holland, South Africa, Singapore and the United States. She has a master’s degree in Organization Management and holds a California Teaching Credential. Mrs. Diouf is a strong advocate of Arts-in-Education, and has organized various projects that introduced the arts to youth merges academics, music, and dance. For more than 20 years, she has worked with Arts-in- Education programs in school districts in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond, and Alameda to promote cultural literacy. She has worked with Cal Performances’ Oakland/Berkeley Alvin Ailey Dance Camp. Naomi is a recipient of the Malonga Casquelourd Lifetime Achievement Award from the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, the 2019 Dance/USA Fellowship and the 2020 National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Fellowship, along with her husband, Dr. Zakariya Diouf. <a href="http://www.diamanocoura.org/about-us.html" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">http://www.diamanocoura.org/about-us.html</a>

Photo: RJ Muna for the S.F. Ethnic Dance Festival

AMARA TABOR-SMITH is an Oakland, CA based performer, choreographer/performance maker and the artistic director of Deep Waters Dance Theater. She describes her work as Afro Surrealist Conjure Art. Her site-responsive dance making practice utilizes Yoruba Lukumí spiritual ritual to address issues of social and environmental justice, race, gender identity, and belonging. Amara’s work has been presented nationally and internationally, and throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Amara has performed in the works of Ed Mock, Joanna Haigood, Anna Deveare Smith, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Faustin Linyekula, and she is the former associate artistic director and company member with Urban Bush Women. Amara is a 2020 recipient of the Hewlett 50 grant with East Side Arts Alliance, 2019 Dance/USA Fellow, and a 2018 United States Artist Fellow. Other grants and awards include, A Blade of Grass Fellowship (2019); Creative Work Fund grant (2016); Sacatar artist in residence (2018); MAP Fund grant (2017); Kenneth Rainin Foundation grant (2017); Urban Bush Women Choreographic Center Fellowship (2017), and she is a co-recipient of the 2016 Creative Capital Grant with longtime collaborator, Ellen Sebastian Chang. Amara received her MFA in Dance from Hollins University and is an artist in residence at Stanford University. <a href="http://www.deepwatersdance.com" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">www.deepwatersdance.com</a>

LULA WASHINGTON is founder and artistic director of the Lula Washington Dance Theatre (LWDT), which is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2020. Her dance company has performed in Israel; China; Russia; Germany; Spain; Italy; Canada; Mexico; Kosovo and Brazil. In the U.S., LWDT has danced at The Joyce Theater in New York; the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC; Jacob’s Pillow in Beckett, MA; the New Jersey Performing Arts Center; the Annenberg Theater in Philadelphia, and in some 300 US cities in all corners of the nation. LWDT also maintains a school of dance, providing professional dance training to inner city children in South Los Angeles, within a 12,000 square foot dance facility that is owned by the company. Lula holds a master’s degree in dance from UCLA, and won the UCLA Chancellor’s Award for Community Service, the highest award granted to an alum of the school. Lula Washington is also one of the Founding Five members of the International Association of Blacks In Dance, and serves on its Board of Directors. <a href="http://www.lulawashington.org" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">http://www.lulawashington.org</a>

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