Dance troupe to tour schools
Eighteen
schools in Santa Barbara County will be visited by the Lula Washington Dance
Theatre during its tour in the area from Jan. 7 through Feb. 29. The tour is
part of the Children’s Creative Project’s program of Touring Artists, serving
60,000 students in 130 schools throughout Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo
counties.
The
dance company will present “Reflections in Black,” which includes “The
Movement,” about Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks; “Harriet Tubman,” a
dance about the underground railroad to freedom; “Lift Every Voice & Sing,”
and “Dance Styles,” an exhibition of modern, ballet, hip hop; and poetry by
Langston Hughes.
This
tour is supported in part by grants from the Hite Tide Foundation and the Santa
Barbara County Arts Commission.
“We
applaud these agencies for their vision and foresight in helping keep arts
education and appreciation alive in our local schools,” said County School
Superintendent Bill Cirone, whose office coordinates
the program through the Children’s Creative Project.
A
10-member modern dance company, the group was founded in 1980. Based in South
Los Angeles, the troupe has become one of the most acclaimed African-American
contemporary modern dance companies in the West. It is known for theatrical,
energetic socially conscious works that explore aspects of African-American
history and culture.
The
company has performed at Lincoln Center; the Joyce Theatre; the New Jersey
Performing Arts Center; Jacob’s Pillow; the Ordway; the Pioneer Center in
Nevada; the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington; and the Island Center in St.
Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.
The
principal choreographer and the artistic voice of the company, Washington
augments her dances with those by pioneer artists, such as Donald McKayle, Katherine Dunham, Donald Byrd, Louis Johnson, and
Rudy Perez. The company also performs works by young choreographers, including Tamica Washington-Miller, Associate Director, and
Christopher Huggins.
Choreography
is set to a range of music from experimental to blues, including Taj Mahal, Vivaldi, Bach, Chopin,
John Coltrane, Bob Marley, and Duke Ellington. The dance studio in South Los
Angeles includes a dance school, her Youth Dance Ensemble, and a Neighborhood
Dance Program through which the company reaches out to neighborhood children in
local schools.
The
group won the 2007 National Education Association Carter G. Woodson Award for
work in schools across the nation.
For information about the local tour,
call 964-4710.