*Marion McClinton was born on this date in 1954. He was an African American theatre director, playwright, and actor. Marion Isaac McClinton was born and raised in St. Paul, where he went to Catholic school before briefly attending the College of St Thomas in 1973 and then the University of Minnesota. Swept up in the partying scene, […]
learn more*Leonard Harper was born on this date in 1899, he was an African American producer, stager, and choreographer in New York City during the Harlem Renaissance. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama, to William Harper, a performer, and his wife. Harper started dancing as a child to attract a crowd on a medicine show wagon, traveling throughout the South. In […]
learn more*The Cotton Club opened on this date in 1923. This was a popular segregated New York City nightclub from 1923 to 1940 that exemplified how American racial intersectionality and inequity lived together. It was located on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue (1923 to 1935), then briefly in midtown Theater District (1935-1940). In 1920, heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson rented the upper floor of the building on the corner […]
learn more*On this date in 1960, Revelations, the best-known work of the modern-dance choreographer Alvin Ailey. It is also the signature work of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, which premiered an extended version of the work when Ailey was 29 years old. Set to spirituals, gospel, and blues music and influenced by the choreographer’s own Christian upbringing, it presents a vision of the historical African American experience from a black […]
learn more*On this date in 1958 the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT)’s beginning is affirmed. This is a modern dance company based in New York City. It was founded by choreographer and dancer Alvin Ailey. Ailey was the company’s director, choreographer, and principal dancer. The company started as an ensemble of only seven dancers, plus their choreographer, and many guest choreographers. In its beginning […]
learn more*Allan Freelon Sr. was born on this date in 1895. He was an African American artist (Impressionist), educator and civil rights activist. Allan Randall Freelon Srwas born in Philadelphia to Douglas Freelon and Laura E. (Goodwin) Freelon, a “middle-class family,the oldest of three children. He attended the South Philadelphia High School for Boys, followed by a four-year scholarship to the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial […]
learn more*The birth of Joshua Johnson in c.1763 is celebrated on this date. He was a black artist (painter) from the Baltimore areaof African and European ancestry. Joshua Johnson was the son of George Johnson, a white man, and a black slave woman whose name was undocumented. His father purchased his son from his mother’s owner for 25 pounds and promised to […]
learn moreLewis Whitlock, educator, choreographer, producer shares his views on the important unused value of the Arts in education
learn more*Norma Miller was born on this date in 1919. She was an African American lindy hop dancer, choreographer, actress, author, and comedian known as the “Queen of Swing”. Norma Miller was born in Harlem, New York into mother Alma and father Norman, a soldier, both from Bridgetown, Barbados. She was named after her father, who died from pneumonia a month before her birth. […]
learn moreDancer (retired), instructor, artistic director and arts entrepreneur Toni Pierce-Sands shares dance career advice for youth
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