Presentation of Fly: Five First Ladies of Dance

The Painted Bride Art Center presented Fly: Five First Ladies of Dance, featuring Germaine Acogny, Carmen de Lavallade, Dianne McIntyre, Bebe Miller, and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. Collectively, these five artists span a huge range of African American dance experience. To amplify the public impact of this project, Painted Bride also initiated a program of interviews with Philadelphia dance artists who work in traditions represented by the guest artists, which are available on a website dedicated to the project. Public events in addition to the sold out performances included line dancing classes; a preshow discussion with dance scholar Brenda Dixon Gottschild about her work on a new Center-funded biography, Joan Myers Brown & The Audacious Hope of the Black Ballerina: A Biohistory of American Performance; and a "behind-the-scenes" intimate conversation with the Fly participants, facilitated by Dixon Gottschild.