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In three one-hour programs, "Free To Dance" chronicles the crucial role that African-American dancers and choreographers have played in the development of modern dance as an American art form. Through first-person accounts by dancers and witnesses, the series documents how African-derived movement and other forms of dance were fused to make modern dance so distinctively American. Landmark dance masterpieces by African-American choreographers were filmed expressly for the series and woven throughout the historical narrative. They include the work of Katherine Dunham ("Barrelhouse Blues"), Pearl Primus ("Strange Fruit"), Donald McKayle ("Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder"), Talley Beatty ("Mourner's Bench"), Bill T. Jones ("D-Man in the Water"), Alvin Ailey ("Revelations"), and many others. "Free To Dance" is a presentation of the American Dance Festival (ADF) and The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Madison Davis Lacy is the series producer and director, and Charles L. and Stephanie Reinhart are the executive producers.
Information about the series, a dance timeline, essays on dance
history and the African-American contribution to modern dance, biographies of notable dance personalities, links to relevant dance resources online, and more.
Click here to explore the Web companion
for this program, which originally aired on June 24, 2001.
Top banner photos: Jerome Stigler in Talley
Beatty's "Mourner's Bench"; DCDC in Donald McKayle's "Rainbow 'Round
My Shoulder"; Bill T. Jones' "D-Man in the Water" performed by the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company.
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Gary Harris in Asdata Dafora's "Ostrich." |
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The Dayton Contemporary Dance Company. |
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