{"id":31245,"date":"2016-05-06T11:05:12","date_gmt":"2016-05-06T18:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/soulofamerica.com\/?p=31245"},"modified":"2017-05-19T15:27:56","modified_gmt":"2017-05-19T22:27:56","slug":"philadanco","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.soulofamerica.com\/us-cities\/philadelphia\/philadanco\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadanco"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Philadanco

Philadanco performance<\/strong>; credit Lois Greenfield<\/p><\/div>\n

Philadanco<\/h2>\n

In the 1950’s, Joan Myers-Brown was first introduced to Dance. She said, \u201cI don’t say I have to dance \u2013 I started dancing in high school, a teacher encouraged me to seriously study dance as an art and profession and I say “Dance” has me ever since<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

Before founding Philadanco, Myers-Brown first trained at the segregated Sydney-Marion School For African American Dancers. Later she studied at the Katherine Dunham School and with Walter Nicks and Karl Shook in New York City. As a young dancer from Philadelphia, Joan Myers-Brown performed with such entertainment legends as Cab Calloway, Sammy Davis Jr., Henri Coles and the great Pearl Bailey, who would later be a mainstay on the artistic board of Philadanco.<\/p>\n

\"Philadanco

Philadanco founder Joan Myers-Brown<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

This year marks the Philadanco Dance Company Jubiliee heralding \u201cForty Years of Artistic Excellence<\/em>.” Begun in 1970 by then single Joan Myers, Philadanco was a direct response to the lack of professional troupe outlets for her students in her previous schooling at the Philadelphia School Of Dance Arts, which still exists. Philadanco proudly stands as a West Philadelphia institution, world famous for its cutting edge choreography and instruction of African American inspired dance works. It is renown for performances styles ranging from ballet to jazz and modern. And if you were to approach dancing by the numbers, to date Philadanco has trained over 4,000 dancers and molded 650 troupe members. It has logged over 1,000 performances appearing in countries and venues around the globe. Philadanco annually touches over 100 million people via radio, television, live performances and its web presence.<\/p>\n

Philadanco consists of four major companies connected as individual segments of a well-oiled dance machine. All placements are by audition. D\/2 or Danco 2 (for dancers aged 15 to 23) is the second company or apprentice group which does primarily at home non-profit appearances on behalf of Philadelphia. Two of the junior dancers were recently hired by the Dallas Black Dance Theatre. Another duo of her students placed on So You Think You Can Dance, with dancer Anthony Burrell holding on until the final ten. There is also a highly touted D\/3 Youth Ensemble for up and comers aged 9 to 16 and a six-week summer program focusing on youth in dance. Students age from 10 up and are selected from local dancers at low cost for community members. Philadanco also offers an intensive 40-week instruction and training program.<\/p>\n

The professional performing company although housed and administrated in West Philadelphia makes appearances at home-base only twice a year. In 2000, the company along with eight other cultural arts organizations received permanent residency at the Kimmel Center For The Performing Arts. Philadanco’s busy touring schedule didn’t allow for its first performance at the Kimmel Center until 2002.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that we only perform in Philadelphia two times a year, but the school is here speaks volumes. The city tried to get me to move downtown, but I think it is important for me to stay in the community<\/em>.\u201d Given Myers-Brown’s mission to expose young African Americans to dance and higher education through dance, her West Philadelphia decision makes sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are affiliated with the University of the Arts and also Temple University. Most of the company members assistant teach there<\/em>.” If your corner Ms. Brown, she would admit that she does too. Spreading her seeds, she tells her proteges to seek higher learning and to instruct professionally.<\/p>\n