Two Detroit Area Raised Dancers Lead Return of Dallas Black Dance Theatre

Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts is proud to present Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Saturday November 12th at 8PM. Founded in 1976 by Ann Williams to inspire minority boys and girls to appreciate dance as an art form and to realize the possibility of dance as a means to express their creativity,Dallas Black Dance Theatre offers dance opportunities for the entire population, regardless of race, age or circumstance, through professional dance concert performances, arts-in-education programs, community outreach activities, and dance training classes.

DETROIT CONNECTION

Making this performance a homecoming of sorts, DBDT is proud to include two Detroit area dancers, Nycole Ray and Michelle Herbert who are from Oak Park and Commerce Twp respectively. Ms. Ray is DBDT's Artistic Director as well, with numerous awards. Both Ms Ray and Ms. Herbert will be available for phone as well as live appearances to promote the show. Bios available upon request- Photos Attached

DBDT has grown from a community-based, semi-professional organization to a fully-professional dance company that is renowned in the U.S. and noted for its rich cultural diversity, history of inclusion, and high-level of artistic excellence in contemporary modern dance and educational programs.

DBDT employs a diverse, multi-ethnic troupe of dancers performing for audiences of all ages and backgrounds, including a Dallas home season as a resident performing company in the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre in the AT&T Performing Arts Center, a New York season, and local, regional, and national tours.

The professional company, DBDT, consists of 12 full-time salaried dancers performing a mixed repertory of modern, jazz, ethnic and spiritual works by nationally and internationally recognized choreographers.

- Two of the dancers who will be performing, Shelly Hebert and Nycole Ray, are from Detroit.

Highlights of the Detroit performance include:

The B-Side:

The B-Side choreographed by Tiffany Rea-Fisher with original music by Michael Thurber brings the moods of Motown to the stage. The music takes inspiration from Motown hits of the 60s, 70s and 80s and by virtue of not being the songs we all know, feel like the "b-side" of the album.

Angelitos Negros:

Angelitos Negros is an excerpt from the ballet, Songs of the Disinherited. Translated to English, the lyrics read: Painter born in my native land with the foreign brush; Painter that continues the course of all the painters of old; Though the Virgin may be white, paint black angels for me; For the good ones also go to heaven; Painter indeed you paint with love!! Why do you deprecate those of your color, if you know that in heaven God also loves them? Painter of saints in alcoves, if you have a soul in your body; Why have you forgotten blacks in your paintings? Every time you paint a church you paint beautiful angels, but never do you remember to paint a black angel.

Awassa Astrige/Ostrich:

The ostrich is not the comic bird, burying its head in the sand, as typically portrayed in cartoons, but it is a large, stately and potentially lethal bird should you suffer a blow from one of its powerful legs. The ostrich commands our respect, and in this portrayal, a warrior imitates the graceful but powerful movements of the King of the birds.

...And Now Marvin

This work pays tribute to the legendary artist Marvin Gaye. He was an extraordinary singer, composer and arranger. Through his music he expressed despondency over key issues of his generation: politics, the war in Vietnam, the ecology and human conditions.

Tickets are $35 $45 & $55 and available at The Music Hall Box Office or at www.ticketmaster.com

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