Joan Myers Brown Joan Myers Brown, Honorary Chairperson of IABD will receive the 2013 DanceUSA Honor Award on Thursday, June 13, 2013 at the DanceUSA 2013 Annual Conference in Philadelphia, PA. The Honor goes to an individual who has demonstrated extraordinary leadership in the dance field by reason of artistic excellence and/or force of vision.
Dance/USA - Honors a Legend: Philadanco's Joan Myers Brown by Merilyn Jackson
If you ever met Joan Myers Brown, you'd know you met the epitome of glamour.
She's the elegantly 80, legendary impresario who founded The Philadelphia Dance Company (Philadanco!) in 1970. In 1988 she was a founder of the International Conference of Black Dance Companies and in 1991 she founded the International Association of Blacks in Dance, of which she is now an honorary chair. She may never have been celebrity enough to be chosen for the popular BlackGlama fur campaign, but she boldly wears fur, and would wither anyone with a stare if challenged.
Despite limited funding and not nearly enough local appreciation, Philadanco has toured the world for many years and Philadelphia considers Brown its greatest cultural ambassador. This decade has brought her and the company more local recognition and stability. In 2004, The Kimmel Center's Perelman Theater gave Philadanco a permanent presence on the Avenue of the Arts where the troupe often sells out the house as dance company in residence. Among Brown's many awards and honorary doctorates was her 2010 Philadelphia Award. She plowed back much of the $25,000 award into beefing up Daniel Ezralow's Xmas Philes, a funny and often moving, holiday favorite. For her extraordinary artistic guidance, her nurturance of many dancers and choreographers, visionary leadership, and grace under fire in the dance field, Myers Brown is one of the 2013 Dance/USA honorees.
Dance/USA - Honors a Legend: Philadanco's Joan Myers Brown by Merilyn Jackson
If you ever met Joan Myers Brown, you'd know you met the epitome of glamour.
She's the elegantly 80, legendary impresario who founded The Philadelphia Dance Company (Philadanco!) in 1970. In 1988 she was a founder of the International Conference of Black Dance Companies and in 1991 she founded the International Association of Blacks in Dance, of which she is now an honorary chair. She may never have been celebrity enough to be chosen for the popular BlackGlama fur campaign, but she boldly wears fur, and would wither anyone with a stare if challenged.
Despite limited funding and not nearly enough local appreciation, Philadanco has toured the world for many years and Philadelphia considers Brown its greatest cultural ambassador. This decade has brought her and the company more local recognition and stability. In 2004, The Kimmel Center's Perelman Theater gave Philadanco a permanent presence on the Avenue of the Arts where the troupe often sells out the house as dance company in residence. Among Brown's many awards and honorary doctorates was her 2010 Philadelphia Award. She plowed back much of the $25,000 award into beefing up Daniel Ezralow's Xmas Philes, a funny and often moving, holiday favorite. For her extraordinary artistic guidance, her nurturance of many dancers and choreographers, visionary leadership, and grace under fire in the dance field, Myers Brown is one of the 2013 Dance/USA honorees.
interviewed her for Dance Teacher Magazine in 2003 - the first national feature she says she had. During our conversation I mentioned that as a child I took lessons at Jay Dash Studios in Philadelphia. "Oh," Brown said, "they wouldn't let me in cuz I'm black." So she studied with historical black dance schools in the city, including Sydney School of Dance and went on to a successful touring career in club revues - for two and a half years at Montreal's Café Montmartre and a tour with Pearl Bailey and Sammy Davis, Jr. Tiring of life on the road, she started her West Philadelphia dance school in 1960 and can still be reached by phone there as late as midnight. It's where the company rehearses and families (including her own children and granddaughters) crowd the halls to watch their children, Brown's students, blossom. Philadanco! danced its recent April program like a well-oiled machine gunning to overtake the pack of the other Philadelphia dance companies that perform on the Avenue of the Arts. Yet Brown still struggles for funding to commission new choreography, which the company has proven time and again kicks the artistic cachet over the top. Christopher Huggins' latest work for them, Big Bang, is but one example. Most people in the dance world know some of these facts about her, but I got to know Brown on a first name basis over time and thought readers would like to hear some personal anecdotes about my friend Joan. For more of the article CLICK HERE
Event Info - Thursday, June 13, 2013 - 4:30 - 5:30 p.m.
Kimmel Center for The Performing Arts - Perelman Theater
300 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA
www.conference.danceusa.org
Event Info - Thursday, June 13, 2013 - 4:30 - 5:30 p.m.
Kimmel Center for The Performing Arts - Perelman Theater
300 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA
www.conference.danceusa.org
RSS Feed