FLY: Five First Ladies of Dance features performances by some of the most influential contemporary dancer/choreographers in history: Germaine Acogny, Carmen de Lavallade, Dianne McIntyre, Bebe Miller and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. As dancers, company -founders and inspiration to countless others, these ground-breaking artists are first ladies in every sense of the word. They have helped shape the language and trajectory of contemporary dance, in the U.S. and abroad, as they have continued to raise the artistic bar and inspire the contemporary dance world with vital work and fresh ideas. Please join 651 ARTS at these landmark performances in May when each woman performs in a short solo work.

GERMAINE ACOGNY

performing in her own choreography
Untitled (2009)
work-in-progress

BIOGRAPHY
Senegalese and French, Germaine Acogny is considered the “mother of Contemporary African dance”. Acogny’s critically acclaimed all-male dance troupe Compagnie Jant-Bi was first presented in New York City by 651 ARTS in 2007 (Fagaala) and garnered Acogny a Bessie Award (New York Dance and Performance Award) for choreography.

“Germaine Acogny….makes even stillness vibrant.”

Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times

CARMEN DE LAVALLADE

performing in choreography by
Geoffrey Holder
The Creation (1972)

BIOGRAPHY
Carmen de Lavallade first appeared in NYC with the Lester Horton Dance Theatre and subsequently made her Broadway debut with Alvin Ailey in House of Flowers (1954). Ms. de Lavallade was a principal dancer with the Metropolitan Opera, a guest artist with American Ballet Theater and a soloist with the NYC Opera. In 1996, de Lavallade founded performance ensemble PARADIGM along with Gus Solomons, Jr.

“Few people in the performing arts can match the accomplishments of the supremely elegant Carmen de Lavallade.”

Valerie Gladstone, Dance Teacher

DIANNE MCINTYRE

performing in her own choreography
If You Don’t Know (2009)
work-in-progress

BIOGRAPHY
Dianne McIntyre has developed a distinctive body of work that features an idiosyncratic use of music, a dynamic movement style, and important choreographic explorations of lives of Black Americans. McIntyre was honored with the American Dance Festival 2008 Balasaraswati/Joy Ann Dewey Beinecke Chair for Distinguished Teaching and a 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship for
Choreography.

“Ms. McIntyre and her dances are like old friends who remain current and present no matter the time lapse since the last encounter.”

Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times

BEBE MILLER

performing in her own choreography
Rain (1989)

BIOGRAPHY
A native New Yorker, Bebe Miller has been making dances for over twenty-five years, and has created over forty original works for companies here and abroad. Ms. Miller formed Bebe Miller Company in 1985. Miller has been honored with four Bessie (New York Dance and Performance) Awards, a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, an American Choreographer’s Award and Artist’s Fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council and New York Foundation for the Arts.

“What makes Ms. Miller’s choreography so moving are the sudden moments of mystery, ...coolly thoughtful yet dispatched with consummate ease.”

The New York Times

JAWOLE WILLA JO ZOLLAR

performing in her own choreography
Bring ‘Em Home (2009)
work-in-progress

BIOGRAPHY
Jawole Willa Jo Zollar was born and raised in Kansas City, MO. She trained with Joseph Stevenson, a student of the legendary Katherine Dunham. In 1980, Zollar moved to New York City to study with Dianne McIntyre at her dance studio/company, Sounds in Motion. She founded Urban Bush Women in 1984. In 2006, Zollar was recognized with a New York Dance & Performance Award, a ‘Bessie’, for her choreography of the Pearl Primus-inspired dance, Walking With Pearl…Southern Diaries. Most recently Zollar was named a United States Artists ‘Wynn Fellow’.

“[Zollar] takes women’s bodies, racist myths, sexist stereotypes, post-modern conventions and the ‘science’ of hip-hop and catapults them over the rainbow, so they come tumbling out of the grin of the man in the moon.”

Ntozake Shange