The Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center Presents: JUNE=THPAC Souls of our Feet, People of Color Dance Festival 2004

Now in it's 28th season the Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center presents JUNE = THPAC: Souls of our Feet, People of Color Dance Festival 2004. This month long celebration of culture and dance will feature artistic tributes to poet and thinker Audre Lorde, choreographer Alvin Ailey, and the works of Nia Love and the Urban Dandelion Dance Company.

Brooklyn, NY May 28, 2004 -- Now in it's 28th season the Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center presents JUNE = THPAC: Souls of our Feet, People of Color Dance Festival 2004. This month long celebration of culture and dance will feature artistic tributes to poet and thinker Audre Lorde, choreographer Alvin Ailey, and the works of Nia Love and the Urban Dandelion Dance Company.    

Sponsored by Life Quality Automotive of Bay Ridge, the festival runs every Friday and Saturday, from June 2 - 26th with the Annual THPAC Lifetime Achievement Awards and Urban Dandelion Performance on Saturday June 27th. The 2004 awardees are Marie Brooks, founder of the Pan-Caribbean Dance Theater and Alvin Ailey dancer choreographer Dudley Williams.

All performances and the Lifetime Achievement Awards take place at the Long Island University Triangle Theater located at Flatbush and Dekalb Avenues, Brooklyn, NY. Tickets are $15/$12 (students and seniors) and $40 for the Lifetime Achievement Awards Gala and Performance. They may be purchased by phone at 718-875-9710.

Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center Background
In 1976, visionary Larry Phillips brought a group of committed dancers and choreographers together to create an organization, which would offer the Brooklyn community a creative performance outlet that is not only experimental and cultural but family oriented as well. He named the young talented group of artists after brilliant educator and dancer Thelma Hill.

Over the past 27 years Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center (THPAC) has thrived, attracting both emerging and established artist of all backgrounds who seek out its experimental yet historically aware environment. THPAC has developed a unique cycle in which their alumni, who have gone on to successful careers as dancers and choreographers both here and abroad return to the space where they first flourished, not only to impart what they have learned to new artists, but to learn once again.

Located in the Triangle Theater of Long Island University in downtown Brooklyn the Thelma Hill season runs throughout the month of June, has a reach of 14,000 people thorough it's yearly mailer, email and physical audience. It is one of the most exceptional multi-cultural institutions of dance and the performing arts in New York City. Featuring eight adult and two children's performances. With tickets being $15, the JUNE=THPAC Souls of our Feet People of Color Dance Festival is widely attended by the dance community and New Yorkers who take part in summer city cultural affairs.

The THPAC season will highlight the life and artistic writings of famous poet, thinker and activist Audre Lorde, and special performances on the life and controversial death of dance legend Alvin Ailey.

The grand finale of the JUNE = THPAC Souls of our Feet People of Color Dance Festival season is the THPAC Lifetime Achievement Awards Gala and Urban Dandelions Performance. This event features Nia Love, whose work has graced stages such as: the Royce Hall Theater in Los Angeles, Theater Artaud in San Francisco, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, and the Lincoln Center and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Widely attended by New York media and dance professionals the Annual THPAC Lifetime Achievement Awards Gala has honored dance greats and exceptional choreographers such as: Louis Johnson, George Faison, Ella Thompson Moore, Diane McIntyre, Fred Benjamin and Kathleen Stanford Grant.

This years awardees will be:

Marie Brooks:
Brilliant choreographer and founder of the Marie Brooks Pan-Caribbean Dance Theater. Marie Brooks has incorporated dance into the lives of children and young adults for three decades. Through the Pan Caribbean Dance Theater youth of all backgrounds have performed at venues such as the opening ceremonies of the centennial Olympic games and on all seven continents.

Dudley Williams:
35-year veteran of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. He is busy defying the odds an exploring what a 63-year-old body can do in an art form dominated by dancer less than half his age. He has inspired countless generations and has defied time while maintaining a powerful eloquence along the way.

JUNE=THPAC: The Souls Of Our Feet, People of Color Dance Festival 2004
Season Roster

Special Project: Audre Lorde in Motion    June 2-3, 2004
This artistic interpretation explores the writings of the famous poet, activist and thinker Audre Lorde through performance art, spoken words and dance collaborations.

Audre Lorde was a poet and writer who stood up against oppression and injustice on several fronts. She was an African-American, Carri bean-American, feminist, lesbian, and a mother. Her writings stand out against African American culture being overtaken by an oppressive or indifferent white culture, against sexual discrimination, and against apathy toward the gay rights movement.

She was not only an activist and writer, but also a teacher. She taught poetry at Hunter College and held the post of Thomas Hunter Chair of Literature.

Featuring: Roger Bonair Agard, Ronald K. Brown, Cheryl Boyce Taylor, Tai Freedom Ford, Abena Koomson, Christalyn Wright.
Curator: Cheryl Boyce Taylor

Mixed Nuts June 5-6, 2004
A curatorial performance by lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, two spirit and trans-gendered choreographers and writers who explore with their lives and cultures through new dance forms and ideas. Mixed Nuts combines dance and poetry to address social and cultural issues uniques to these community.

Featuring: Meoleake Jones, Gregory King, Tania Isaac, Shannan Mabra
Curator: Marshall Swiney

Children's Dance Recital    June 5-6, 2004
A two-day exhibition of what extraordinary young people can achieve in dance when given the training and encouragement. The youth of the Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center will focus on various countries and cultures and tell their stories through dance.

Toenails of Steel & Ruby Red Text    June 12-13, 2004
A Multi-media dance drama based on the secretive life and controversial death of brillant choreographic giant Alvin Ailey. The work is a journey through his life from his poverty stricken childhood in rural Texas to his private life of homosexuality and his death of dyscrasia, a rare blood disease. This work also looks closely at the motivation behind the formation of the world-renowned Alvin Ailey Dance Company and the much-loved Revelations and Blood Memories performances.

Featuring: Andre Smith
Curator: Marshall Swiney

Women Dancemakers    June 19-20, 2004
Features the works of six female choreographers of color. This program brings to the stage inspired visions of womanhood that have been fashioned from cultural and personal experiences.

Featuring: Aleta Haynes, Malanga Dance Theater, Treva Offutt
Curator: Marshall Swiney

Uurban Dandelions    June 26-27, 2004
Nia Love and her company premiered a new jazz/dance collaborative piece when last they appeared at THPAC, which was widely heralded. The company is renowned for its use of contemporary art within the dance performance medium.

Featuring: Nia Love
Curator: Marshall Swiney

Lifetime Achievement Awards/Urban Dandelions Performance June 27, 2004

"Paris has a left bank, and London has a South Bank, and here [Manhattan] youve got Brooklyn. -New York Times Magazine, April 25, 2004

For VIP performance and Media Inquiries Please Contact:
Noelle Richards
ElleDeuce Communications
917-597-8084
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