Lula Washington Dance Theatre

About Lula Washington Dance Theatre

The Lula Washington Contemporary Dance Foundation is a 501(c)3 tax exempt non-profit organization founded in 1980 by Lula and Erwin Washington to provide a creative outlet for minority dance artists in South Los Angeles. The founding mission is to build a world class contemporary modern dance company that travels worldwide with contemporary modern dance works that reflect African-American history and culture. Our education mission is to create a school in the inner city where young people can learn the art of dance, launch careers in dance, and where dance is used to motivate, educate, inspire, challenge and enrich the lives of young people so they can become successful, productive and competitive citizens. Read more »

Upcoming Performances

LWDT heading to San Jose Jazz Festival

The Lula Washington Dance Theatre (LWDT) has been invited to perform at the San Jose Jazz Festival in 2012 with music by drummer Marcus L. Miller and sax player Kamasi Washington.

The dance company performs on Sunday, Aug. 12, 2012, at 1 pm. It will be the first time the dance company has appeared in an exclusively jazz festival outside of Los Angeles.

LWDT danced at the Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival in 2010 with trumpet player Terrence Blanchard (photo above). Lula Washington choreographed to Blanchard’s “Choices” CD using a mix of locked-in contemporary choreography with African-dance style improvisation to Blanchard’s fiery jazz trumpet sounds.

For the San Jose Jazz Festival, LWDT will bring Marcus L. Miller with his Freedom Jazz Movement band; and Kamasi Washington with his group, The Next Step. Each band will play alone and with the dancers. The two bands share Kamasi and some of the other musicians.

The dance company will perform Lula Washington’s Spontaneous Combustion, which LWDT toured to 12 cities in China in 2011. Other works include Lula’s “We Wore The Mask”; Tamica Washington-Miller’s “Beautiful Venus And Serena”; and her work, “In The Garden”.

Lula is considering reviving her work, “Om”, which is set to music by John Coltrane; and a 2001 work set to McCoy Tyner’s “Flyin In The Wind.” The two bands will collaborate on the Coltrane and Tyner songs.

Spring Touring Follows Kwanzaa Success

Following Kwanzaa, LWDT launches into 2012 with a series of local concerts and national tours. The big question for 2012 is, how will we top our 2011 Kwanzaa concert and where will we hold it? With our growing audience, we may need a bigger space or more performances so we can serve more people. It’s a good problem to have to start the year.

Highlights for the first half of 2012 include a performance Jan. 28 in Toronto, Canada for the International Association of Blacks In Dance conference. Lula Washington Dance Theatre will perform the all male trio from Lula’s work, “The Healers”. LWDT hosted the conference in 2011 in Los Angeles.

LWDT returns to UCLA for the 12th straight year Feb. 17 with Lula’s “Reflections In Black” concert in Royce Hall. The performance is presented free of charge to school children through UCLA’s Design For Sharing program.

LWDT makes its debut Saturday, Feb. 18, at 7:30 pm at Oxnard Community College in Ventura, CA to launch the first formal public concert of the year. A member of Oxnard College’s Administration saw Lula Washington’s “Global Village” at the Ford last year and worked to bring LWDT to the campus.

After Oxnard, LWDT heads south for concerts at Fayettville State College in North Carolina; the Carolina Theater in Durham, NC; the Buckman Theater in Memphis, TN; and the Hardin County Schools Performing Arts Center in Elizabethtown, KY. This year LWDT returns to the Virginia Arts Festival in Norfolk, and performs in St. Louis for the Spring To Dance Festival; and for Black Dance USA.