3773 Crenshaw Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90016
323-292-5852 (Phone) | 323-292-5851 (Fax)

Tour Blog

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.

Jan 22, 2012 | Categories: Tour Blog, Upcoming Performances | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

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.

Jan 13, 2012 | Categories: Tour Blog, Upcoming Performances | Tags: , , , , | Comments Off

Kwanzaa! 2011 Tickets on Sale Now


Tickets are on sale for the Lula Washington Dance Theatre’s 2011 Kwanzaa concert Thursday and Friday, Dec. 29 & 30, at 7 pm at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center, 4718 W. Washington Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90016.

Lula Washington’s high-octane Harambee Suite is the centerpiece of this performance. It involves a mass of children and professional dancers performing to a fiery array of African drummers. LWDT children and youth dancers will perform their perennial favorite: “Taratibu”, which teaches positive messages for youth people as part of the dancing. The youth will also sing (and move) to the Quincy Jones jazz version of Handel’s Messiah.
The Thursday concert will highlight Oprah Winfrey singing discovery, Abraham McDonald and drummer Marcus L. Miller with Freedom Jazz Movement. LWDT’s associate director, Tamica Washington-Miller, will premiere “Message To My Peeps”, which investigate issues facing youth worldwide.
LWDT’s dancers will be joined in the Friday performance by blues singer Barbara Morrison who has written a song especially for the event. Saxophone star Kamasi Washington will perform his signature jazz works; and Lula Washington will present “For Those Who Live and Die For Us” as a tribute to the Tuskegee Airmen, several of whom planned to attend. Lula Washington will also present her “Global Village”, which was described by one critic as: “absolutely riveting…awesome and colorful…sheer boundlessness across the stage.”
Tickets are on sale at the LWDT studio, 3773 Crenshaw Blvd., LA, CA 90016. Box offices: 323-292-5852. Tickets are $40 for general audiences and $25 for students and seniors. Groups of 10 or more get 10% off the General ticket price. VIP seats are $100 each. They support LWDT’s youth dance scholarship program, founded by donor Beulah Frankel. VIP ticket holders attend a 6 pm nightly VIP Reception.

Dec 09, 2011 | Categories: Tour Blog | Comments Off

Movement With A Meaning

“Movement With A Meaning,” a new short film by Jim Crum, gives an inside view of the Lula Washington Dance Theatre (LWDT) as Lula reconstructed her powerful signature work, “We Wore The Mask.” The film also shows Lula’s work with children in her South Los Angeles dance studio, and includes scenes of LWDT residency activities at the Santa Clarita Center for the Performing Arts.
LWDT will perform “We Wore The Mask” during its concert Oct. 25 at the Cumberland Playhouse in Crossville, Tennessee. The company will also tour “Mask” in the Spring to Fayetteville State College in Fayetteville, NC; the Hayti Center in Durham, NC; the Hardin Performing Arts Center in Elizabethtown, TN; and the Buckman Center in Memphis TN. The work explores “masks” that African-Americans once had to wear in order to survive in America. Those masks can now be removed.
Jim Crum, a former television news producer, followed the dance company for six months during which time he conducted interviews with Lula and company members as they reconstructed “Mask” for performances in Los Angeles. The work also gives an inside view of what it means to work as a dancer at LWDT.
The film can be viewed on Vimeo by pasting this link into your browser: http://vimeo.com/29127417

Sep 20, 2011 | Categories: Tour Blog, Upcoming Performances | Comments Off

Lula Washington Dance Theatre Launches 22-City Tour in Russia Chosen for New South Arts Dance Touring Initiative for Next Year

The Lula Washington Dance Theatre has received two exceptional 30th Anniversary gifts – a 22-city performance tour in Russia; and selection as part of the new South Arts Dance Touring Initiative.

The Russian trip kicks off Nov. 8 and lasts through Dec. 13, 2010 — five weeks.
 
LWDT Executive Director Erwin Washington said a major Russian ballet star fell in love with Lula Washington’s choreography and arranged the tour. “The people in Russia kept telling me that Lula’s work was very unusual and very special,” said Mr. Washington. “They kept telling me that there is nothing quite like it, which is why they are bringing her.”

The tour is scheduled at State Theaters in the following cities: Sochi; Essentuki; Stavropol; Krasnodar; Rostov na Donu; Volgograd; Voroneg; Saratov; Kazan; Nijniy Novgorod; Ufa; Perm; Chelyabinsk; Orenburg; Samara; Yoshkar Ola; Sankt-Petersburg; Sakhalin; Nakhodka; Vladivostok; Habarovsk; and Blagoveshensk.

LWDT will bring two different programs composed of five works by Lula Washington: “We Wore The Mask”; “www.connections.2010”; “The Healers”; “01997-8”; and “Spontaneous Combustion.”  Also on the tour will be Donald McKayle’s classic, “Angelitos Negros”; and Christopher Huggins’ new “Love Is…”.

The Russian tour follows Lula Washington Dance Theatre’s 2009 performance at the International Book Fair in Guadalajara, Mexico, where some 1,500 viewers stood for an entire two-hour concert – without  intermission — and then screamed for more when the dancing ended.

Lula Washington Dance Theatre has also been chosen for the new South Arts Dance Touring Initiative. The project is designed to strengthen audiences for contempoary modern dance and contemporary ballet. LWDT will begin its tour in October, 2011 at the Cumberland Playhouse in Cumberland, Tennessee. Additional dates are being booked now, with engagements planned also in Kentucky and South Carolina. 

This touring activity comes as the dance company is completing a year-long celebration of its 30th anniversary. In January, Lula Washington Dance Theatre gained attention with news that she choreographed James Cameron’s movie, Avatar. The Company premiered Lula Washington’s “WWW.CONNECTIONS.2010” at the Kasser Theatre in Montclair New Jersey, and then went on to premiere five other new works in 2010 — all in celebration of its 30th Anniversary. The new works included “Reign” by Rennie Harris; “Love Is…” by Christopher Huggins; “Ritmo” by Jordi Caballero; “In The Garden” by Tamica Washington-Miller.

This past summer, LWDT collaborated with Grammy Award winner Terence Blanchard at the Hollywood Bowl. Their “Choices” project was so successful, that plans are underway to tour “Choices” next year. (The photo included here is from “Choices” The Photographer is Sol Washington).
 
Recently, Lula Washington participated in the Grand Finale Women’s Conference in Long Beach, California where Oprah Winfrey received the final Minerva Award from California First Lady Maria Shriver. Lula Washington received the first Minerva Award back in 2004. The award celebrates women who make a major impact on children and families through their work. Other Minerva Award winners include former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor; astronaut Sally Ride; Olympic Gold medalist Anita DeFranz; and environmental activist Jane Godall.

LWDT’s 30th Anniversary celebration kicked off in 2009 when LWDT secured a National Dance Project tour grant that allowed it to tour a special 30th program to to 17 US cities.

Lula’s company recently completed concerts in Lexington, Kentucky as part of the celebration of the World Equestrian Games. It presented season-opening shows at SUNY Geneseo and at the Hilman Performing Arts Center in Pittsburgh, PA.

Immediately following the Russian tour, the Lula Washington Dance Theatre will host the 23rd Annual Conference of the International Association of Blacks In Dance. The conference is scheduled for Jan. 27-30, 2011 in Los Angeles, CA. It includes concerts; master classes; workshops; and panel discussions. For Information, check the LWDT website at www.lulawashington.org/iabd.

–Erwin Washington

Oct 31, 2010 | Categories: Tour Blog | Tags: , , , , , , | Comments Off

Lula Washington a hit at SUNY GENESEO

Lula Washington

The Lula Washington Dance Theatre kicked off the 2010-11 season of the Limelight and Accents series at the State University of New York – Geneseo with a concert that opened with Lula Washington’s newly re-tooled “Healers” and closed with Rennie Harris’s upbeat “Reign”.

Views sat rapt through each work and gave enthusiastic applause all evening. The program included “We Wore The Mask”; “Love Is”; “Angelitos Negros” and “Beautiful Venus and Serena.” Audience members joined the dance company on stage at nights end, dancing until Lula finally shooed them all home.

Carey Backman, Student Activities advisor, was highly pleased, explaining that season ticket holders and donors — many of them elderly – have no qualms about leaving at intermission if they are not engaged. “Nobody left,” said a very happy Ms. Backman.

As much as she liked the dancing, Ms. Backman said that she and her students were mesmerized watching Lula rehearse her dancers for the concert. Watching the behind the scenes rehearsal interactions prior to the concert made the formal presentation even more meaningful, she said.

Ms. Backman expressed great joy in seeing that LWDT drew a higher proportion of students than is customary for dance — especially for the opening event of the college’s six-event season. “I think the students were drawn by the youthful nature of the work,” said Backman.

The performance at SUNY came about because two students — Kellie and Lindsey — picked the dance company from a showcase performance in New York and invited the company to perform. Kellie, who is studying to be a dentist, and Lindsey, who wants to go into marketing, said they were sold by the energy and passion of “We Wore The Mask” and by the athleticism of “Beautiful Venus and Serena”. Neither student had heard of Lula Washington Dance Theatre before seeing the showcase in New York a year ago. “We saw tons and tons of stuff,” recalled Kellie. “But when we saw Lula Washington, we knew this was it.”

Students did everything related to the concert, including picking up dancers and driving them to and from the theater during their stay, working behind stage as crew members for the concert; and buying food for the hospitalities. Students also negotiated the fees and the contract. Backman said she tried to give her students a total learning experience as presenter/producers.

When the concert was over, student producers Kellie and Linsay were exhausted, but thrilled. That is, until they were reminded that they had to pick up the dancers at 3:30 am to get them to the airport for early flights back to LA. – Erwin Washington

Sep 28, 2010 | Categories: Tour Blog | Comments Off

Letter from audience member at Grand Performances Concert July 30, 2010

From: Lorraine Patterson
Date: July 31, 2010 4:03:58 PM PDT
To: Lula Washington and Tamica Washington-Miller
Subject: A Moving Peformance at the Grand

Hi Lula, Tamica,

I attended the performance, at Grand Performances last night and I just want to let you know that it was an excellent, very moving performance.

Lula, you are an institution. Your excellence and your leadership is evident in the fruits of your labor. I smiled last night as I watched you on stage, before the show began, making sure everything and every one was in line.

Tamica, you exemplify what stars are made of. You were awesome!!! Your energy, talent, and commitment to excellence was obvious to all who attended last night’s performance.

All of the dancers were excellent. I always enjoy LWDT performances but following last night’s performance, I feel led to share with you my feelings. I was touched, impressed and… I was proud! As I looked around the plaza, I noticed that the many other attendees were also enjoying the performance.

I also want to thank you for your concern and the time and energy you have invested in my granddaughter, Anaya Tyler. Anaya truly LOVES dance and we know that you have provided an outstanding arena for her to pursue her dream. It is obvious that your interest in your students extend beyond just the dollars and cents and we appreciate that.

Again, thanks and a big CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Love,
Lorraine Patterson

Aug 06, 2010 | Categories: Tour Blog | Comments Off