The L.A. Dance Festival materialized in early 2012 out of a frankly chauvinistic fervor to highlight the best homegrown companies together in performance. In unity there is strength, the thinking goes — although sampler programs, with their 10-minute snatches of choreography, have inherent weaknesses.

The second, expanded festival took place over the weekend, featuring 16 companies on two programs at Diavolo’s large and informal Brewery studio space.

Students from Lula Washington Dance Theatre’s apprentice ensemble made a strong showing in Tamica Washington-Miller’s “The Message.” A protest piece against greed, war and other human-manufactured plagues, Washington-Miller wrote a narrative text to combine with her rooted movement style. This was a call to action. Release the anger, the shaking fists, and turn off the electronic drone of bad news (represented by an onstage television), Washington-Miller seemed to be advocating. Become a living example of love and community to affect deep change.

Lula Washington Dance Theatre took on universal themes of love, war, healing and authenticity in a performance Saturday night in Reading Area Community College’s Miller Center for the Arts as part of the Downtown Performing Arts Series.

The Los Angeles-based company boasts dancers who are as powerful as they are expressive, and who bring theatricality and storytelling ability to dance in which modern, African and Afro-Haitian styles intermesh.

They opened with excerpts from the multiple-movement work “Love Is .,” choreographed by the wonderful Christopher Huggins (a former Alvin Ailey dancer), which explores the many aspects of love, with music by the Icelandic band Sigur Ros and music from the film scores of Chinese director Wong Kar-Wai.

“At First Sight,” an intimate, lyrical pas de deux danced by Micah Moch and Khilea Douglass, embodied the pure joy of discovery and developing trust. Douglass’ breathtaking leap into Moch’s arms, and her holding him aloft, are two indelible images from a beautiful work of art.

“Fleeting” featured a brief, somewhat ironic trio (Bernard Brown, Levi Marsman and Rachel McSween) to a melancholy waltz. “Pain” was a solo by Mary Runkle, a display of raw, hair-tearing, chest-pounding anguish to a cello piece. All six dancers gathered for the finale, “The Same Old Story,” ending with the three couples arguing out loud, leaving Runkle alone onstage in a heap.

Washington democratically featured three of her own works, and three by other choreographers.

Her “For Those Who Live and Die for Us, A Tribute to American Soldiers” used music by Daniel Bernard Roumain and a background film of soldiers in various situations. The entire company, representing the four branches of the military, incorporated movements suggesting combat, training, pain and mutual support into challenging modern dance choreography.

Washington’s “The Healers,” with music by Philip Glass and Malik Sow, used smoke and projected images to create an otherworldly atmosphere, as four male dancers portrayed shamanistic rituals and ecstatic dance.

The show’s finale was her amazing “We Wore the Mask,” with drumming by Marcus L. Miller, and a recitation of the poem “We Wear the Mask” by African-American poet Laurence Dunbar.

Beginning with Douglass wearing a grotesquely smiling mask and bandana, dancing comically, the work showed people gradually dropping the masks and dancing with freedom, consummate skill and pride.

Choreographer Donald McKayle’s beautiful solo “Angelitos Negros,” to the song sung in Spanish by Roberta Flack, was also danced by Douglass, whose long, eloquent arms were reminiscent of Martha Graham dancing “Lamentation.” This was part of McKayle’s “Songs of the Disinherited.”

The company was at its most energetic in “Reign,” a concert hip-hop piece by Rennie Harris of Philadelphia. With nonstop vigorous leaps and cool moves, it was a dance party with attitude.

Contact Susan Pena: entertainment@readingeagle.com.

Using the theme of “Believe”, the concert will focus on more positive and uplifting dance works from a range of styles including Ballet, Caribbean, Modern, African, tap, hip hop and jazz dance.

Students in the Active Boys class will show their skils in Hapkido Martial Arts, as well as in African drumming and dance.

Members of the LWDT professional company will perform in selected works on the program.

Tickets are on sale at the LWDT School, 3773 Crenshaw Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90016. For information about tickets call: 323-292-5852 or email: School.lwdt@gmail.com.

The Lula Washington Dance Theatre will perform at the John Anson Ford Amphiteater in a shared concert with the Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Saturday, Aug. 10 at 8 pm.

Complexions was created by two former Alvin Ailey dancers Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson.

Dwight Rhoden, founder of Complexions.

Desmond Richardson, co-founder of Complexions.

Tickets are on sale now at the Ford, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd, East, Hollywood, CA 90068. The Box Office number is: 323-461-3673. You may also Email boxoffice@arts.lacounty.gov

The concert is part of the Ford’s new Signature Series, founded by Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslovsky.

Proceeds from the concert will help fund a renovation of the Ford Theater and its stages.

More than three decades ago Lula Washington applied for admission to the UCLA Dance Department and had to fight her way in.

On May 17, 2013, Lula Washington will receive UCLA’s Chancellor’s Award — the highest honor that UCLA awards its alumni. Lula is being honored in the category of Community Service, for her work in dance over the last 33 years in South Los Angeles.

The awards ceremony will take place in the Bel Air home of UCLA Chancellor Gene Block. Along with Lula, UCLA is honoring five other alumni. Two of them are Appeals and District Court judges; another was the 2012 National co-chair of President Obama’s re-election campaign; and the others include a nun who specializes in nursing theory; and a former chief librarian at UCLA who is now a philanthropist.

Established in 1946, the awards recognize “outstanding achievement” in service to the community, the public and the university,” according to a statement from UCLA.

Earlier on the awards day, Lula will speak to students about coming from a low income family and working her way through UCLA with a major in dance and with a strong Afro-centric creative aesthetic that did not always sit well with the post modern dance department faculty.

After college, she founded the Lula Washington Dance Theatre which encompasses an international touring dance company; an inner city-based dance school; and a $2 million dance building which provides a creative hub for dance in South Los Angeles.

Lula gained international recognition for her choreography for “The Little Mermaid” movie and for James Cameron’s “Avatar”. Her company has toured across the US and around the world.

When Patti Grimes booked Lula Washington Dance Theatre (LWDT) at the Delaware Technical and Community College in Georgetown, Delaware, her goal was to introduce contemporary dance to audiences that had rarely seen this type of dance in her small out-of-the-way community.

Dance was so new to her audience that Patti Grimes asked Lula to come on stage and introduce each dance work — something Lula had not done more than once or twice in 33 years.

Further, Patti told the audience to applaud to let the dancers know when they liked something. Normally, this would be a no-no in sophiscated dance settings. But the approach paid off.

Audience members applauded all through the dance concert and gave a standing ovation at the end. When the concert was over, happy audience members stayed for a lengthy talk-back session with Lula Washington and her dancers.

One tearful woman told Lula she had dreamed of becoming a dancer, but had given up because she never saw a way to make her dream a reality. After seeing the concert and hearing about Lula’s own personal struggles in dance, this woman promised that she would persue her dream to dance.

The concert in Delaware was part of the Lula Washington Dance Theatre’s 2013 Mid-Atlantic dance tour, which involved 9 different sites. Patti Grimes’ Joshua Freeman Foundation presented the performance.

Lula and her dancers left Delaware with new friends and a warm invitation from Patti to come back and perform again. She told Lula that she had made her audience excited about seeing dance, and in doing so, helped Patti achieve her own dreams for her community.

–Erwin Washington

Elizabeth Eckford, one of the original Little Rock Nine, was on hand January 31 at Stuttgart, Arkansas’ Grand Prairie Center when Lula Washington Dance Theatre performed its dance suite about the nine high school students who integrated Central High School in 1957.

Afterwards, Ms. Eckford came up on stage and hugged Khilea Douglass, the dancer who portrayed Ms. Eckford’s historic solo walk through an angry mob of protesters who cursed her, spit at her, threatened her life, and urged her to go back to Africa instead of into Central High.

“Ms. Eckford came up to me afterwards and hugged me and told me how much she loved my performance. She said I understood what she went through that day. I was so moved,” said Douglass. “I was standing in the face of history.”

Elizabeth Eckford took photos with the dance company and told Lula that the performance was so moving that it brought back all the memories from 1957.

Khilea said dancing the Eckford role in Lula’s work was a difficult challenge.

“That dance had the fewest choreographed steps of any dance I have ever done, but, it was also the most intense dance I have ever done,” recalls Khilea. “I had to make the audience feel what Elizabeth must have felt that day, the fear, but also the courage to keep going. I had to make them see and feel the crowd and the risk she was taking. It is a powerful dance. Lula’s work gives me those kinds of challenges – which I love. And for Ms. Eckford to be there in person — it was amazing.”

Elizabeth Eckford was among a large group of people with deep roots in the civil rights movement who attended the dance company’s concert near Little Rock. The concert helped to raise money for a current-day cause in Little Rock – the renovation of the formerly segregated Holman Elementary School so that it can be reopened as the Holman Heritage Community Center — a place where local youth would gain exposure to a variety of services including training in the arts.

The effort is being led by local organizer Calvin Criner, of Little Rock. He was responsible for Ms. Eckford attending the concert. Others in the audience included leaders of the Little Rock Nine Museum in Little Rock; and the daughter of Minnie Jean Brown, another of the original nine.

The performance and tie in with the Holmon Center was the brainchild of Amanda Holstead, director of the Grand Prairie Center. She knew that Lula herself was born outside Little Rock in Englund, Arkansas and she knew that Guy Couch at the University of Arkansas at Conway, had commissioned Lula to create the Little Rock Nine work back in 2007 for the 50th anniversary of the Central High events.

She knew also that Lula was going to be in Memphis at the Orpheum Theater at the end of January. Since Memphis is only two hours from Stuttgart, she invited the dance company to extend its trip for the concert at the Grand Prairie Center.

This is an example of a presenter/theater director making something special happen in their community.

—-ERWIN WASHINGTON, Co-founder, Executive Director,
Lula Washington Dance Theatre

Now, the students are preparing for Kwanzaa. Rehearsals are getting underway. This year’s Kwanzaa festival will happen at our dance studio, 3773 Crenshaw Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90016. The dates are Friday and Saturday, Dec. 28 & 29 at 7:30 pm; and Sunday, Dec. 30 at 3pm.

Seating will be extremely limited, so we suggest early purchases. For information contact the dance school at 323-292-5852 or by email at School.LWDT@gmail.com.

11/30 – Arrive in Moscow
12/02 – Yakutsk
12/04 – Ryazan
12/05 – Ulyanovsk
12/08 – Kurgan
12/09 – Tyumen
12/10 – Omsk
12/11 – Tomsk
12/12 – Kemerovo
12/14 – Barnaul
12/15 – Novokuznetsk
12/16 – Prokopievsk
12/18 – Surgut
12/19 – Noyabrsk
12/23 – Departure Moscow
12/23 – Arrive Los Angeles

Students from the Lula Washington Dance Theatre School will perform in front of the Space Shuttle Endeavor on Saturday, Oct. 13 when the shuttle stops briefly on Crenshaw Boulevard at Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.

Lula’s students will be among more than 100 artists who will perform on a large stage being erected at the intersection to welcome the space shuttle as it makes its way to its future home at the Science Center in Exposition Park.

The welcoming event is being directed by Debbie Allen. Ms. Allen called Lula Washington and asked her to create a new work especially for the event. Lula decided to work with a re-mix of music from the film, Avatar, which she choreographed.

Students of varying ages and skill levels are participating. “I wanted the students to have the chance to see how dance can connect them to space and technology,” Lula said. “I want them to see that being in dance can take them all the way to the stars.” Lula added a special “thank you” to Debbie Allen for inviting her to participate. “One day I got a call out of the blue from Debbie Allen inviting me to be part of this historic event. I am greatful that she included us.”

Following the space shuttle event, Lula’s students will perform in the LWDT DANCE ALL DAY event on Oct. 20, 2012 as part of the Taste of Soul Street Festival. The dance company sets up a stage in its parking lot for that event and sponsors a day of dance performances, classes, contests and worksops. After DANCE ALL DAY, the students will prepare for their annual year end Kwanzaa Festival. Enrollment remains open at the school.