Lula Washington Comes To Ordway Center On 2/6

Award winning choreographer Lula Washington brings her riveting mix of athletic choreography, imaginative costumes and captivating theatricality to the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, February 6 at 7:30 p.m. The performance is part of the 2008-09 planet Ordway Target World Dance Season.

In this single Ordway presentation, Lula Washington Dance Theatre promises to take the audience on an emotional journey that explores the human condition through a mix of propulsive movement, honest expression and humor. Founded in 1980 with a $25 loan and a dream, the ensemble has risen to become one of the largest and most admired African-American dance companies in the West. Lula Washington is the main choreographer and the artistic "voice" of the company. She augments her own work with choreography by famous artists such as Donald Byrd and Donald McKayle, and with the work of talented young choreographers, including Bernard Gaddis and soon, Christopher Huggins (both formerly of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater).

The company is known for exploring theatrical, entertaining, and energetic works that are accessible to all audiences. Choreography is set to a range of music from experimental to blues, including: Taj Mahal, Vivaldi, Bach, Chopin, John Coltrane, Bob Marley, and Duke Ellington. The company is composed of young, athletic dancers, many of whom were groomed in Lula's inner city dance studio where she works with children starting as young as three years old in a program called: "I Do Dance, Not Drugs!" While Lula encourages her dancers to be excellent performers, she also instills in them a desire to teach and to engage the community of children and adults around them.

The program for the Ordway performance opens with "Songs of the Disinherited," which depicts the struggle for justice and equality. As a young dancer, it was the piece that Lula most wanted to dance. In excerpts from "The Little Rock Nine" the dancers pay tribute to the nine African-American students who integrated that city's Central High School on September 25, 1957. Excerpts from "The Movement" honor The Life of civil rights activist Rosa Parks, while "We Wore the Mask" celebrates the removal of old masks that were once needed to survive in America. "Ode to the ‘60s" was premiered at the 2007 Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival as part of its salute to the cultural revolution of that vibrant decade.

The oldest of eight children, Lula grew up in the Nickerson Gardens Housing Projects in Watts. She was too poor to take dance lessons and had to work nights in hamburger stands, a skating rink and a movie theater in order to buy clothes for school.

Lula did not experience modern dance until she was a nursing student at Harbor Community College. There, a teacher took Lula and other classmates to see the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre at UCLA. Lula was so mesmerized by the beauty of Ailey's dancers that she decided to pursue dance as a career.

But, just when she fell in love with dance, she also fell in love with her future husband, Erwin. Marriage and a child, Tamica, put dance on hold -- briefly. At age 22, the young mother applied to UCLA's dance program but was rejected because the school felt she was too old to begin a dance career. Unwilling to take no for an answer, Lula appealed the decision and was admitted to UCLA, where she managed to juggle classes, auditions, rehearsals, a small child, and a student husband. She danced in the Academy Awards telecast, in the movie "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Band" and with singers Cher and Al Green. She also established the Black Dance Association at UCLA and brought artists of color to the UCLA campus.

After earning a Masters Degree in Dance, Lula founded the Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Theatre, which was later renamed Lula Washington Dance Theatre. The company has appeared across the United States and internationally in major theaters. In 1983, Lula established her own dance school which provides low cost and free dance classes to neighborhood children. She has received numerous awards for her artistic vision and commitment to education.

Ordway Center is widely recognized as one of the nation's leading not-for-profit performing arts centers and Saint Paul's most elegant and inviting performance space. The Ordway's Main Hall and McKnight Theatre stages attract diverse audiences with an array of productions encompassing the finest in American musical theater, world music, dance, jazz, and vocal performance. In addition, each year Ordway Center presents its Flint Hills International Children's Festival and serves over 50,000 children and adults through its Ordway Center Education programs. Ordway Center is part of a unique Arts Partnership with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Opera and the Schubert Club, hosting their renowned productions each season. Ordway Center is also proud to sponsor the Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, a professionally guided academic and artistic environment that trains aspiring pre-professional performing artists in the areas of instrumental and vocal music, theater and dance.

Lula Washington Dance Theatre
Ordway Center for the Performing Arts
345 Washington Street
St. Paul, MN 55102
Box Office: 651.224.4222
Group Sales: 651.282.3111

One performance only:
Friday, February 6, 2009
7:30 p.m.
Tickets $25 - $35

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