Choreographer, Playwright, Director, And Teacher LaVerne Reed Has Passed Away
She formed the revered LaVerne Reed Dancers who worked with the likes of Roberta Flack, Stephanie Mills, Melba Moore, Cicely Tyson, and Esther Rolle.
The DC theatre community and artists across the United States are mourning the loss of the visionary musical theatre and choreography genius, LaVerne Reed.
A student of Maria “Libby” Hill (Apollo Theatre, Nicholas Brothers) Reed began her arts exploration as a young girl, eventually landing at The Juilliard School and later Howard University.
Her professional performance career spanned commercials, working with the cast of The Wiz (film) with the Louis Johnson Dancers, Philadanco, DC Black Repertory and more on stages across the United States.
She formed the revered LaVerne Reed Dancers who worked with the likes of Roberta Flack, Stephanie Mills, Melba Moore, Cicely Tyson, and Esther Rolle. For many years she was the city-wide dance director and children's theater specialist for the DC Department of Recreation. In this position she was tasked with writing, directing, creating, and choreographing professional holiday productions for the city.
Her musicals such as Santa and Mother Goose Rock, Santa and the Haunted House, The Chocolate Nutcracker, Santa and the Superheroes, and many more featured casts of over one hundred at times employing young artists and professionals alike in Washington, DC. Reed's Chocolate Nutcracker toured the United States in Washington, DC (featuring Chante Moore, Broadway Artists and local children) Florida, Ohio, and more.
She also directed such productions as Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf.
Through her choreography, original musical theatre productions, dance schools, courses at Howard University and more LaVerne Reed ignited the spark of theatre and dance in hundreds of thousands of young artists. Her legacy will continue to live on through all of the artists she inspired and her timeless productions. Renowned artists such as Robert Hooks, Karen Malina White, Howard University's Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts and many more have paid homage online to the theatre visionary after her passing.
Photo Credit: Erica Ashley Reed
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