For over 55 years, PHILADANCO! has electrified audiences with its distinct blend of virtuosity, urgency, and heart. Then & Now is a sweeping celebration of that legacy honoring the iconic works that shaped the company's past while boldly embracing the voices transforming its future.
The program revisits two classic ballets: Donald Byrd's Everybody, a propulsive, biting meditation on rhythm from 1996 that still hits with startling relevance, by a Tony-nominated and Bessie Award-winning choreographer known for bold work that redefines contemporary dance. Tommie-Waheed Evans' WITH(IN)VERSE, created in 2018, offers a searing emotional portrait of vulnerability and spiritual transformation through movement - crafted by a Guggenheim Fellow whose work merges Blackness and raw physicality. Experience the continual growth of PHILADANCO! as a living archive where legacy and reinvention move side by side.
Two new commissions further push the company's trajectory forward: a Company Premiere by the world renowned Ronald K. Brown, whose signature fusion of West African forms and modern dance once again finds new depth within the PHILADANCO! ensemble; and introducing a World Premiere by rising choreographic force Juel D. Lane, whose kinetic style brings a youthful, urgent edge to the stage.
At once reverent and forward-looking, Then & Now is more than a milestone; it continues a declaration of where Black dance has been, and where it dares go next.
Across the nation and around the world, PHILADANCO! is celebrated for its innovation, creativity, and preservation of primarily African American traditions in dance.
Additional Performance Information
