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Read Between the Lines with DCDC March 4th & 5th

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Photo by Paul B. Goode

Last year, the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company was awarded the highly-coveted Bessie award for Outstanding Revival, for it’s revival of Donald McKayle’s iconic “Rainbow ‘Round My Shoulder.” The Huffington Post listed it as one of the top 10 dance performances for 2016.

Daytonians have the opportunity to see this work, along with two others, as part of DCDC’s newest production “Vantage Points: A Read Between the Lines,” March 4 & 5 on Dayton’s historic Victoria Theatre stage.

 

 

“It is very interesting that a piece choreographed in 1959 — by a master choreographer — is still very resonant, and unfortunately very relevant, today,” DCDC Artistic Director Blunden-Diggs said. Alastair Macaulay, dance critic for the New York Times wrote “Rainbow evokes how much there was for many African-Americans to transcend. It’s a strong piece of American dance history; I’m grateful to have seen it.”

The concert lineup also includes the world premiere of a new work by Ray Mercer, a longtime cast member of Broadway’s “The Lion King.” Mercer’s new work pulls the viewer into the choreographer’s mind to experience dance from the choreographer’s vantage point.

 

 

The concert doesn’t quite fall in Black History Month, but the audience could extend the celebration into that first March weekend with the show, Blunden-Diggs said. “To be able to put these works on stage that have been created by us, for us, makes a really strong statement,” she said. “Come celebrate black history with us, because DCDC is black history.”

The show is sponsored by the Dayton Power & Light Foundation with media sponsor Synchrony Financial. Catch it at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 4 and 4 p.m. Sunday, March 5. Individual and group tickets are available at ticketcenterstage.com or by calling the box office at 937-228-3630.

For more information on DCDC and our upcoming shows, visit dcdc.org, and connect with us on social media: follow @daytoncontemporarydancecompany on Facebook and Instagram or @DCDCLive on Twitter.

How to Go? Vantage Points: A Read Between the Lines

Saturday, March 4, 2017 | 7:30 pm
Sunday, March 5, 2017 | 4:00 pm
Victoria Theatre, 138 North Main Street, Dayton, Ohio

Tickets start at $24.50 +

He stood tall by sitting down: A noted civil rights protagonist vists Dayton

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13Fifty years ago this month, four African-American college students entered a Greensboro, North Carolina Woolworth’s retail store, walked up to the segregated lunch counter, and calmly sat down in stools reserved exclusively for white patrons.

Although they were refused service (blacks had to stand and eat) and the police were called in, the students sat quietly for the remainder of the day until the store closed.  The men returned to the counter for the next three days –  each day facing increasingly difficult, often violent, opposition from many who attempted to disrupt their efforts.

By the fourth day, over 300 students from area colleges and high schools had joined the demonstration, protesting the segregation practices of the department store, and asserting their rights to equal treatment for African-Americans.  Tensions escalated between black demonstrators and many white citizens and a bomb scare resulted in the closing of the store for two weeks.  The store desegregated the lunch counter several months later.

Inspired by the Greensboro sit-in, neighboring towns throughout North Carolina initiated their own sit-ins. The Woolworth protest had attracted national media attention, and ignited a trend of non-violent collective activism against racial injustice, particularly in the southern states.

mccain_linkFranklin McCain, Sr., one of those “Greensboro Four”, will present “He Sat Down So That We Could Stand Up,” an intimate retelling of his memories of those historic days that ignited a movement.

McCain will speak on February 15, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m., at Wright State University, Millet Hall Atrium.  The event is free and open to the public.

“He Sat Down So That We Could Stand Up,” is sponsored by Wright State University’s Bolinga Black Cultural Resources Center and Office of Enrollment Management, Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church, and the Greater Dayton Baptist Pastors’ and Ministers’ Union.

For additional information about this event, please contact Bolinga Black Cultural Resources Center at (937)775-5645.