Claude Alexander III,
Samuel Gaines Jr.
Otis Donovan Herring,
Jameel M. Hendrick,
Xavier Santafield,
and Iquail Shaheed
La Chelle Dickenson,
Olivia McCall,
Jacquelyn Spencer.
July 10, 2010
Summer Stage Festival,
Bronx, NY
Two-time Bessie Award winner Hope Boykin was an original member of Complexions, danced with PHILADANCO!, and performed for 20 years (2000-2020) with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. She has choreographed for numerous dance companies including PHILADANCO!, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Minnesota Dance Theater, BalletX, Eisenhower Dance Detroit, Ballet Black of London, American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, The Philadelphia Ballet, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and has created three works for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: Acceptance In Surrender (2005), in collaboration with fellow Ailey company members Abdur-Rahim Jackson and Matthew Rushing; Go in Grace (2008), for the Company’s 50th anniversary season with music by the award-winning singing group Sweet Honey in the Rock; and r-Evolution, Dream. (2016), inspired by the speeches and sermons of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., with original music by Ali Jackson.
In the fall of 2021, Boykin premiered a full evening of her choreography, An Evening of Hope, at 92NY to great acclaim. In 2022, she choreographed and directed The Other Side, bringing Jacqueline Woodson’s children’s book of the same name to life for The Kennedy Center’s Family Theater, and choreographed The Kennedy Center’s 50th Anniversary Celebration of Leonard Bernstein’s MASS. States Of Hope, her fully scripted, evening length dance theater work was presented at the Joyce Theater in October 2023.
Boykin serves as Artistic Advisor for Dance Education for The Kennedy Center and Artistic Lead for The Kennedy Center Dance Lab. She is Artist-In-Residence at USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance and was an advisor for the Howard University Department of Dance in the 2021 spring semester. She was a 2022-23 Fellow of The Center for Ballet and the Arts.
Boykin continues to build on her work as a writer and filmmaker, blending her words and cadence as the foundation of her developing movement language. She released “Beauty Size & Color,” a short film commenting on what has changed in the first 20 years of the 21st century on PBS.org. As an educator, creator, mover, and motivator, Boykin firmly believes there are no limits.
Matthew Rushing was born in Los Angeles, California. He began his dance training with Kashmir Blake in Inglewood, California, and continued his training at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. He is the recipient of a Spotlight Award and a Dance Magazine Award and was named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts. He was a scholarship student at The Ailey School and later became a member of Ailey II. During his career, Mr. Rushing has performed as a guest artist for galas in Vail, Colorado, as well as in Austria, Canada, France, Italy, and Russia. He has performed for Presidents George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, as well as at the 2010 White House Dance Series. During his time with the Company, he has choreographed five ballets: Acceptance In Surrender (2005), a collaboration with Hope Boykin and Abdur-Rahim Jackson; Uptown(2009), a tribute to the Harlem Renaissance; ODETTA (2014), a celebration of “the queen of American folk music”; Testament (2020), a tribute to Alvin Ailey’s Revelations created in collaboration with Clifton Brown and Yusha-Marie Sorzano; and Sacred Songs (2024). In 2012 he created Moan, which was set on PHILADANCO! and premiered at the Joyce Theater. Mr. Rushing joined the Company in 1992. He became Rehearsal Director in 2010, Associate Artistic Director in 2020, and Interim Artistic Director in 2023.
April 20, 2024
Suzzane Roberts Theater,
Philadelphia, PA
Christian von Howard
Philip Glass
Jacquelyn Spencer
La Chelle Dickenson
Olivia McCall
Christian von Howard is the Artistic Director of the VON HOWARD PROJECT, a contemporary dance company based in New York City. As an international artist, he has worked with many dance artists such as Fred Benjamin, Fernando Bujones, Daniel Gwirtzman and organizations such as the American Dance Festival, Dance Masters of America, Iliev Dance Arts Foundation to name a few. His choreographic work has been produced in venues across the globe including Europe, South America, Asia, and throughout the US. Christian is an Associate Professor at Montclair State University, part of the teaching faculty at the Alvin Ailey School, and served as the Northeast Regional Director of the American College Dance Association (2016-2023). He holds advanced degrees from the School of Classical and Contemporary Dance at Texas Christian University and Tisch School of the Arts, NYU and as a Fulbright Specialist (2019-2021) for the United States.
Jermaine Terry
PUBLIC ENEMY is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Painted Bride Art Center in partnership with Wilson Center, and NPN. The Creation & Development Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information, visit www.npnweb.org.
PUBLIC ENEMY is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Painted Bride Art Center in partnership with Wilson Center, and NPN. The Creation & Development Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information, visit www.npnweb.org.
Community workshops
Attendees
Interview hours
Performances
States
18 formerly incarcerated participants
Bill Cobb, Z, G, June, Jayden, Tyshawn, Linc Center residents],
“Pushers” Show producer Iquail Shaheed shows dancers Roxanne Lyst and Adryan Moorefield dance moves in preparation for the shows opening on November 11 2015.
Welcome to PillowVoices a production of Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival with content from the Pillow Archives.
Philadelphia-based DANCE IQUAIL! entered 2020 primed for financial growth and a higher national profile, through touring engagements in progress with at least 10 dance presenters.
Iquail Shaheed, founder of the modern dance company Dance Iquail!, pulled together a protest rally and performance showcase in June 2020.
Arts organizations in Philadelphia have entered the conversation surrounding Black Lives Matter protests with a formal, open letter decrying systemic racism.