Before Revelations/Dancing in the Light
I have had two artistic passions in my life, art and dance. As a child, I especially loved
rainy days because it meant staying indoors, finding a quiet corner with my coloring book
and crayons. The pleasure of making colors bounce off each other to create a beautiful
picture was my delight. Later, I would switch to sketching my own pictures and coloring
them.
Because of an after school program for art and dance, I was able to take both. It was my Gym/Ballet teacher Miss Vivian Roberts, an African American who taught the classes for the ballet club and later encouraged me to apply for the HS of Performing Arts that started my long career as a dancer, putting my
love of art aside for that journey. It was a wonderful journey, dancing in the Alvin Ailey Company as one of the founding members, or dancing in Donald McKayle’s Company, both African American Choreographers and later on Broadway, Television and Movies.
I must give kudos to my father. It was a day visiting him in his plumbing shop that he asked me to read the word Bourbon on a bottle, and I read it phonetically and pronounced it Bour (our) barn. He pronounced to me, "I think I better put you in dancing school." So my actual dance lessons started with Mary Bruce. A prodigy of Bill Robinson. The studio was on 125th Street in Harlem, New York City.
All the while never losing sight of my other passion, for art. Actually painting in the 1980s. The paintings below I call “Dancing in the Light,” capturing what my body can no longer do, but my hands and mind can remember, I can bring my two passions to one.
rainy days because it meant staying indoors, finding a quiet corner with my coloring book
and crayons. The pleasure of making colors bounce off each other to create a beautiful
picture was my delight. Later, I would switch to sketching my own pictures and coloring
them.
Because of an after school program for art and dance, I was able to take both. It was my Gym/Ballet teacher Miss Vivian Roberts, an African American who taught the classes for the ballet club and later encouraged me to apply for the HS of Performing Arts that started my long career as a dancer, putting my
love of art aside for that journey. It was a wonderful journey, dancing in the Alvin Ailey Company as one of the founding members, or dancing in Donald McKayle’s Company, both African American Choreographers and later on Broadway, Television and Movies.
I must give kudos to my father. It was a day visiting him in his plumbing shop that he asked me to read the word Bourbon on a bottle, and I read it phonetically and pronounced it Bour (our) barn. He pronounced to me, "I think I better put you in dancing school." So my actual dance lessons started with Mary Bruce. A prodigy of Bill Robinson. The studio was on 125th Street in Harlem, New York City.
All the while never losing sight of my other passion, for art. Actually painting in the 1980s. The paintings below I call “Dancing in the Light,” capturing what my body can no longer do, but my hands and mind can remember, I can bring my two passions to one.