Spotlight: Ulysses Dove

(Photo courtesy of Las Vegas Contemporary Dance Theater website)

Since it's Black History Month, let's talk about choreographer Ulysses Dove. Born in South Carolina and hailing from the Alvin Ailey camp, Dove's works have been performed by a number of top dance companies, including Ailey and Royal Swedish Ballet. Sadly, he passed away in 1996.

Regretfully, your humble blogger has been out of the dance loop for quite some time and only had a vague familiarity with his name and work until now (read:  catching a performance of his pieces once or twice). Today, I had the pleasure today of seeing another Black historic institution, the Dance Theatre of Harlem, whose repertoire included a masterful rendition of his heart-wrenching piece "Dancing On the Front Porch of Heaven (below is a video of the Royal Swedish Ballet performance). If you have the chance, do yourself a favor and catch it on DTH's tour, going on now.



A great biography on the dance icon can be found here: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/freetodance/biographies/dove.html

Check out Dance Theatre of Harlem's tour schedule here: http://www.dancetheatreofharlem.org/calendar