Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre, Of Moving Colors and the Cangelosi Dance Project. It shines through in the impossible athleticism of Southern University’s Human Jukebox and in the unbridled joy of volunteers in Big Buddy’s annual Dancing with the Stars. And it’s demonstrated across the country in the accomplishments of many Baton Rouge-born dancers who got their first taste of movement here and have risen to national success.
There’s no question about it. Dance is an artform that pulses in the Capital City. This month, National Dance Week is celebrated nationwide April 14—23, 2023, and it’s a great time to mark the importance of this dynamic artform in Baton Rouge.
Among the community’s newest dance programs are Dance for All, which welcomes children with neurological and physical challenges; and Vagabondance, a contemporary dance company founded in Baton Rouge by former professional dancers, Scarlett Wynne and Erik Sampson, who relocated to Baton Rouge from Santa Fe for its arts opportunities. Vagabondance is one of two dance programs being incubated in the year-old Cary Saurage Community Arts Center, along with Nyama Contemporary Dance Theatre, founded by Julliard graduate and McKinley Middle School dance teacher Roxi Victorian. Then there is also Tango Lagniappe, a group led by dance instructor Casey Mills, that provides Thursday lessons at the Arts Council to people interested in learning the Argentine tango.
“When we envisioned the Cary Saurage Community Arts Center, we saw opportunities to integrate all artistic media, including dance,” said Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge President and CEO Renee Chatelain, a former professional dancer and co-founder of the former Mid City Dance Project, which brought instruction and performance opportunities to at-risk children in Baton Rouge.
The world of dance in Baton Rouge has long been impacted by the work of Debbie Allen, whose Debbie Allen Dance Project brought dance intensives to the Capital City for several years. Allen was a close friend of former Arts Council president and CEO Derek Gordon, and she held annual workshops for many years running for young people in Baton Rouge. Many who attended were so influenced by her direction and support that they went on to become professional performers.
One of these is Baton Rouge native Brian Jordan, Jr., an actor, singer and dancer who stars in the BET series Sistas. At eighteen, Jordan participated in a 2008 Debbie Allen Dance Project and was hooked.
“I think dance is the most beautiful and universal thing in the world,” Jordan says. “And it requires the most mind capacity of any art, to be able to convey with no words a message to a broad audience. Movement is the ultimate conversation.”
Jordan recalls the impact of Allen’s instruction and the confidence it gave him to pursue his dreams as a performer.
“I realized my power as I learned to use my body,” he said. “And it became a way of life for me.”
In another first, Debbie Allen is to be the recipient of the inaugural Louisiana Arts Legacy Award, a new, Kennedy Center-styled honor to be presented in Baton Rouge in late 2023 or early 2024. Jordan will produce the program, which will include an evening of artistic tributes to Allen in the form of dance, music, film and theater. Also in development is a six-week series of dance workshops, which local dancers will be invited to join during the weeks leading up to the Louisiana Arts Legacy Award program.
Affirming the importance of dance and its many iterations in Baton Rouge is overdue, says Jordan.
“In Louisiana, there’s a specific soul to what we do,” he says. “There’s something in the water in Baton Rouge. The most talented dancers in the world are from here.”
Learn more about how the Arts Council supports dance in Baton Rouge at artsbr.org.
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