Indianapolis, Indiana; July 17 – 20, 2019–Indiana Black Expo in collaboration with Movin’ Legacy will feature its first annual Dance Heritage Festival as part of Summer Celebration 2019. This festival will “bring together the many shades of dance carrying the passion, stories, and rhythm of black culture.” We invite Indy’s vastly diverse community of all cultures to participate with dancers of all levels (ages 15 and up). Participants of the festival will take dance classes with the leading choreographers of the entertainment industry–choreographers who have worked with music icons BeyoncО, Usher, Jennifer Lopez and many more. In an effort to instigate community engagement and promote cultural arts, the festival will also feature a dance battle with DJ Lady Shay, where the winner will take home the cash prize of $1,000, that has been generously donated by The Ken Thorpe Foundation. The registration fee is only $10 for each class. Movin’ Legacy, in collaboration with Indiana Black Expo (IBE), has been granted a financial award by the Lilly Endowment that has helped subsidize costs to produce this world-class festival.
Movin’ Legacy is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to forward the dance legacy through preservation, cultivation, and celebration of Africa and the African Diaspora. Jeffrey Page, founder of Movin’ Legacy is laying the foundation for a shift in this country’s cultural paradigm and what he sees as a meeting of the creative minds in order to reshape stories and reclaim pride in the influence of black culture throughout our society. Artists, influencers, intellectuals will gather in dialogue to share ideas, inspire each other, envision, build, create, and network. Page, who has received awards and international acclaim ranging from his choreography for BeyoncО’ to Broadway, has created the Dance Heritage Festival to be “the very vessel to usher in a new Black Renaissance, reigniting a new cultural identity, reclaimed pride, and redefined cultural expression.”
The Dance Heritage Festival features dance classes ranging from Hip Hop to Heels dance styles and everything in between and this year is only the beginning. This years roster of guest artists will include six dynamos: Ashley Everette, Chonique Sneed, JR Taylor, JontО Moaning, Kara “KJ” Jenelle, and Tasha B. Each year, Movin’ Legacy will bring together several internationally recognized guest artists with local favorites, as well as prominent community leaders and influencers to establish an artists retreat, similar to those who congregated and fed so many brilliant Black minds in America W.E.B. DuBois, James Baldwin, Paul Robeson, Pearl Primus, Malik Al-Hajj Shabazz, Mohammed Ali, Nina Simone, and the like. In the spirit of empowerment, Movin’ Legacy’s Dance Heritage Festival will aid in revitalizing cultural tourism, alongside the Summer Celebration and IBE – a pillar of the Indiana community for nearly 50 years, as well as reviving an intentional Black cultural, social, and artistic eruption to celebrate the contribution and influence of Black heritage in this country, and the world.
For event registration: https://summercelebration.net/dance-heritage-festival/
