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The 19th Amendment Gave Women the Right To Vote. Here’s How LA Dancers Are Celebrating its Centennial.


Brockus | Photo by David Barber/D&C Publicity

On Friday, August 16 at 8:30pm, the Ford Theaters are celebrating the centennial of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote with “Women Rising-Choreography from the Female Perspective“.

This is a program produced by Deborah Brockus, artistic director of the annual Los Angeles Dance Festival, featuring an impressive lineup of nine dance companies.


Luminario Ballet | Photo by Emerson Chen

The companies include Blue 13 Dance (Anchinta S. McDaniel), BrockusRED (Deborah Brockus) JazzAntiqua (Pat Taylor), Kitty McNamee, Kybele Dance Theatre (Seda Anaya), LA Contemporary Dance Company (Genevieve Carson), Luminario Ballet (Judith FLEX Hell’s) presenting Turf by Bella Lewitzky, MashUP Contemporary Dance Company (Victoria Brown and Sarah Rodenhouse). Starting the show is a production number by JoAnne Divito, Rosanna Gamson/World Wide, and Sarah Elgart/Arrogant Elbow.

The evening celebrates both the centennial of the 19th Amendment which was passed by Congress on June 4, 1919, and was ratified on August 18, 1920. The program also pays homage to the groundbreaking work of the Los Angeles based women choreographers creating modern dance, from those in the early 1900s to the current generation creating dance in LA today.

A shout out to the L.A. Dance Project for presenting the works of Bella Lewitzky in October and November, including a new production – her groundbreaking historical work Kinaesonata. It will be part of their L.A. Dance Festival September 26-November 24, 2019.


L.A. Dance Project | Photo by L.A. Dance Project

A second shout out to the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in naming Co-Founder/Co-Artistic Director Tina Finkelman Berkett’s company BODYTRAFFIC as the Wallis 2019-20 Company in Residence. They will launch their season on September 26-28, 2019.

Laura Karlin is the Founding Artistic Director of Invertigo Dance Theatre. This September, Laura Karlin is presenting the World Premiere of Formulae & Fairy Tales at the Eli and Edythe Broad Stage on September 13 and 14 at 7:30pm. It is about the life of Alan Turing, the mathematical genius considered the father of artificial intelligence and the computer, and the shockingly cruel end to his life.

A fine way to celebrate and carry on the 19th Amendment!

Written by:
Sheila Tepper
Sheila Tepper
Published on 08.21.2019

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