Lula Washington Dance Theatre

Award-winning African American troupe is athletic, fun and accessible, yet intelligent and evocative, performing "Ode to the '60s" set to music from the era including The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Peter Paul and Mary, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix and Chuck Berry; Donald McKayle's "Songs of the Disinherited," an American Masterpiece Winner; Lula Washington's "We Wore The Mask;" and other pieces to African drumming and classical music.

The Lula Washington Dance Theatre (LWDT) is a 10-member contemporary modern dance company that was founded in 1980 by Lula Washington (with her husband, Erwin) in the inner city area of South Los Angeles, California. Since then, LWDT has risen to become one of the most admired African-American contemporary dance companies in the West – known for powerful high-energy dancing; unique choreography; and exceptional educational residencies.

Lula Washington is the main choreographer and “voice” of LWDT. Lula has created dances about homelessness; the 9/11 tragedy; police brutality; the civil rights movement; and the Underground Railroad. But, Lula also has a lighter side. She choreographed dancing fishes in Walt Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” movie and she has choreographed alien creatures for the James Cameron film, “Avatar.” Lula has likewise choreographed classical dances to Bach and Vivaldi; high energy African dances; and pulsating hip hop works.  Schools love her works, particularly those set to children’s rhymes.

LWDT has performed at such venues as Lincoln Center Out of Doors; the Joyce Theatre; the New Jersey Performing Arts Center; Jacob’s Pillow; the Ordway Theater in Minneapolis; the Pioneer Center in Reno, Nevada; the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; and at theaters in Germany, Spain, Mexico and St. Croix, Virgin Islands. In addition to touring, LWDT dances in scores of schools each year.

Lula won the 2007 National Education Association Carter G. Woodson award for her work in dance. Lula also won the 2004 Minerva Award, given by Maria Shriver for her contributions; the Educator of the Year Award from the Music Center’s Professional Artists in Schools Association; and she numerous other awards. She has received two National Dance Project grants, numerous NEA creation grants, and commissions to create new works from across the county.

Lula augments her choreography with dances by master artists Donald McKayle; Katherine Dunham; Donald Byrd (Color Purple); Louis Johnson (The Wiz); Christopher Huggins, and local icon, Rudy Perez. The company also does works by talented young emerging choreographers such as its associate director, Tamica Washington-Miller.

The choreography is set to a range of music from experimental to blues, including: Taj Mahal, Vivaldi, Bach, Chopin, John Coltrane, Bob Marley, and Duke Ellington. Some works, like Lula’s “Ode To The Sixties” tap into the nostalgia of the sixties with music by Jimi Hendrix; The Beattles; James Brown; Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, and Peter, Paul and Mary. Lula’s "Mahal Dances," is full of humor and fun, while her “Little Rock Nine” suite and “The Movement”, explore the turmoil of the civil rights movement.  Lula Washington Dance Theatre’s repertory unveils honesty, integrity, and creativity of unparalleled power.   

The company is composed of young, athletic dancers, many of whom were groomed in Lula’s inner city dance studio where she works with children starting as young as three years old in a program called: “I Do Dance, Not Drugs!”  While Lula encourages her dancers to be excellent performers, she also instills in them to be strong teachers that are well oriented with children and adults of the community.