American Dance Festival

Modern dance festival founded in 1934 in Bennington, Vermont.

The American Dance Festival is a non-profit organization committed to serving the needs of dance, dancers, choreographers, and professionals in dance-related fields. It presents a six and a half week summer festival of modern dance performances and educational programs, hosts community outreach activities, and sponsors numerous projects in the humanities. Its mission is to create and present new dance works, preserve the modern dance heritage, build wider national and international audiences and enhance public understanding and appreciation for modern dance, and provide training and education for dancers and choreographers.

Free to Dance: The African-American Presence in Modern Dance was a three-part television documentary co-produced by the American Dance Festival and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in association with Thirteen/WNET New York. The series aired on PBS' Great Performances: Dance in America in 2001 and won an Emmy for Outstanding Cultural and Artistic Programming-Long Form. It chronicled the role of African-American choreographers and dancers in the development of modern dance as an American art form. Dance masterpieces by African-American choreographers were filmed expressly for the series, including the works of Katherine Dunham ( Barrelhouse Blues ), Pearl Primus ( Strange Fruit ), Donald McKayle ( Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder ), Talley Beatty ( Mourner's Bench ), Bill T. Jones ( D-Man in the Waters ), Alvin Ailey ( Revelations ), and many others.

Free to Dance was an outgrowth of the American Dance Festival's Black Tradition in American Modern Dance (BTAMD) program. Initiated in 1987 to preserve, present, and interpret significant dances by African-American choreographers, BTAMD reconstructed and presented twenty-three dances in danger of being lost. BTAMD's national touring initiative presented performances throughout the US by African-American dance companies, including Chuck Davis' African American Dance Ensemble, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Philadanco, and Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble. Scholars touring with the companies contextualized and interpreted the cultural and aesthetic significance of the dances in panel discussions.

The success of the BTAMD project led to the creation of Free to Dance, and the American Dance Festival began fund raising efforts in 1993. Fund raising, research, and conceptual development continued through 1997. Full production commenced in 1998, including scripting, securing the rights to archival footage and photos, and the filming of interviews, performances, and scene recreations. Editing was completed in 2001.