Rochon, Valerie J.

Valerie Jerusha Rochon, a dance educator and arts administrator, was the originator and director of the African American Dance Directory Project during the mid-1980s.

This project, which operated under support of the New York Foundation for the Arts, was designed to be a comprehensive resource that would serve as a research and marketing tool for, and regarding, African American dance companies performing modern, jazz, tap, ballet, and African Folkloric dance. Rochon also designed the directory to include commissioned essays and art work. Ultimately Rochon was unable to complete the directory as envisioned; however, a preliminary edition containing partial information was published in 1986. Rochon had a varied career, finding employment as a dance teacher and holding various administrative positions for arts agencies, including a cultural project known as the Mighty Eno Enterprises on which she worked with Eno Washington. Even though the African American Dance Directory never came to fruition as she planned, Rochon continued to collect dance materials for the project until the year 2000. She also maintained her ties to the African American dance community.

Valerie Jerusha Rochon was the director of the mid-1980s African American Dance Directory Project. Rochon designed this project, which operated under support of the New York Foundation for the Arts, as a three-stage endeavor to compile a comprehensive resource that would serve as a research and marketing tool for, and regarding, African American dance companies performing modern, jazz, tap, ballet, and African Folkloric dance. Rochon also designed the directory to include commissioned essays and art work as well as maintain publication of an essay-based newsletter titled Movements . It appears that only one issue of Movements was ever published. Ultimately Rochon was unable to complete the directory as envisioned; however, a preliminary edition containing partial information was published in 1986.

Valerie Rochon’s personal papers and clippings files show an interest in African-American and minority-based cultural development, arts, and politics. Valerie Rochon received her Bachelor of Arts Degree with a major in Education and Dance from Arizona State University-Tempe and followed this with additional courses towards a Master’s Degree. Rochon then proceeded to find employment in a variety of arts based positions. From 1976 to 1980, she worked as a dance teacher for the Phoenix Union High School District in Phoenix Arizona. From 1980-1981, she served as Administrative Assistant for the Wajumbe Cultural Institution in San Francisco, California. In 1982, she worked as a Volunteer Coordinator for the Brooklyn Academy of Music and was responsible for communications between African American dance companies. In addition, Rochon once worked with Eno Washington in a cultural project known as the Mighty Eno Enterprises.

Even though the African American Dance Directory never came to fruition as she planned, Rochon continued to collect dance materials for the project until the year 2000. She also maintained her ties to the African American dance community. In the late 1980s, Rochon served as an artist’s representative of the management agency Bess Pruit & Associates, Inc. In 1996, while she was a Dance Teacher for I. S. 90 in New York City, Rochon served as contact person for visiting dancers from the Dance Theatre of Harlem and the Fieldston Dance Company.