John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (U.S.)

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.

The Kennedy Center, located on the banks of the Potomac River near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, opened to the public in September 1971. But its roots date back to 1958, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed bipartisan legislation creating a National Cultural Center. In honor of Eisenhower's vision for such a facility, one of the Kennedy Center's theaters was named for him. The National Cultural Center Act included four basic components: it authorized the Center's construction, spelled out an artistic mandate to present a wide variety of both classical and contemporary performances, specified an educational mission for the Center, and stated that the Center was to be an independent facility, self-sustaining and privately funded. As a result of this last stipulation, a mammoth fundraising campaign began immediately following the Act's passage into law. (from the Kennedy Center website, viewed June 3, 2005)