Press Releases

American Masterpieces: Artistry & Influence Tour Dates and Venues Announced

Baltimore, MD - June 18, 2007 Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation has announced tour dates and venues for the upcoming American Masterpieces Artistry & Influence Tour. The tour celebrates the legacies of three women founders of seminal performing arts companies with deep ties to the mid-Atlantic region. The Foundation will provide support for the presentation of the companies founded by Joan Myers Brown, Martha Graham, and Bernice Johnson Reagon. Tours of Philadanco, the Martha Graham Dance Company, and Sweet Honey in the Rock will travel to 42 engagements in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Virginia, and West Virginia during the 2007-2008 season.

As part of the American Masterpieces Artistry & Influence Tour, these groups will present works from their repertoire that exemplify and celebrate the rich evolution of modern dance and choral music. Repertoire will represent works that are artistically, historically and culturally significant.

For a complete list of dates and venues, please click here.

For electronic image files and logos, please email karen@midatlanticarts.org.

The 2007-2008 American Masterpieces Artistry & Influence tour roster includes:

PHILADANCO
The Philadelphia Dance Company (PHILADANCO), founded by Joan Myers Brown in 1970, is a modern contemporary dance company that tours nationally and internationally. Celebrating its 35th Anniversary Season, the company has traveled the country and the world, performing before sold-out audiences of diverse people of all ages, creed, ethnicity and cultural traditions. PHILADANCO will perform a number of pieces from their repertory of innovative works by renowned American choreographers such as Talley Beatty, Ron K. Brown, George Faison, Donald McKayle, Elisa Monte, Pearl Primus and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar.
PHILADANCO

Martha Graham Dance Company
The Martha Graham Dance Company is the oldest and most celebrated contemporary dance company in the world. Noted as an American genius, Graham is widely acclaimed as the founder of modern dance. She created an art form and a repertory of 181 works - putting her creative output on a par with Picasso and Stravinsky. Since its inception, the Martha Graham Dance Company has received international acclaim from audiences in over 50 countries throughout North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Martha Graham Dance Company will tour a program of such renowned works as Appalachian Spring, Acts of Light, and Sketches from Chronicle, as well as Prelude and Revolt, a special program chronicling Graham's emergence as a singular artist.
Martha Graham Dance Company

Sweet Honey in the Rock
Founded by Bernice Johnson Reagon in 1973 at the D.C. Black Repertory Theater Company, Sweet Honey In The Rock, an internationally renowned a cappella ensemble, has been a vital and innovative presence in the music culture of Washington, D.C., and in communities of conscience around the world. Now in her fourth decade, the Grammy® Award-winning ensemble moves forward, following Bernice Johnson Reagon's retirement in February 2004, continuing the legacy begun thirty-three years ago. Sweet Honey will perform its full range of works in this tour offering, including songs inspired by the American Civil Rights movement, the distinctive "call and response" style of African and African-American composition and performance, hymns, gospel music and spirituals of the black church as well as jazz and blues.
Sweet Honey in the Rock

Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation supports the richness and diversity of the region's arts resources and promotes wider access to the art and artists of the region, nation and world. The region includes nine states and jurisdictions that are closely related by geography or culture: District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Virginia, and West Virginia.