WLoretta Agatha Abbott was an American educator, dancer, choreographer, singer, director, dance captain, and actress. She was an early member and foundation builder for the Alvin Ailey Dance Company. She was also a founding member of the Clark Center for the Performing Arts, and worked with the organization from 1959 to 1989.
WAlvin Ailey, a.k.a. Alvin Ailey Jr., was an African-American dancer, director, choreographer, and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT). He created AAADT and its affiliated Ailey School as havens for nurturing black artists and expressing the universality of the African-American experience through dance. His work fused theatre, modern dance, ballet, and jazz with black vernacular, creating hope-fueled choreography that continues to spread global awareness of black life in America. Ailey's choreographic masterpiece Revelations is recognized as one of the most popular and most performed ballets in the world. In this work he blended primitive, modern and jazz elements of dance with a concern for black rural America. On July 15, 2008, the United States Congress passed a resolution designating AAADT a “vital American cultural ambassador to the World.” That same year, in recognition of AAADT's 50th anniversary, then Mayor Michael Bloomberg declared December 4 "Alvin Ailey Day" in New York City while then Governor David Paterson honoured the organization on behalf of New York State.
WKhandi Alexander is an American dancer, choreographer, and actress. She began her career as a dancer in the 1980s and was a choreographer for Whitney Houston's world tour from 1988 to 1992.
WDeborah Kaye Allen is an American actress, dancer, choreographer, singer-songwriter, director, producer, and a former member of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. She has been nominated 20 times for an Emmy Award, two Tony Awards, and has also won a Golden Globe Award and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1991.
WCharles "Cholly" Atkins was an American dancer and vaudeville performer, who later became noted as the house choreographer for the various artists on the Motown label.
WBeyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter is an American singer, actress and record producer. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Beyoncé performed in various singing and dancing competitions as a child. She rose to fame in the late 1990s as the lead singer of Destiny's Child, one of the best-selling girl groups of all time. Beyoncé is often cited as an influence by other artists.
WCamille A. Brown is a dancer, choreographer, director and dance educator. She is the Founder & Artistic Director of Camille A. Brown & Dancers, and has congruently choreographed commissioned pieces for dance companies, Broadway shows, and universities. Brown started her career as a dancer in Ronald K. Brown’s Evidence, A Dance Company, and was a guest artist with Rennie Harris Puremovement, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Brown has choreographed major Broadway shows such as Choir Boy, Once on This Island and Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert! that aired on NBC. Brown also teaches dance and gives lectures to audiences at various universities such as Long Island University, Barnard College and ACDFA, among others.
WMarie Bryant was an American dancer, singer and choreographer, described as "one of the most vivacious black dancers in the United States".
WBlondell Cummings was an American modern dancer and choreographer. She is known for her experimental choreography and was a fixture in the New York and Harlem dance scene for decades.
WCharles Rudolph Davis, also known as Baba Chuck Davis, was an American dancer and choreographer whose work focused on traditional African dance. He was the founder of DanceAfrica, the Chuck Davis Dance Company and the African American Dance Ensemble.
WAndré De Shields is an American actor, singer, dancer, director, and choreographer. His Broadway credits include Warp!, Ain't Misbehavin', Play On!, The Full Monty, Impressionism, and the title role in The Wiz.
WKatherine Dunham was an African-American dancer, choreographer, creator of the Dunham Technique, author, educator, anthropologist, and social activist. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers in African-American and European theater of the 20th century, and directed her own dance company for many years. She has been called the "matriarch and queen mother of black dance."
WSyvilla Fort was an American dancer, choreographer, and dance teacher. Born in Seattle, she drew on her African-American heritage in her original dance works. American composer John Cage wrote his first piece for prepared piano, Bacchanale (1940), for a dance by Fort. She died from breast cancer at the age of 58.
WMia Frye is an American actress, singer, professional dancer and dance choreographer who lives and works in France.
WSavion Glover is an American tap dancer, actor, and choreographer.
WTodrick Hall is an American singer, songwriter, actor, director, choreographer and YouTuber. He gained national attention on the ninth season of the reality singing competition American Idol, where he made it to the semi-finals. Following this, he amassed a following on YouTube with viral videos including original songs, parodies, and skits. He aspires to be a role model for LGBTQ and people of color, and includes his experiences as a Black gay man in his art. A documentary series about his video-making process titled Todrick aired on MTV in 2015.
WStanley Kirk Burrell, better known by his stage name MC Hammer, is an American rapper, dancer, record producer and entrepreneur who had his greatest commercial success and popularity from the late 1980s until the early 1990s. Remembered for his rapid rise to fame, Hammer is known for hit records, flashy dance movements, choreography and eponymous Hammer pants.
WGregory Oliver Hines was an American dancer, actor, choreographer and singer. He is considered one of the most celebrated tap dancers of all time.
WGeoffrey Lamont Holder was a Trinidadian-American actor, dancer, musician, and artist. He was a principal dancer for the Metropolitan Ballet before his film career began in 1957 with an appearance in Carib Gold. In 1973, he played the villainous Baron Samedi in the Bond film Live and Let Die. He also carried out advertising work as the pitchman for 7 Up.
WJanet Damita Jo Jackson is an American singer, songwriter, actress, dancer and record producer. A prominent figure in popular culture, she is noted for her sonically innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, and elaborate stage shows.
WMichael Joseph Jackson was an American singer, songwriter, and dancer. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Through stage and video performances, he popularized complicated dance techniques such as the moonwalk, to which he gave the name, and the robot. His sound and style have influenced artists of various genres, and his contributions to music, dance, and fashion, along with his publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades. Jackson is the most awarded artist in the history of popular music.
WSolange Piaget Knowles is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, performance artist, and actress. Expressing an interest in music from an early age, Knowles had several temporary stints as a backup dancer for Destiny's Child, which featured her elder sister, Beyoncé Knowles, among its members, before signing with her father Mathew Knowles's Music World Entertainment label. At age 16, Knowles released her first studio album Solo Star (2002). Between 2005 and 2007, Knowles had several minor acting roles, including the direct-to-video Bring It On: All or Nothing (2006) and continued writing music for Beyoncé and for former Destiny's Child group members Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams.
WLeToya Nicole Luckett-Walker is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She is known as a member of the R&B girl group Destiny's Child, with which she won two Grammy Awards and released many successful commercial recordings. Luckett has sold over 25 million records with Destiny's Child on the group's first two albums and singles.
WFrank Manning was an American dancer, instructor, and choreographer. Manning is considered one of the founders of Lindy Hop, an energetic form of the jazz dance style known as swing.
WDianne McIntyre is an American dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Her notable works include Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Dance Adventure in Southern Blues , an adaptation of Zora Neal Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, as well as productions of why i had to dance, spell #7, and for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf, with text by Ntozake Shange. She has won numerous honors for her work including an Emmy nomination, three Bessie Awards, and a Helen Hayes Award. She is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, and the Dramatists Guild of America.
WDonald McKayle was an American modern dancer, choreographer, teacher, director and writer best known for creating socially conscious concert works during the 1950s and '60s that focus on expressing the human condition and, more specifically, the black experience in America. He was "among the first black men to break the racial barrier by means of modern dance." His work for the concert stage, especially Games (1951) and Rainbow Round My Shoulder (1959), has been the subject of widespread acclaim and critical attention. In addition, McKayle was the first black man to both direct and choreograph major Broadway musicals, including the Tony Award-winners Raisin (1973) and Sophisticated Ladies (1981), and he worked extensively in television and film. As a young man he appeared with some of the twentieth century's most important choreographers, including Martha Graham, Anna Sokolow, and Merce Cunningham, and in some of Broadway's landmark productions, including House of Flowers (1958) and West Side Story (1957), where he served for a time as the production's dance captain. A Tony Award and Emmy Award nominee, McKayle held an endowed chair for the last decades of his life in the Dance Department at UC Irvine, where he was the Claire Trevor Professor of Dance. He previously served on the faculties of Connecticut College, Sarah Lawrence College, and Bennington College.
WJoan Miller was an American dancer, choreographer, and educator. She was the artistic director of The Joan Miller Chamber Arts/Dance Players, a mixed-media dance company that used satire to make social commentary and provoke social change, from 1970 to 2007. Miller was also the founder and director of the dance program at Lehman College from 1970 to 2000.
WMýa Marie Harrison is an American singer, songwriter, producer, and actress. Born into a musical family, before entering the music industry she appeared on BET's Teen Summit. Signed in 1996 with Interscope Records, she released her eponymous debut album in April 1998. A critical and commercial success, the album produced her first top ten single "It's All About Me". Subsequent singles, "Ghetto Supastar " and "Take Me There" continued to raise her profile and attained chart success worldwide, with the former garnering her first Grammy nomination. Fear of Flying, her second album, was released in April 2000 and became a worldwide success, boosted by the success of its singles "Case of the Ex" and "Free". Harrison continued her rise to prominence in 2002, when she won her first Grammy Award in the category for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for her rendition of Labelle's 1975 hit "Lady Marmalade" along with Pink, Christina Aguilera and Lil' Kim, which topped the charts globally.
WWilliam Roscoe Leake, better known as Willi Ninja, was an American dancer and choreographer best known for his appearance in the documentary film Paris Is Burning.
WDave Scott is an American hip-hop dance teacher, choreographer, and talent developer. He gained widespread success from his choreography in movies, primarily the 2004 dance film You Got Served and the 2008 dance film Step Up 2: The Streets. He is a resident choreographer on So You Think You Can Dance and The PULSE on Tour dance convention.
WNtozake Shange was an American playwright and poet. As a Black feminist, she addressed issues relating to race and Black power in much of her work. She is best known for her Obie Award-winning play, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf. She also penned novels including Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo (1982), Liliane (1994), and Betsey Brown (1985), about an African-American girl runaway from home. Among Shange's honors and awards were fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Fund, a Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, and a Pushcart Prize. In April 2016, Barnard College announced it had acquired Shange's archive. Shange lived in Brooklyn, New York. Shange had one daughter, Savannah Shange. She was married twice: to the saxophonist David Murray and the painter McArthur Binion, Savannah’s father, with both marriages ending in divorce.
WColumbus Keith Short, Jr. is an American actor, choreographer, dancer and rapper. He choreographed Britney Spears's Onyx Hotel Tour and worked with Brian Friedman. He is best known for his roles in the films Stomp the Yard, Cadillac Records, Armored, and The Losers. He previously starred as a series regular in the ABC drama Scandal, as Harrison Wright. On April 26, 2014, it was announced that Short would leave Scandal after three seasons with the show.
WDormeshia Sumbry-Edwards is an American tap dancer, choreographer, and instructor who has been called "the mastress of her generation." In 1998, she married fellow dancer Omar Edwards and opened a studio with him in Harlem; they have three children.
WTeyana Me Shay Jacqueli Shumpert is an American singer-songwriter, actress, dancer, choreographer, director and model. In 2005, Taylor signed a record deal with American musician Pharrell Williams' Star Trak Entertainment imprint, before making her first national appearance on MTV's My Super Sweet 16. In 2012, she signed to Kanye West's GOOD Music label through Def Jam, after asking for her release from Star Trak. As an aspiring songwriter, Taylor has worked with and written records for artists such as Usher, Chris Brown, and Omarion. Taylor has appeared on runways during Fashion Week and has also landed high-profile features, such as on Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. She stars in the VH1 reality television show Teyana and Iman, alongside her husband, NBA player Iman Shumpert.
WLuisah Teish is a teacher and an author, most notably of Jambalaya: The Natural Woman's Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals. She is an African-American, born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her father, Wilson Allen, Sr. was an African Methodist Episcopal whose parents had been two-generation servants and only one generation away from slavery. Her mother, Serena "Rene" Allen, was a Catholic, of Haitian, French, and Choctaw heritage. Her original ancestry also includes Yoruba. She is an Iyanifa and Oshun chief in the Yoruba Lucumi tradition.
WTina Turner is an American-born Swiss singer, songwriter, dancer, and actress. Known as the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll", she rose to prominence as the frontwoman of The Ike & Tina Turner Revue before launching a successful career as a solo performer. She is noted for her energetic stage presence, powerful vocals, and career longevity.
WUsher Raymond IV is an American singer, songwriter, actor, businessman, and dancer. He was born in Dallas, Texas, but raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee until moving to Atlanta, Georgia. At the age of 12, his mother put him in local singing competitions before catching the attention of a music A&R from LaFace Records. He released his self-titled debut album Usher (1994), and rose to fame in the late 1990s with the release of his second album My Way (1997). It spawned his first U.S. Billboard Hot 100 number-one single "Nice & Slow", and the top-two singles "You Make Me Wanna..." and "My Way". His third album, 8701 (2001), produced the number-one singles "U Remind Me" and "U Got It Bad", as well as the top-three single "U Don't Have to Call". It sold eight million copies worldwide and won his first two Grammy Awards as Best Male R&B Vocal Performance in 2002 and 2003.
WWylliams was an African-American dancer and choreographer.