''Ceremony Of Us'' was an interracial dance encounter between the

Studio Watts Workshop The Studio Watts Workshop was an arts organization founded in 1964 and based in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, dedicated to providing working space for artists and offering a broad range of arts workshops for the local community. History ...

, an African American arts organization, and the San Francisco Dancer's Workshop,

Anna Halprin Anna Halprin (born Hannah Dorothy Schuman; July 13, 1920 – May 24, 2021) was an American choreographer and dancer. She helped redefine dance in postwar America and pioneer the experimental art form known as postmodern dance and referred to her ...

's dance company. The performance took place at the

Mark Taper Forum The Mark Taper Forum is a 739-seat thrust stage at the Los Angeles Music Center designed by Welton Becket and Associates on the Bunker Hill section of downtown Los Angeles. Named for real estate developer Mark Taper, the Forum, the neighborin ...

, a venue of the

Los Angeles Music Center The Los Angeles Music Center (officially the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County) is one of the largest performing arts centers in the United States. Located in downtown Los Angeles, The Music Center is composed of the Dorothy Chandler Pa ...

, on February 27, 1969. The work was commissioned as a part of the Second Los Angeles Festival of the Performing Arts, a festival organized by Studio Watts director James M. Woods in coordination with the Music Center. Additional events for the festival involved jazz performances at Shelley's Manhole jazz club by Studio Watts master teachers John Carter and Bobby Bradford, as well as a

poetry reading A poetry reading is a public oral recitation or performance of poetry. Reading poetry aloud allows the reader to express their own experience through poetry, changing the poem according to their sensibilities. The reader uses pitch and stress, a ...

by Watts Studio fellow and ''Ceremony of Us'' dancer

Wanda Coleman Wanda Coleman (November 13, 1946 – November 22, 2013) was an American poet. She was known as "the L.A. Blueswoman" and "the unofficial poet laureate of Los Angeles". Biography Wanda Evans was born in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, whe ...

. The performances developed from a series of workshops Halprin facilitated with the two companies. To begin with in late 1968 Halprin worked with the two companies separately, developing a movement vocabulary specific for an all-white (San Francisco Dancer's Workshop) and an all-African American dance company (Studio Watts Dancer's Workshop). Then in January 1969 the two troupes were brought together for a ten-day joint rehearsal in Los Angeles. This initial encounter is documented in the performance film ''Right On/Ceremony of Us''. The Taper Performance involved the performance of a birthing ritual as well as the spontaneous selection of game-like dance scores. Halprin biographer Janice Ross notes that the experience led her to question the racial make up of her dance company and to develop, through the

National Endowment For the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

, a multi-ethnic dance education program titled Reach Out.

Notes

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External links

Ceremony of Us (essay) in ''East of Borneo''
1969 in California Dance events African-American history in Los Angeles