UPCOMING COMMUNITY EVENTS & MASTER CLASSES

Scroll this page to see our upcoming community master classes with choreographers-in-residence and register for our community events. This month, we are offering a special event for Women’s History Month! Keep reading to meet the women we will honor and RSVP for this gathering!

WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH: WOMEN WHO LAID THE FOUNDATION

Saturday, March 23, 2024 | 2-4pm
$5 Suggested Donation
The Maggie Allesee Studios for Dance & Arts Innovation
450 Enterprise Ct. Bloomfield Hills, MI 48302

Gather with us as we celebrate Detroit’s dance pioneers in recognition of Women’s History Month! Our event begins with an hour-long workshop with Lisa McCall accompanied by live drum music. Following the workshop, we will learn about Detroit Dance history and the women that inspired us! Our event culminates in a short form performance by the EDD Youth Ensemble. This event is open to the community! RSVP is requested, but not required.

ABOUT LISA MCCALL

Lisa McCall is a master teacher, choreographer, producer and educator, and is the CEO of LM Productions Entertainment. Lisa has worked with world renowned artists such as Aretha Franklin, Fantasia Burrino, Clyde Davis, Stevie Wonder, Peobo Bryson, Lena Horne, Chaka Kahn, Berry Gordy, Jennifer Hudson, Patti Labelle, The O’Jays, Jeffrey Osborn, Kem, Big Sean, just to name a few. In addition, Lisa has also worked with dance icons such as Charlie Atkins, George Faison, Debbie Allen, Katherine Dunham, Chuck Green, Liza Minelli, Louis Johnson, Chuck Davis, Judith Jamison and others. She was the choreographer for legendary Motown groups The Temptations, Four Tops, Marvelettes, and Martha Reeves and the Vandellas.

Lisa has traveled extensively as both choreographer and dance road manager for The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. She has also appeared at such prestigious places as the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall and The White House during former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama administrations, The Hollywood Kodak Theatre and the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles and The Jay Leno Show with Aretha Franklin Group. Lisa has produced and choreographed for television, stage and film.

She has taught abroad in Trinidad, University of West Indies, Senegal, Africa and Berlin, and just recently in Grenada. Lisa was privileged to receive personalized training under Katherine Dunham in the Dunham technique. Lisa is committed to youth and creating work that is timeless. She has taught master classes in the Dunham Technique as a cultural arts educator and adjunct professor for both Wayne State University and Oakland University. She is currently the artistic director of the Iyawo Folkloric Dance Theatre.

JOIN US AND LEARN ABOUT THE WOMEN WHO SHAPED DETROIT DANCE...

  • Karen Prall, Associate Professor of Teaching, is currently Instructor of Contemporary Modern dance, Afro-Beat movement, beginning and Intermediate African dance courses, and the artistic director of the African dance company “To Sangana”. She is the recipient of the “President’s Excellence in Teaching” Award. Founder and Director of “The Art of Motion Dance Theatre” in Detroit. Consultant and Supporter of Ballet Zoe Banjay a cultural drum & Dance company from Monrovia, Liberia in west Africa. Developed the online class “Spicy Seasoned” for women over fifty during pandemic. The research, studies, and presentations in African (Congolese) dance, music, and culture, Creative Movement for Children, Dunham, and Horton techniques, Afro-Cuban techniques, and Afro-Beat dance, made it possible for Ms. Prall to conduct extensive research on African culture, dance and music styles in Congo Brazzaville, Congo Kinshasa, Havana Cuba, Santiago de Cuba, Paris France, Ecole des Sables in Dakar Senegal, Monrovia Liberia, Suriname Paramaribo, Accra Ghana and on. Prall was invited to join the 1st Congolese company in the states (N.Y.) “Tanawa”, she is also a former member of “Bichinis Bia Congo of Ann Arbor, Mich. Online IABD Bantaba guest artist speaker benefits of 2023 Conference. The youth can walk faster but the Elder knows the road. Assisting students in understanding our past on this journey while navigating the future.

  • A native Detroiter, Gina danced on the commercial and concert stages in NYC for 18 years. She had the pleasure of working and assisting choreographer’s such as Tony Award Winning Choreographer George Faison, Louis Johnson, Donny McKayle and Otis Sallid to name a few. Ms. Ellis has appeared in the Broadway and National Companies of The Wiz and Purlie. She also appeared in Spike Lee’s Malcolm X and the HBO’s Josephine Baker Story. Gina was also the assistant stage manager of the national company of Five Guys Named Moe. She recently retired after 20 years of teaching dance at Detroit’s Renaissance High School and she has taught at Legacy Dance Studio for 6 years. Ms. Ellis feels honored to be working for the Carr Center to help develop and enrich the lives of the young people of Detroit through the fine and performing arts.

  • Carole Morisseau is a multidisciplinary artist, trained in both dance and visual art. She is also an educator an entrepreneur. Morisseau founded and directed the Detroit City Dance Company, leading the organization for 36 years. She also served as a professor of dance at Marygrove College. Taking classes at the College for Creative Studies, Morisseau became enamored with visual art. Her works consist of strong images and bold colors in paintings, mixed media, and illustration. Morisseau's art has been exhibited at many art museums, including the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Scarab Club. Many of her visual artworks are made with the intent to showcase victims of police brutality, as well as her travels to Brazil.

  • Berg graduated from Wayne State University receiving a B.A. in Art Education, as well as an M.A. in Humanities. Teaching courses at Wayne State University and creating a dance program at the Jewish Community Center, Berg spent countless hours teaching and creating around the Metropolitan Detroit area. With a heavy focus on modern, folk, and historical dance, Berg became a member of the committee chair for the Detroit Council for the Arts, the Michigan Council of the Arts, the Detroit Adventure Planning Project, the Detroit Metropolitan Dance Project, and the Michigan Foundation for the Arts. Berg is the founder of the Michigan Dance Archives at the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University.

  • Andrea Haynes Johnson was born and raised in Detroit. Her parents met in college and both worked in Detroit Public Schools; her mother was a teacher and her father was a truant officer. She was educated in Detroit Public Schools and, like her parents, began her career there. Andrea has a BFA in Dance Performance from Marygrove College, an MAT in English Education from Wayne State University and a Certificate of Advanced Study in Educational Leadership and Administration from National Louis University. She has spent her career working in high schools; teaching at Detroit’s Renaissance High School and at New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois; and serving as the Department Chair for Fine and Applied Arts at Deerfield High School in Deerfield and ending her public education career as the Director of Equity and Grants at Township High School District 113 in Highland Park, Illinois. Passionate about curriculum, she created a sequential four-year dance program and designed and implemented a course called Race Equity and Leadership, for high school students.

    Andrea was the founding Executive Director of the Courageous Conversation Global Foundation and she is the Secretary on its Board of Directors. She is a Senior Advisor and Professional Development Coordinator at Courageous Conversation®. Additionally, she is a contributing author in the texts, More Courageous Conversations About Race and Courageous Conversations About Race, Second and Third Editions, both by Glenn Singleton; Let’s Get Real: What People of Color Can’t Say and Whites Won’t Ask About Racism, by Lee Mun Wah and The Wealthy Teacher by Dr. Victoria Boyd. Andrea is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.

  • Penny Godboldo is a dance artist who believes that dance is life. Dance is movement in time through space with force. It creates a balance that has the power to heal—mentally, physically, and spiritually. Informed by her research in the dances of the African Diaspora and inspired by her 20+ year relationship with dance anthropologist Katherine Dunham, she is compelled by her desire to create life-changing experiences for both the artists she works with and her audiences.

    Godboldo is a Kresge Artist Fellowship recipient and served as a panelist in Live Arts in 2016.

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