Founded by the trailblazing choreographer Joan Myers Brown in 1970, PHILADANCO returns to the Bandshell for the first time in more than a decade with a program tailor-made for a hot summer night in the park. The evening will feature three pieces originally performed in the dynamic project James Brown: Get on the Good Foot, a Celebration in Dance: Thang Dao’s Bewildered, Ronald K. Brown’s Think, and There Was…There Is a Time by Abdel Salaam, along with a piece by Christopher Huggins and the New York premiere of Between the Lines by Francisco Gella.

Joan Myers Brown has been engaged in shattering barriers for African Americans in contemporary dance nearly her whole life. Along with founding Philadanco and the Philadelphia School of Dance Arts, she serves as honorary chairperson for the International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD), an organization she established in 1991, and founded the International Conference of Black Dance Companies in 1988. Inherent in Philadanco’s mission is a commitment to empowering youth with leadership and development skills–an ethos close the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn!’s heart.