It’s hard to believe that anyone could get away with telling dancer/choreographer Lula Washington no. It didn’t work when UCLA said she was too old to study dance at 22. It didn’t work when she was told she’d never have a dance company and own the building they perform in. No is just not a word she responds well to. If she had, the Lula Washington Dance Theatre wouldn’t be celebrating its 40th anniversary.
Tonight marks the first of two performances by Washington’s company at The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Arts in Beverly Hills. The program includes two world premieres, a West Coast premiere and two works by Washington.
Last week I spoke by phone with Washington about this anniversary and what motivates her. Here are edited excerpts from that conversation.
Dancer/choreographer Pearl Primus said, “Dance is the fist with which I fight the sickening ignorance of prejudice.” Is dance your fist?
Pearl Primus was a giant and I really love her and miss her along with some other dance giants that have made significant contributions to the field. She lived in a time that was very difficult to create and present her art as well. You could look at it as a fist or whatever your sign for however you choose. I choose to let my art speak on the issues and concerns I personally experience and issues and concerns I feel are in my community and around the world that we all have in common. My work would be my fist.
When it came time to put together a program celebrating this anniversary, it appears you are spend more time looking forward than backwards.
We have been for quite some time seeking to move forward. I call it little by little we’ve been moving forward. We see ourselves continuing to move forward. We are in a transition. We have Tamica Washington-Miller growing in a leadership role. Eventually she will spearhead the organization. Until there is a natural transition or we decide to transition out, we are assisting her in building a team and continuing the legacy.
It’s all looking forward as much as we can. Part of that looking forward happened when we purchased and paid for our dance building – which people doubted we could do. Now we have this fabulous dance studio which now serves as not only a home for our organization, but we allow other dance groups to have their rehearsals here. It’s exactly what I wanted it to be. To give back to the community and give back to dance.
What do you see as the burning issues of our time you’d like to address in future works?
My perspective changes every day. Right now the things that are pressing that affect me are the issues that are coming from the person in the White House. I’m choosing my words carefully. Those are things, painful things. Sometimes in rehearsals we spend time talking about it because the dancers are concerned. It is affecting everyone.
How do you maintain your faith and still run an organization?
There’s always disappointment, but they can only disappoint you if you let them break your spirit. My spirit is not broken too easily. One thing Alvin Ailey told me, ‘you need to try to find you some people who will believe in your ideas and visions and they will support you religiously every year.’ We have about five donors who actually donate to us every year. I need to get me 50 more of those! In order to do that, I need to have a full-time staff person. Those are still some of the things we have to improve on 40 years from now.
Speaking of Ailey, he said, “No matter what you write or choreograph, you feel it is not enough.” Do you agree? Have you, in 40 years, ever felt like what you do has been enough?
Mr. Ailey was a genius. Personally I never feel it is enough. I always want to do more. I want to have a longer show to do more. I want to test out new ideas. I want to have the funding to present things the way you really want to do it. It’s never enough, but we’re never enough because there is always such great need.
Ailey said it was important to give back. In giving back I have to teach protocols because there is a generation that feels they are entitled. I came up with the idea you have to pay your dues. If you don’t have money you sweep the floor. It’s a re-education and teaching and passing down the legacy information that was shared with us and hopefully will stick on some of the people.
If that 22-year-old who defied UCLA and was able to study dance was to take a look at all you’ve done with your career, what do you think she’d say to you?
You still have to understand that even though you’ve made great accomplishments, you still have a long way to go to improve situations in the arts. Unless you are a huge major institution that has a huge board and people raising money for you, you are always at a financial disadvantage.
I continue to tell people to this day you need to pursue you dream. The only person who can stop you is yourself. If that is something you’d really want in your life, you have to be the person who has to continue to move it forward.
Photo of Lula Washington by Frances Dowdy/All photos courtesy of LWDT.