Press Release/for immediate release

From:  Barbara J. Beitel/Access to Art, Inc.

Telephone: (609) 465-3963

                           CLUB HARLEM COMMON DENOMINATOR FOR

SISTER SLEDGE AND JOAN MYERS BROWN, FOUNDER OF PHILADANCO

Cape May Court House.  Joan Myers Brown opened for Sammy Davis, Jr. and Pearl Bailey at Atlantic City’s hot night spot, Club Harlem on North Kentucky Ave. in the 50’s and 60’s. She choreographed and was a featured dancer for Larry Steele’s Smart Affairs, a dance revue, which opened for major singers and warmed up the crowd.  Access to Art will bring a reversal to history, of sorts, on May l7th when Cape May’s own Jazz singer Lois Smith and singer Kim Sledge of the Sisters Sledge open for Joan Myers Brown’s dance company, Philadanco!  at a reception at the Middle Township PAC hosted by Access to Art, Inc. in Cape May Court House at 5-7 p.m. Attendees will meet Joan Myers Brown, and two of her dancers who are not performing in the first piece. The dance company, Philadanco!, newly back from a four ½ week stint in Europe, from the Newark PAC, and the Kimmel, will perform at 7:30 p.m.  It all began because she was black, wanted to dance classical ballet, and they would not take people of color. Today Philadanco! is performing at the Kennedy Center, the Joyce Theatre, NY, Lincoln Center and West Palm Beach and across three continents to rave reviews.  Says the NY Times:  “Silken grace, perfect form, excitingly rendered...a company of invigorating contrast.”  Los Angeles Times calls them “High-speed wonders.”

 Kentucky Ave.’s hot nightspots from the l930’s to the l970’s featured anybody who was anybody:  Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Pearl Bailey, Billy Daniels, Billy Eckstein appeared on Kentucky Ave. at Club 500 or Club Harlem. It was the essence of cool to be there, at Club Harlem, the place which had late night shows, and early morning shows after the other clubs closed at 11 p.m..  It was a black act, with a primarily white audience in the 50’s and 60’s, but in the thirties, the audience was mainly black as well.  And nightclubs were the entertainment of choice during that period.  Hot jazz was played there.

 In Joan’s Philadanco! studio, on the wall, in West Philadelphia, there’s a photo of her with Sammy Davis, Jr.  Now she has three dance companies, a full season, a company that won the “American Masters” award from the NEA, and Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation this year, along with the Martha Graham Dance Company and Sweet Honey in the Rock. She won the 2006 Dance Magazine award.  She still teaches dance, and manages three companies.  And her company, unlike many others, operates in the black.

 All  Myers Brown wanted was to become a classical dancer for which she trained with Antony Tudor, Katherine Dunham, William Sena, Sydney King. Her mother a research chemist said she could be anything she chose.  She went to New York to study with Katherine Dunham. But the ballet companies, especially Pennsylvania Ballet, were not hiring people of color, which is why she came to Club Harlem in Atlantic City.  And, eventually, she founded her school, and then her company, because she wanted to be the lead for a change.  She was tired of not being cast, or being cast in a supporting role. And of having the door slammed in her face.

Club Harlem didn’t deter her dream;  it just detained it.  And just maybe, it informed her mind about entertainment generally, despite her classical training. He company’s Spring and Fall residencies at the Kimmel sell out.

 The clubs on Kentucky Ave. were former haunts of the Rat Pack, and other super stars of an earlier era.  Joan learned show biz there; classical dance in Philadelphia and New York.  She learned to pursue a dream and not have no said to her.  Her world class company, which began dancing on the back of recreation trucks in Philadelphia, now graces the major concert hall venues on three continents.  And the critics can’t praise her enough.

 Access to Art will celebrate Joan Myers Brown, from Philadelphia, with roots in Atlantic City, that are spreading across three continents.  Her company will dance at 7:30 p.m., and we will celebrate her tenacity at our “Club Harlem Revisited” reception at the Middle

Township PAC.  Joan Myers Brown will be in attendance, accustomed to many honors and honorary degrees. She serves on the Rockefeller Foundation.  Tickets are $60. for the reception and the show.  Call Access to Art, Inc. at (609) 465-3963 for reservations.

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