This 2016 conversation with DCDC Artistic Director Debbie Blunden- Diggs took place during the company’s performances of Rainbow Round My Shoulder as guest artists with the Paul Taylor Dance Company at State Theater in Lincoln Center.

Blunden discusses the importance of keeping masterworks like Rainbow alive and on stage for the next generation of balletomanes. Her comments and commitment still ring true as DCDC becomes the first African American modern dance company to perform one of Taylor’s signature masterworks, Esplanade, during the company’s 2024 Joyce Theater season, October 2- 6. Read more...

DCDC marks a milestone in the history of the national treasure known as Esplanade...

For a company of 17 dancers in a Rust Belt city, Dayton maintains an impressively large tent. Among modern dance companies committed to portraying the African American experience through dance, Dayton may have the broadest repertory – housing work by Donald McKayle, Talley Beatty, Eleo Pomare, Bill T. Jones, Merce Cunningham and Doug Varone, to name a few. Read more... 

Dayton native Jeraldyne Blunden was a trailblazer. In 1963, during a time of uncertainty and unrest in America, she had the vision to create a dance school for African-American youth, who were excluded from Dayton’s segregated dance studios. With a troop of outstanding dancers, she established the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company in 1968.

Now in its 56th season, DCDC has grown to be widely regarded as one of the nation’s best and most historically significant arts institutions, proudly boasting the largest repertory of works by Black choreographers in the world.

“We are a company of professional dance artists who are bold, electrifying, masterfully skilled and innovative. DCDC engages audiences through their hearts, minds, spirits and our common humanity, artfully demonstrating the power of the moving body,” said Shola Odumade, grants administrator for DCDC. “DCDC remains a vital performing arts institution and a seasoned educational resource locally and around the world.”

For its latest tour to New York, the venerable Dayton Contemporary Dance Company is promoting its acquisition of Paul Taylor’s Esplanade. And why not? As the first African-American troupe to perform this 1975 evergreen, Dayton has beat Ailey to it...