L.A. without the NEA: Lula Washington's aim is to lift up lives through dance
In the face of potentially major funding cuts, the dance world needs Lula Washington more than ever
“The elimination of the NEA will be a blemish on America,” Lula Washington '84 said. “If you don’t value the arts, you don’t value humanity.”
"Lula Washington is not one to get discouraged.In the 1970s she was denied admission to study dance at UCLA based on her age, 22, which the university deemed too advanced for the program. Washington appealed the decision to the dean in a heartfelt letter and gained admittance after all, said her husband, Erwin Washington.
Lula, who was married and had a small child at the time, went on to found the university’s Black Dance Assn. This proved a harbinger of her life’s work: the founding, in 1980, of the nonprofit Lula Washington Dance Theatre. The Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw company’s mission is to provide a creative outlet for minority dancers in Los Angeles, and it has performed in more than 150 cities in the U.S. as well as in Germany, Spain, Kosovo, Israel, China, Russia and Brazil."— Jessica Gelt, Mar. 23, 2017
Read the full article at the L.A. Times website.