Hey Detroiters, welcome back to Culture Canvas!
Thanks to BridgeDetroit editors Laurén Abdel-Razzaq and Christine Ferretti for filling in for me last week! I had a great time at the Education Writers Association National Seminar in St. Louis. I learned so much valuable information and can’t wait to implement that in my education reporting.
Related:
- The generational impact of a Detroit dance studio
- Legendary Detroit dance teacher takes her well-deserved bow
As for the latest in arts and culture, the Detroit-Windsor Dance Academy is putting on a Saturday concert for its annual daddy-daughter dance just in time for Father’s Day. The concert, titled “Higher,” will begin at 6 p.m. at the Detroit School of Arts. Tickets are $25 on DWDA’s website and $30 at the door.
Fathers and daughters learn a routine for the performances and begin rehearsing as early as March.
While director Debra White-Hunt usually choreographs the academy’s daddy-daughter dances, DWDA teacher Jessica Robinson is taking over this year. Robinson danced many years with her father Rev. Terry Robinson of Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church.
I chatted with White-Hunt about how the father-daughter dance became an annual tradition, getting her father involved in the dances and what to expect at this year’s concert.
Editor’s note: This interview was lightly edited for length and clarity.
BridgeDetroit: What’s the story behind these daddy-daughter dances?
White-Hunt: We thought it was just a special way to connect families. Some of the dancers live with their dad, some don’t. Some don’t have dads. Some have significant uncle figures and brothers. But we felt that it was very important to bring families together, especially fathers and daughters, because I always felt that was a very significant relationship. We have many father figures. We have uncles, we have friends, we have brothers, we have grandfathers. It’s just amazing to see. My dad was also in the daddy-daughter dance.
BridgeDetroit: What was that experience like dancing with him?
White-Hunt: When he passed away (in 2016), he was 95 and he was still dancing with me. He was a person not only that they (the other dads) looked up to, but they bonded in such a way because many of them didn’t have dads. A couple of the dads told me how much my dad helped them with things that they were going through in their life and I didn’t know that.
He passed away in June right before the concert, so he had been in all the rehearsals and knew the dance. He died suddenly. He had not been sick. So, we went on that year. I didn’t know what I was gonna do, but I did the dance without him because I felt he was there.
BridgeDetroit: When do you all usually start rehearsing the dance?
White-Hunt: Around March. They come in once a week for an hour and they learn their dance. They (the dads) are always very nervous because they’re like, ‘Oh, how are we going to be ready?’ And, ‘We don’t know what we’re doing.’ So, we have to give them the talk, and say, ‘This is a process, it’s not going to happen overnight. You have many weeks before the concert; just relax and enjoy, and you’re going to see that when you’re present and you’re rehearsing, it’s going to come.’ Now, they are so confident. When we had a rehearsal last week in front of the entire studio, they were just…the smiles and the joy just emanated from them because they were so well received by the teachers and all the other students that saw them.
BridgeDetroit: What’s it like teaching the fathers choreography when they’re not used to dancing?
White-Hunt: It is hilarious. Some of them have always felt they have two left feet, but they’re doing this for their daughters, and they’ll take the chance of being very clumsy. Some of them have a lot more rhythm than others. Some think they have rhythm. But it’s just a joyful time. Most of the time, we talk about this opportunity to spend time with their daughters. It’s going to be a lasting memory and it’s going to be a time when they get to see each other in a different light. The daughters get a chance to shine and talk about their dad, but then the dads get a chance to see how their daughters have developed as a dancer. The dads end up having a lot more respect for dance.
BridgeDetroit: What kind of dances do you usually do?
White-Hunt: Well, it varies. This year, they’re doing a tribute to Michael Jackson, and so it’s like a little soundtrack with various snippets of songs. And they have some accessories, like they have the Michael Jackson hats and the glove. And the dads think they can get down to Michael Jackson.
BridgeDetroit: Why did you decide to let Jessica take on all the choreography this year?
White-Hunt: Jessica was in the dance ministry at my old church (Tabernacle Missionary) and I was in charge of the dance ministry. I noticed her talent. She said, ‘This is what I’d like to do.’ She presented her proposal, I said OK and the rest is history. I think this is her third or fourth time (assisting with choreography), but she did this one all by herself.
As always, have a great week!
Until next time,
Micah
313 Scene
- Bedrock’s Decked Out Detroit recently kicked off its summer programming downtown. Thursdays between 4-7 p.m., visitors can enjoy free activities like acoustic music, pose for personalized watercolor portraits and build bouquets from the flower cart. Saturdays between noon and 4 p.m., there will be free DIY bracelet-making, arts and crafts, temporary tattoos and face painting. And Sundays, between noon and 4 p.m., the fun continues with more free arts and crafts, cornhole, live sketches and more.
- Popular home renovator Nicole Curtis is back in Detroit for the upcoming season of HGTV’s “Rehab Addict,” which premieres at 9 p.m. June 24. Across the four episodes, the Lake Orion native will embark on one of her biggest challenges yet—fighting to save two derelict properties that are 1,500 miles apart. In Wyoming, Curtis will take on an 1890s house subjected to a bad flip, and, in Detroit, she will purchase one of the dirtiest abandoned homes she’s ever seen.
- Rapper Big Sean is collaborating with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for what is being described as “a groundbreaking fusion of hip-hop and orchestral sound.” The concert is set for 7 p.m. on Sunday, June 29 at Orchestra Hall in Detroit’s Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Detroit Pistons Foundation, the Boys & Girls Club of Southeastern Michigan, and the Sean Anderson Foundation. There’s still some tickets available on Ticketmaster, starting at $90. (Detroit Metro Times)
- The rich and shifting landscape of Detroit is the inspiration for a vibrant art exhibition currently on display at The Shepherd, a major Detroit cultural center. “The Sea and the Sky, and You and I” opened last month to more than 500 visitors for its May 17 premiere, and has continued to draw attention and foot traffic over the following weeks. The exhibit features 28 artists, with 17 from Detroit. (Detroit Free Press)
- Rapper Lil Wayne will make his way to Little Caesars Arena on Aug. 23 for his biggest Detroit headlining show in years. The LCA show will be a midway stop on his 34-city tour supporting his latest record “Tha Carter VI,” with a set list celebrating that two-decade album series. Tyga and Belly Gang Kushington will open all dates on the tour. (Detroit Free Press)
What’s Going on in the D?
- Go back to the 2000s with music and art show Rawr 2 Sk8r Boi Edition: A Celebration of MySpace at 6 p.m. Friday at Woodbridge incubator Spread Art. Music starts at 7 p.m., featuring bands Take Your Meds, Zak, Dirty Harry, Rent Strike, Pancho Villa’s Skull and UDI. $10 is the suggested donation for the event.
- In honor of Friday the 13th, the Redford Theatre is showing the film “Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter” at 8 p.m. The 1984 classic follows Jason escaping from a morgue to terrorize a group of friends at a lakeside cabin. Tickets are $7.
- Doom City Cinema is kicking off its summer outdoor screenings at Carbon Athletic Club with the 1971 horror film, “Daughters of Darkness” at 8:30 p.m. Friday. A newlywed couple’s honeymoon takes a sinister turn in a desolate seaside hotel, where they cross paths with the mysterious Countess Bathory and her equally enigmatic companion. The screening is free, with drinks and concessions available for purchase.
- The City of Detroit’s Office of Arts, Culture and Entrepreneurship (ACE) is opening nine of its Arts Alleys over the next month and has commissioned 47 artists to install art in the alleys. The Grand River Arts Alley, located at Dabls Mbad African Bead Museum, will open at 10 a.m. Saturday with a program starting at 4:30 p.m.
- Sneaker Con returns to Detroit 12-7 p.m. Saturday at Huntington Center. Sneaker Con is the world’s premier sneaker show, providing a space for vendors and attendees to buy, sell and trade some of the most sought-after footwear in the industry. General admission is $32.
- The Detroit Parks Coalition is kicking off its summer concert series, Sounds from the Park from 2-4 p.m. Saturday at Chandler Park. DPC commissioned Detroit saxophonist and composer Marcus Elliot to create the series, which is a suite of five site-specific improvisatory pieces celebrating Detroit’s parks and their neighborhoods. Saturday’s theme is “Joy, Beauty and Respect.”
- Michigan Central, in collaboration with organizations The Black Canon and Motor City Cinema Society, are hosting, “Black Film in Focus: Selections from Black Canon and Motor City Cinema” from 2-5 p.m. Saturday at Newlab. The event will feature Black-centered, 16mm films including archival music performances, TV clips and animated shorts. The films are drawn from the James E. Wheeler Collection, a nationally-recognized archive of thousands of Black cultural artifacts. Curators and Wheeler’s children Ali Wheeler and Alima Trapp will introduce each section and share reflections on their father’s work preserving Black cinema, music and visual history. Tickets are $15.
