DBDT Wraps Up Its 40th-Anniversary Season and Welcomes a New Director

Finding the right person to take the mantle of a 40-year-old American dance institution is no easy feat. But when Dallas-native choreographer Bridget L. Moore agreed to succeed Dallas Black Dance Theatre’s founding artistic director, Ann Williams, the company knew it was a perfect fit.

For Moore this is a homecoming. It was DBDT that introduced her to dance as a youngster when the company’s arts-in-education program visited her elementary school. Although she lived and worked in Seoul, South Korea, from 2014 to 2017, she maintained a creative relationship with DBDT, which supported her in facilitating connections with dancers from Korea and the U.S. Last year Korean dancers performed in Moore’s work as guest artists for DBDT’s Spring Celebration Series, and in January she presented a piece featuring both Korean and American dancers at the DBDT-hosted International Conference and Festival of Blacks in Dance.

“It is my aim to honor the legacy, hard work and efforts that have been put into making Dallas Black Dance Theatre what it is today,” she says. Exactly how do you move the oldest continuously operating professional dance company in Dallas forward? Moore has a very clear vision: “Through innovative programming, delivering new contemporary dance works and devising initiatives that attract new audiences.” —Theresa Ruth Howard

40 Years Strong

Dallas Black Dance Theatre concludes its 40th-anniversary season May 19–21 with its spring performance series at AT&T Performing Arts Center’s Wyly Theatre. A work by Ballet Austin artistic director Stephen Mills is the centerpiece of the season finale, which also features Twyla Tharp’s Sinatra Suite and guest artists from Ballet Austin. —Courtney Escoyne

DBDT in Matthew Rushing’s TRIBUTE. Photo by Sharen Bradford—The Dancing Image, Courtesy DBDT.