Movers & Shapers: Joan Myers Brown and Kim Bears-Bailey

Ms. Brown is the honorary chairperson for the International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD), an organization she established in 1991. Founder of the International Conference of Black Dance Companies in 1988, a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of the Arts and Howard University in Washington, DC. She was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters by Ursinus College and an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania. Listed in Who’s Who in America and described as an “innovator and communicator,” Ms. Brown’s efforts for dance excellence are only part of her contribution to the field. She was co-chair of Dance/USA Philadelphia. She received the Philadelphia Award and documented in a publication “Joan Myers Brown and the Audacious Hope of the Black Ballerina”, by Brenda Dixon Gottschild. She has received awards from the City of Philadelphia, the State of Pennsylvania and the Embassy of the United States of America. Brown honored as a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania and Outstanding Alumni of West Philadelphia High School. She received the prestigious National Medal of Arts Award. Also honored by the American Dance Guild Honoree Award in addition to many other awards. Ms. Brown is a recipient of the Philadelphia Inquirer’s 2017 Industry Icon Award and received the Philadelphia Cultural Funds David Cohen Award in April 2019. Most recently Ms. Brown received the distinguished 2019 Bessie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Dance for her choreographic influence on black dance in America.

ABOUT Kim Bears-Bailey