Couldn’t Have Done It Without Them: A spotlight on individuals & organizations that have provided integral foundational support for Davalois Fearon Dance

Davalois Fearon Dance Season One at BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance. Photo: Charles Rice-Gonzales.

BAAD! the Bronx Academy of Arts & Dance
by Mike Marriott, Executive Director
Numerous individuals, organizations, and institutions have aided Davalois on her journey to become the esteemed and recognized artist she is today. Without the support of these individuals & organizations, Davalois Fearon Dance (DFD) would not exist. Today, we focus on BAAD! and the contributions of DFD’s performance home in the Bronx.

Davalois has had the opportunity to perform individually, and with her company, at some of the most prestigious venues in New York, including The Joyce, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the the New Victory Theater on Broadway, but the venue that helped launch her solo career, the venue that has been with her since day one, has been BAAD! the Bronx Academy of Arts & Dance. The first time Davalois perform at BAAD! was in April of 2014. She has since performed there on six different occasions, and BAAD! has presented three of her noteworthy works, Consider Water, Time to Talk, and For C.J. BAAD! has been an invaluable partner in the growth of Davalois Fearon Dance. It is a haven for Dava to flesh out ideas and take risks. Each performance there as lead to amazing opportunities for the company and while Dava has a tremendous artistic reputation throughout New York City and beyond, Davalois is a Bronx-based artist, and her home is at BAAD!

This spring, Davalois, and her artistic activism, is coming home to BAAD! for the first iteration of her newest work For C.J., a piece that will honor Ms. Fearon’s nephew, a Bronx native, who recently fell victim to a fatal asthma attack. It uses nature to explore themes of loss and remembrance and celebrates C.J.’s life by telling his story through movement, live music, and visual arts. The work has an initiative component that seeks to highlight disparities in asthma care and provide tools to combat them. The asthma hospitalization rate for children in The Bronx is 70 percent higher than the rest of New York City, and 700 percent higher than the rest of New York State. Because of statistics like these, it was important to Davalois that this work premier in The Bronx, and at BAAD! Join us March 29th & 30th, 2019, as Davalois celebrates 5 years at BAAD! the Bronx Academy of Arts & Dance.