Hill Dance Academy Theatre empowers students to pursue careers in Black dance
The Hill Dance Academy Theatre, an organization with a mission to provide professional-level training in Black dance traditions, history, culture, and aesthetics, is performing its Summer Showcase this Saturday from 11 a.m. through 2 p.m. The event will be a great opportunity to learn more about the academy, which Founder, CEO, and Artistic Director Ayisha Morgan-Lee says teaches students more than just dance.
“Just like our students here, my parents put me in dance so that I could have self-expression and I would be able to have leadership skills and be able to hold a conversation on my own,” says Morgan-Lee, who founded HDAT when she was only 21 years old. “So same thing with us here. We teach the students more than just dance: confidence, leadership, team building, all those things that make them well-rounded people.”
The Hill Dance Academy Theatre, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2025, provides students with the ability to learn all different styles of dance, including African, ballet, hip hop, modern, tap, theater, and more. Morgan-Lee, who was named YWCA Greater Pittsburgh’s 2022 Creativity and Innovation Equity Award winner, thinks it’s important for Black children to witness, in person, dancers who look like them.
“I think it’s very important for them to be able to see other dancers who look like them and see that this is a viable career,” Morgan-Lee says. “It’s also an opportunity for us to celebrate the rich history that we have in the dance world. There have been so many contributions by Black dancers with different choreography, with telling the story with costuming, so it’s very important that they know they are a part of the larger picture.”
Students aged 3-18 can train at the academy and are placed into various levels when they turn seven. For those older than 18, HDAT also offers an adult program for what Morgan-Lee says is targeted to “anyone who wants to dance.”
The dance teachers use their skills to teach students the Hill Dance Academy’s mission daily, which involves “training students to prepare them for a professional career on the stage and teaching them – and keeping alive – the history of Black dance,” according to Morgan-Lee.
“So when students walk through the door,” she adds, “they learn all they can about different styles of concert dance, and about their history.”