The Archive · Legacy
Joan Myers Brown
The Woman Who Built Black Dance Infrastructure
1931 – Present
Dance Mogul Magazine · Legacy Series
Introduction
Joan Myers Brown is not the most famous name in dance. She may be the most important. While individual dancers broke barriers on stage, Brown built the infrastructure behind the stage — the schools, the companies, the networks, and the organizations that made it possible for Black dancers to train, perform, and build careers. She founded PHILADANCO (the Philadelphia Dance Company) in 1970 and co-founded the International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD) in 1988. Between these two institutions, she created more professional opportunity for Black dancers than any single person in American dance history.
Historical Context
Brown was born in Philadelphia in 1931 and began dancing as a child. She trained with some of the leading teachers in the city but quickly encountered the same barriers that confronted every Black dancer of her generation: there were no professional companies that would hire her. The Philadelphia ballet companies were white. The modern dance companies were white. The performance opportunities were white. Brown could train at the highest level, but there was nowhere to go.
Rather than leave Philadelphia or abandon dance, Brown opened her own school — the Philadelphia School of Dance Arts — in 1960. A decade later, she founded PHILADANCO as a performing company drawn from her school’s students. The company’s mission was direct: provide a professional home for Black dancers trained in multiple techniques — ballet, modern, jazz, African — and commission original choreography that reflected the Black experience.
PHILADANCO grew into one of the most respected dance companies in America. It has performed at the Kennedy Center, the Joyce Theater, and festivals worldwide. Its repertoire includes works by major choreographers including Gene Hill Sagan, Milton Myers, Christopher Huggins, and dozens of others. The company has served as a launching pad for dancers who went on to join Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and other leading companies.
While individual dancers broke barriers on stage, Brown built the infrastructure behind the stage — the schools, the companies, the networks that made Black dance careers possible.
Cultural Impact Across Generations
Brown’s founding of IABD in 1988 extended her impact from Philadelphia to the entire country and beyond. IABD is a service organization that connects Black dance companies, supports Black dance artists, and advocates for equity in the dance field. It hosts an annual conference that brings together companies, choreographers, and educators from across the nation. For many smaller Black dance organizations — companies that lack the resources and visibility of Ailey or DTH — IABD is a lifeline.
The combination of PHILADANCO and IABD represents a comprehensive vision of cultural infrastructure. PHILADANCO trains and employs dancers. IABD connects and supports the organizations that train and employ dancers everywhere else. Together, they form an ecosystem that sustains Black dance at every level — from the student taking their first class at Brown’s school in Philadelphia to the professional company touring internationally.
For Philadelphia specifically, Brown’s impact is immeasurable. Alongside Rennie Harris and his Puremovement, Brown’s PHILADANCO has made the city a major center for Black dance in America. Two of the most important Black dance institutions in the country are based in Philadelphia, and both were founded by people who built them from scratch because the existing institutions would not make room.
Key Legacy
Joan Myers Brown founded PHILADANCO and co-founded the International Association of Blacks in Dance, building the two institutions that have done more to create professional infrastructure for Black dancers than any other organizations in American dance history. Her work in Philadelphia made the city a national center for Black dance.
Value to Society
Brown’s story is one of institution-building as activism. She did not wait for existing institutions to become inclusive. She built new ones. That model — the same model Arthur Mitchell used with DTH, the same model the Whitman Sisters used in vaudeville — is the recurring theme in the history of Black dance in America. When the door is closed, build your own building.
Brown is still alive and still active in her nineties. The institutions she built are still running. The dancers she trained are now teaching the next generation. That continuity — the living proof that cultural infrastructure works when someone has the vision and persistence to build it — is her greatest contribution.
Continue Exploring
© 2026 Dance Mogul Magazine LLC · All Rights Reserved
Black-Owned · Est. 2010