The Women Driving Arts Education Committee and the GHWCC 100 Women Driving Arts Education Council, hosted a group of students from Young Women’s College Preparatory Academy (YWCPA) to see a Saturday matinee live performance of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at Jones Hall on February 19.
Many thanks to Society for the Performing Arts (SPA) CEO Meg Booth for making discounted tickets available and for giving the girls a special welcome from the stage during the pre-performance curtain remarks. The girls were thrilled to be recognized from the stage, and the audience at all levels of the theater.
GHWCC’s Women Driving Arts Education Committee and Council Host YWCPA Students at a live performance of the Internationally Acclaimed Alvin Ailey Dance Theater
GHWCC, through the efforts of the Women Driving Arts Education Committee and the GHWCC 100 Women Driving Arts Education Council, hosted a group of students from Young Women’s College Preparatory Academy (YWCPA) to see a Saturday matinee live performance of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at Jones Hall on February 19. Many thanks to Society for the Performing Arts (SPA) CEO Meg Booth for making discounted tickets available and for giving the girls a special welcome from the stage during the pre-performance curtain remarks. The girls were thrilled to be recognized from the stage, and the audience at all levels of the theater – from the orchestra all the way up to the balcony – applauded upon Meg announcing that students from YWCPA were special guests at the performance!
Alvin Ailey Dance Theater is an internationally acclaimed dance company and is one of the most important contemporary dance companies in the world. It has been recognized by U.S. Congressional resolution as a vital American “Cultural Ambassador to the World,” and has forever changed the perception of American dance.
During this month, Black History Month, it is a fitting time to pay tribute to this important dance company and to its founder, Alvin Ailey. Mr. Ailey was born in Rogers, Texas in 1932, and his experiences of life in the rural South would later inspire some of his most memorable works. In 1958, he founded Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater to carry out his vision of a company dedicated to preserving the uniqueness of the African American cultural experience and enriching the American modern dance heritage. Mr. Ailey was a pioneer of programs promoting arts in education, particularly those benefiting underserved communities.
Throughout Mr. Ailey’s lifetime, he was awarded numerous distinctions, including the Kennedy Center Honor in 1988 in recognition of his extraordinary contribution to American culture. In 2014, he posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor, in recognition of his contributions and commitment to civil rights and dance in America. When Mr. Ailey died in 1989, The New York Times said of him, “you didn’t need to have known [him] personally to have been touched by his humanity, enthusiasm, and exuberance and his courageous stand for multi-racial brotherhood.”
Society for the Performing Arts is a member of the GHWCC, and is the largest performing arts presenting organization in the Southwest. Each year Society for the Performing Arts presents internationally acclaimed artists from the entire performing arts spectrum for Houston audiences to enjoy. It is dedicated to community outreach and educational programs in order to make the performing arts accessible and welcoming to everyone.
Young Women’s College Preparatory Academy is the “adopted school” of GHWCC’s Women Driving Arts Education Committee. YWCPA, a Title I HISD school located in Houston’s Third Ward with grades 6-12, has received a number of awards for its academic success. It was named as one of the top 10 schools in Houston in the U.S. World News & World Report 2021 Best Public High School rankings. The school has a 100% graduation rate. YWCPA’s 32 seniors in the graduating Class of 2021 earned more than $3.5 million in merit-based scholarships. Nearly a third of the 2021 graduates are the first in their families to graduate from high school, and when they graduate from college, 45% of them will be the first in their families to graduate from college.
Many thanks to GHWCC staff members Shayla Anderson, Linda Lopez, and Donette Walker for joining us at the theater and helping to make this a very special event!
The mission of the GHWCC Women Driving Arts Education Committee is to bring the performing and visual arts, and education about the business of the arts, to underserved students in HISD schools. Membership in the Committee is open to all GHWCC members, and all GHWCC members are also invited to support the Committee by joining the Committee’s philanthropic arm, the 100 Women Driving Arts Education Council. To contribute to the Council and became a member, use this link: