By Darlene Donloe
Contributing Writer
LOS ANGELES — The Lula Washington Dance Theatre is throwing open its doors for its latest presentation, “Angels on Crenshaw – August Quarterly.”
The dress code: all white. The requirement: comfortable shoes. The ask: “Bring yourself, your voice, and your creative spirit.” It all unfolds at 2 p.m. Aug. 9, at the Lula Washington Dance Theatre on Crenshaw Boulevard.
It isn’t a recital, according to Lula Washington, the founder and artistic director for the theater that bears her name. It’s church, history, and a fundraiser rolled into one — with the proceeds lifting the Lula Washington Dance Theatre Youth Scholarship Program, the engine that’s trained thousands of young dancers since 1980.
“Dance is church,” Washington said. “My work is healing.”
The August Quarterly isn’t Washington’s invention. It dates to 1814, when Peter Spencer — who escaped enslavement and founded the Union Church of Africans, the first independent Black church in the United States — launched an annual gathering in Delaware. Part revival, part strategy session, the quarterly became a critical stop on the Underground Railroad, a place to practice free assembly, free speech and free worship when all three were radical.
Lula Washington Dance Theatre board Treasurer Michelle Flewellyn-Wiggins, a Delaware native, brought the concept west.
“We are doing this event as part of our August Quarterly celebrations,” Washington said. “This annual gathering was important to the Underground Railroad, so this event is important to us. It’s very much like church.”
Even the all-white attire is coded with lineage.
“The concept of dressing in white is connected to our roots in African spiritual practices and to Black churches,” said Tamica Washington-Miller, associate director of the Lula Washington Dance Theatre and the daughter of founders Lula and Erwin Washington. “White connects with purification and clearing spaces. The world needs love, compassion, empathy, and a good clearing and cleansing.”
“Angels on Crenshaw” will have guests moving, speaking and naming the “Angels” who carried them.
The afternoon also will deliver a first look at a new work choreographed by Washington and performed by the company, plus appearances from youth speakers whose lives have been rerouted by Lula Washington Dance Theatre scholarships.
At 15, Kayden doesn’t mince words about the program.
“This scholarship has helped me in so many ways, not only in dance but mentally and emotionally,” Kayden said. “I appreciate how dance and being here take away my stress and give me a chance to breathe and focus.”
Zora, 18, has been on scholarship since age 10. She’s now college-bound.
“The work I get to do at Lula’s enables me to perform throughout the city and even travel,” she said.
Gabriel started at 7. The scholarship, he says, “gives me the freedom to express myself. … I have met people who danced with Prince and Michael Jackson, all because of this scholarship.”
Milan Maxwell, 16, is newer but certain: “This dance theater has taught me how to present myself in a professional environment and how to hold my head high no matter what room I step into.”
And Yaretzi, 18, heads to Cal State Northridge at the end of August with more than technique.
“Teaching me skills through dance, writing, and speaking helped build my confidence both on and off the stage. … Thanks to Ms. Tamica and Ms. Lula, I’ve gained incredible work opportunities that help me grow as a dancer while building real experience for future work, even if I choose not to pursue dance professionally.”
Washington could rest. She was just named a 2025 Dance Magazine honoree and received the Sheryl Lee Ralph Diva Simply Singing Award for decades of artistic excellence, cultural leadership and community service.
Ask her how it feels to choreograph as a certified legend — freeing or frightening? — and she doesn’t blink.
“I have always been free,” Washington said. “Dance is what freed me. I was never seeking recognition. The most important thing to me was to be able to do the work because the work is what makes me free.”
That freedom has anchored the Lula Washington Dance Theatre since she and her husband founded it in 1980. Forty-four years later, the company remains one of the nation’s leading African American contemporary dance institutions, touring internationally while keeping its South L.A. studio a training ground, sanctuary and launchpad.
The event’s title isn’t a metaphor. It’s an instruction.
“I look at everybody as a ‘could be’ angel, even the homeless people,” Washington said. “Angels help us become better human beings. Angels are people who have been with you along your journey, whoever you are.”
On Aug. 9, those angels will be named out loud. Some will be in the audience. Some will be on stage. Some will be teenagers who learned to point their toes and hold their heads high in the same week.
As Washington puts it: “Attend. Participate. Give. Share. Bring your family. Invite a friend. Celebrate resilience. Honor the Angels among us.”
Darlene Donloe is a freelance reporter for Wave Newspapers who covers South Los Angeles. She can be reached at ddonloe@gmail.com.
