The history of African American dance is expansive and dates as far back as the 1600s with the arrival of African slaves to America. Distinct variations of dance in these communities were a result of traditions from different African ethnic groups, the culture of slave owners and other groups within the immediate society, as responses to the musical and social lives of individuals in that community, and in response to different experiences under slavery.

Even today’s African American Dance movements have inherited the culturally rich, innovative and distinct blends of rhythmic techniques of its predecessors.

Dance, as with the folktales of that time, had become the primary means of preserving history, morals, and other cultural information. The result oftentimes is a generational story effectively expressed through movement.

The African American Dance Review (AADR) production (The Progressive Realization of Dreams) has been established to illustrate this story from beginning to end and everything in between. The production is designed to be a thought-provoking, conscious shifting, entertaining and educational event. The audience will take a visual journey of the origin of dance from its African roots through the high-energy genre that it currently represents! It is dually purposed to incite further awareness to the arts of dance and spoken word, initially in the Atlanta area school system and eventually in other regions of the nation that would benefit from its existence.