Teachers Guide

The African Heritage Dancers & Drummers were one of the first “Black Performing Arts,” companies originating in the Inner City Shaw communities of Metro-Washington, D.C., as a “Black Cultural Awareness” project in the early 1960’s.  Originally composed of primarily community residents, the African Heritage Company has grown to include performers from around the world, including the continent of Africa.  Serving local, national and international audiences, the African Heritage Company  has established a reputation for excellence and authenticity admired the world over.

 

The parent institution, the “African Heritage Dance Center,” offers free and nominal fee Dance, Music and Crafts workshops to children and youth as a “Safe Space” after school youth intervention program, and provides “Cross-Cultural” lectures and performing programs as a multi-cultural educational tool in creating a wider respect for the diversity of cultures existing in American society.

 

The Director, Mr. Melvin Deal, is a veteran artist of some forty years of experience as a performer, lecturer, teacher, and founder of the institution.  The recipient of many prestigious awards, among which include the “Washingtonian of the Year Award” (1981), Urban League’s “Whitney Young Memorial Award” (1983), “Cross Roads Africa Award” (1984), and numerous City Council Proclamations and Resolutions.

Mr. Deal travels to Africa frequently to study and authenticate his work by working with master artists and receives master artists from Africa, who work with and become members of his company and genesis their own companies.

 

Honored by the Mayor of the District of Columbia for outstanding contributions to the Artistic Life of the Metro-Washington area, African Heritage was dubbed “One of Washington’s Living Legends and Cultural Treasures,” by The Washington Post.

 

 A 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Tax Exempt Institution, the African Heritage Center welcomes contributions.