The Black Dance Academy, dwelling of Black tradition and humanities within the coronary heart of Leimert Park, invitations dancers and drummers ages 5 and up right into a summer season program — no ballet, all Black.
Nationwide — Dr. Jewel Jackson-Jallow, Founder and Government Director of the ASI Cultural Arts Middle in Los Angeles, California, has launched The Black Dance Academy (BDA), which makes use of dance and drum as a weapon of pleasure and therapeutic to assist construct neighborhood, create secure areas for Black expression, and protect Black tradition. To indicate her dedication to serving the neighborhood, she’s at the moment providing a $5 first-class summer season particular designed to welcome new households by way of the door.
The ASI Cultural Arts Middle is town’s solely Black woman-owned cultural heart devoted completely to Black artistry. No ballet. No borrowed custom. Only a full, unapologetic curriculum of African Dance, Hip-Hop, African Drum, Afro Brazilian, and the broader diasporic motion languages that constructed the tradition within the first place.
Housed within the coronary heart of the Black Cultural District in Leimert Park, Black Dance Academy is the place method meets id. Dancers don’t simply study steps — they study story, rhythm, and roots. Through the day, the Youth Summer season Camp teaches lecturers, management, dance, drum, and digital literacy as youth prepare, carry out, and join with tradition over the break.
However each night, and on Saturdays, it’s time for the VILLAGE. They’ve open courses on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays for everybody to return collectively on the dance ground, really feel nice, study some strikes, reduce weight, and meet wonderful individuals. The lead drummer and drum teacher is 4x Grammy Award-winning artist Magatte Fall, featured in Black Panther, Black Panther 2, Coming 2 America 2, and Sinners.
“Dance has all the time been our individuals’s first language,” mentioned Dr. Jackson-Jallow, who is understood extensively as Tradition Queen. “We constructed an area the place our kids by no means must ask permission to maneuver like themselves. No ballet. No code-switching. Hip-Hop, Black School Step, African Dance, Drum, Afro Brazilian — the actual factor, taught by the actual tradition bearers. That’s what makes this completely different.”
A Legacy Establishment, A New Season
Black Dance Academy sits inside ASI’s broader ecosystem of arts schooling, which serves 200+ colleges yearly throughout Los Angeles and holds LAUSD Pre-Accredited Vendor and CAP Champions standing. ASI’s roster of company and institutional companions — together with NASA, AMGEN, Intuit, and Reddit — displays a program that has lengthy outgrown “extracurricular” and grow to be infrastructure for the neighborhood it serves.
This fall, BDA continues that legacy with:
• Youth Coaching Firm: foundational method, rhythm, and efficiency readiness for youthful dancers. Intermediate coaching with elevated efficiency alternatives and choreographic publicity
• Grownup Performing Firm: tradition and community-focused, audition-based coaching for dancers prepared for the stage and past
Curriculum spans African Dance, Hip-Hop, Black School STEP, African Drum, Soul Line Dance, Afrobeats, Afro-Cuban, Afro Brazilian, and extra, taught by grasp artists and practitioners, together with 4x Grammy Award-winning musician Magatte Fall, whose dwell rhythms carry each class to life. Each class is rooted within the diaspora, taught by the tradition, for the tradition.
Why The Black Dance Academy Issues
At a time when arts programming is disappearing from colleges — and Black-owned cultural areas are disappearing from cities — Black Dance Academy provides one thing uncommon: a professional-caliber coaching pathway rooted fully in melanated artistry, taught by working artists, inside a Black woman-owned establishment with twenty-five years of belief behind it.
“We inform everybody: this isn’t a category. That is our village,” mentioned Dr. Jackson. “You aren’t simply studying to bop — you’re studying who you come from and getting the braveness to go so far as you could go.”
$5 Summer season Particular – Your First Class
For a restricted time this summer season, new dancers/drummers can expertise Black Dance Academy for simply $5 — a first-class open to anybody interested in African Dance, Drum, or Afro Brazilian motion, no expertise required.
Enrollment Particulars
• Season: Summer season 2026, plus Youth Summer season Camp now enrolling (Now by way of August 9, with a last showcase for all)• Ages: All• Location: African Soul Worldwide Cultural Arts Middle, 4302 Crenshaw Blvd, within the coronary heart of the Black Cultural District, Leimert Park, Los Angeles, CA, 90008• $5 First Class (Summer season Particular) and Fall Registration: AfricanSoulInternational.com• Scholarships: Restricted scholarship spots out there for qualifying households
households are inspired to register early, as all placements are restricted.
AboutAfrican Soul Worldwide (ASI) is a 25-year, Black woman-owned Cultural Middle devoted to melanated artistry, headquartered within the coronary heart of the Black Cultural District in Leimert Park, Los Angeles. ASI delivers arts, literacy, and social-emotional studying programming to 200+ colleges yearly and holds LAUSD Pre-Accredited Vendor and CAP Champions standing. ASI companions with establishments together with NASA, AMGEN, Intuit, and Reddit, and is led by Founder and Government Director Dr. Jewel Jackson-Jallow, EdD — identified publicly as Tradition Queen.
For press inquiries, contact data@africansoulinternational.com or 855-451-SOUL (7685)
