Earl Mosley
Music Credits: “History of an Apology,” from the cd History of an Apology, composed and performed by Paul Rucker.
Earl Mosley: I’m reaching out to young men, not just because of the dancing possibilities, dance just happens to be my expertise, but I want them to become better people.
Jo Reed: That’s dancer, choreographer, and teacher, Earl Mosley and this is Art Works, the weekly podcast produced at the National Endowment for the Arts. I’m Josephine Reed.
Earl Mosely is a dynamo—he came to dancing late but he came with talent and conviction. He forged a stage career with Ailey II, Gus Solomon’s Dance and Ron Brown's Evidence Dance. He’s choreographed for many companies including Alvin Ailey, Ailey II and Dallas Black Theater. But it was during Mosley's performing career, that he discovered his passion for teaching. Aside from being on faculty for the Ailey School and Montclair State College, he’s also the founder and creative director of Diversity of Dance, which is the parent organization of the Earl Mosley institute of the Arts or EMIA.
EMIA gives student artists from diverse ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds the support and space they need to develop, not just their talent, but their characters. The emphasis is always on discipline, respect, and positive collaborations with teachers and peers. EMIA offers a number of programs including two summer residential intensives in Kent, Connecticut, country-wide teaching workshops and residencies, and dance education for schools in underserved communities.
Earl Mosely’s most ambitious project, however, is probably The Hearts of Men. The Hearts of Men is an outreach program that began five years ago. It celebrates men through dance. It brings student together for a two-week intensive, that is, classes and rehearsals all day, every day, learning all styles of dance---ballet, hip-hop, tap, modern, free expression and so on. Choreographers work with the students and set dances on them and at the end of two weeks—the students give a performance. This is uncommon enough, but Earl Mosley’s particular philosophy of dance and education makes The Hearts of Men a true rarity. I spoke with Earl Mosley during The Hearts of Men intensive at Montclair State College. And here’s a heads-up: you’ll hear a slight change in the audio when we had to switch rooms because of construction noise.
Jo Reed: Now, let’s describe what happens with Hearts of Men. First of all, who are the people who come here?
Earl Mosley: We have all demographics. We have a young man now, who’s 13, and the oldest person participating is 66. So, the ages vary. Some people never danced a day in their life.
Jo Reed: So, there are no auditions.
Earl Mosley: No, no. There is no audition process. There’s just registration. Because you want to know who’s actually going to attend-- you know, all those things. But there’s no audition process. It’s noncompetitive. There are very diverse and varied styles that we’re approaching, but I do that--
Jo Reed: All different body types.
Earl Mosley: All different body types, experiences, technical levels.
Jo Reed: What was the idea behind it?
Earl Mosley: When Dudley Williams was alive-- the former Ailey superstar Dudley Williams, who helped me, actually, originate the program, because I went to him about this idea, and he was like, “Earl, you know, in all of my life-- and I’ve been dancing longer than you’ve been alive-- I’ve never had a platform where it was just men dancing.” And that’s a whole ‘nother conversation, you know? Why men dancing? One: the phobias, you know? How do you help them to have the confidence to say, “I’m a dancer”? I’ve been in those shoes, where I’ve felt like... you want to kind of mumble it: “I’m a dancer.” And people are like, “What did you say? What did you say? You’re a dancer? Are you gay? What does that mean? What does that mean?” When actually, I learned, it just means I’m a dancer. No attachments. Like you’re a doctor. Nobody says anything about if you want to be a doctor. You’re just a doctor. And I’m just a dancer. And the young men, when they leave, always feel a thousand times more confident about saying, “I’m a dancer.”
Jo Reed: How many people are in the program this..., this session?
Earl Mosley: This session? We have, I would say, roughly between 53 and 55.
Jo Reed: And they’re not all dancers.
Earl Mosley: No. No, they’re not all dancers. We have a young man here named Stephan-- Stephan Glasgow. He’s a musician. The other day, I was speaking with him, and I said, “Why dance? Why here?” He said, “You know, I play the violin, I play piano, and I do percussion.” He said, “But”-- this is an interesting note. He said, “Especially when I’m playing classical music, I want to dance.” And he said, “But I never told anybody. I’m telling you now.” He said, “I never told anybody.”
Jo Reed: What are you aiming for in The Hearts of Men? What are you going for?
Earl Mosley: I’m reaching out to young men, not just because of the dancing possibilities. Dancing just happens to be my expertise, but I want them to become better people. But I’m using what I know, which helped me, which helped save my life, which is dancing. And I always say, if you touch a young boy’s heart, you can save his life. I’m trying to teach him to be respectful to others who don’t look like him. I’m trying to teach him to know that just because you’re from somewhere, that doesn’t mean that that’s who you are. I let these young men know that through what I have learned, which is dance. And I think it’s a beautiful communicator. I think you don’t have to speak. I think people feel your aura, they feel your spirit, they feel your passion, they feel you, I think, at your most honest point, when you’re really committed to it.
Jo Reed: What do you think bringing all these people in with such a diversity of experience and age gets at?
Earl Mosley: It’s like, it opens up everyone to allowing themselves to be a better version of themselves. How’s your spirit? What’s your heart doing? Let’s take it from there, and let’s see how we treat each other in the studio. Let’s see how we treat each other outside of the studio. Let’s see if somebody as prominent as Matthew Rushing can dance with a fifth-grade boy with no training. That’s beautiful. And then, to see that fifth-grade boy have such a level of intent and commitment that’s equal to Matthew Rushing’s. So you just see two dancers at that moment. You don’t see this thing of, like, “Oh, well, surely he’s the professional, and surely he’s the little novice.” No. You see two people out there, expressing their love at that one moment, whether it’s to each other or the world. At that one moment-- they may not ever have it again, but they had that one moment that will last them a lifetime,
Jo Reed: Well, it’s interesting, also, because you think about getting a group of men together, and a lot of the men you have are men of color, though not exclusively, clearly.
Earl Mosley: Right.
Jo Reed: And you think about other opportunities where that happens, and there’s sports...
Earl Mosley: Oh, yes.
Jo Reed: And there’s sports...
Earl Mosley: Oh, my God.
Jo Reed: But to do it around something like dance...
Earl Mosley: Mm-hmm
Jo Reed: But then you have these intergenerational relationships going on at the same time.
Earl Mosley: Yeah. Again, you’ll have Steve Haley-- Steven Haley, who’s here. He’s 13. And again, you have Graham here, who’s 66, and then you have someone as prominent a dancer as Clifton Brown, who’s 36. Those are three different generations there, and different bodies, and they’re all looking at each other, and they’re all looking at each other, and then, next thing you know, all those bodies are dancing together. Nonjudgmental; if anything, inspired. Inspired. The common denominator was that they were there right now, sharing in this special moment of men not fighting, men not having to feel like they got to be macho, men not feeling like they have to brag about how many trophies they have on their trophy case, if you know what I mean.
Jo Reed: Men not chasing a ball.
Earl Mosley: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And knowing that this is just as important, if not more. This is just as beautiful, if not more. And--
Jo Reed: Well, it’s a side of men that they don’t get to explore.
Earl Mosley: Yeah. Yeah.
Jo Reed: But it doesn’t mean it’s not there.
Earl Mosley: That doesn’t mean it’s not there. Yeah. And it should be applauded, because, as I say, how many dancers do you hear of out here, doing mass murders? How many dancers do you hear of out here, robbing banks? How many dancers do you hear-- how many artists do you hear? Let’s forget da-- how many artists do hear doing those things? No one’s perfect, but statistically speaking, it’s going to be like apples and oranges; and I mean a whole lot of oranges, and a little less apples. <laughs> You know what I mean? And so I was like, “Why not? People-- everyone’s trying their way. Why not try it in this way?”
Jo Reed: Okay, let’s do some backtracking here--I want to know more about you. Where were you born? Where were you raised? What was your childhood like?
Earl Mosley: Ah, interesting topic of discussion. I was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. Grew up on a pig farm. <laughs> I know you didn’t see that one coming. Grew up on a pig farm. We also had the vegetable gardens, and butterbeans, and greens of all sorts, and tomatoes-- all of those things-- and had no concept of dancing or-- didn’t even think about it, because we spent most of our summers out plying the fields and picking the watermelons. Or... it wasn’t that, then my dad has us attending to pigs and cows, and all kinds of things. So I basically grew up on a farm. And... seven brothers and two sisters-- a large family.
Jo Reed: Where were you in it?
Earl Mosley: Second to the youngest.
Jo Reed: So, you grew up basically working on the family farm after school?
Earl Mosley: Right, right. You know, I hate to use the word typical, but maybe I will-- household of, everybody’s working hard. My father, he would always say, “I’m not going to have any lazy children.” So we would get angry, because-- you know, when you’re young, and school’s out for the summer, you’re like, “It’s the summertime! Let’s go swimming. Let’s go to the ponds.” So, while our friends and cousins were out playing games, my father had us out there, planting seeds for this vegetable or that vegetable, or cutting the grass; and if not our grass, the neighbors’ grass. He always made sure he had us doing something. And then, maybe on that Saturday or that Friday, that was your time. But Monday through Thursday, consistently, from the time-- you know, whenever school lets off, like mid-June or so, till leading up to that returning, he made sure we were doing something. And sometimes me and my brothers, my sisters, we were all like, “Oh, can’t we be in that other family?” You’re looking at them, thinking, “Man, they’re having fun. They’re going to the movies. They’re going to the park. They’re going swimming. And here we are, out here in this blazing hot sun,” and... but as I got older, I realized I was getting up in the morning on my own. I realized that I was one of those kids that had a part-time job, so that you didn’t see those lessons he was trying to instill at a younger age, because, I guess you’re just too immature, too naïve, to understand the bigger picture.
Jo Reed: I would also think it was an early lesson in, “Look, we work as a family.”
Earl Mosley: Ah, community. Right, right, right, right. We work as a family. Everybody’s going to contribute. Everybody’s going to give their share. Everybody’s going to earn their keep. Because the dinners that we were fortunate to eat, literally were the ones that we had to pick, whether it was the poultry or the pork, or whatever, more than half of it, I would say, was self-produced. And some of it was ugly. But we were never hungry. And... it did instill a sense of... of family, meaning taking care of each other, also, that type of bonding, I think, helped to... helped me to be the person that I am, wanting to reach out to so many younger people. To help them to stay guided and to stay focused.
Jo Reed: Well, how did you and dance discover one another?
Earl Mosley: Well, I was told that I was always dancing. My mom even told me, “You know,” she said, “when you were younger, we always noticed you were always dancing, but we just thought you were just a kid listening to the latest songs on the radio, like all the other kids were. But, Earl, you would always be the one, though, you could catch onto those dances that you didn’t know the fastest, and then you ended up teaching them to other people, and you would always practice them so much, so people would say to me, ‘Oh, that kid’s a dancer. That kid’s a dancer.’” But I still thought that meant, “That kid was a dancer, socially.”
Jo Reed: Did you even know that somebody could dance professionally?
Earl Mosley: No. No, no, no. I had no idea. Had no idea. You know, it was a typical-- again, a blue-collar family, where I was working to make a living, and anything that was professional was what we saw on the TV. And that meant, “Oh, that’s something that’s so far away from what we could probably achieve.” So I’m appreciating it, watching Michael Jackson, watching Liza Minnelli or Baryshnikov, or whomever it may be. -- “Wow! They’re really great, but they’re out there in the universe, somewhere else. I don’t really know where they are.”
Jo Reed: Tell me how you got to dance class.
Earl Mosley: So at the end of my eleventh-grade year, one of my best friends at the time, Maria Taylor... she said, “You know what, Earl, I want you to take a dance class. I dare you. I know of this class. You’re going to go take it.” It wasn’t a technical class; it was a creative movement class. And it was happening in my high school. I just didn’t know about it, and I showed up. No dance belt, no tights, none of that stuff, because I didn’t know that stuff even existed. I had my warm-ups on. Teacher was named Miss Arnold. I’ll never forget her. She let me take the class, and I had a great time. And I kept coming back. Now we fast-forward. I’m in, I would say, the fall of my senior year of high school, president of student council, all this stuff. Very involved in school, making decent grades, I’m going to go to college. I’m going to become an accountant.
Jo Reed: An accountant?
Earl Mosley: Right. I’m going to become an accountant. And next thing I know my friend and I, Maria, we’re talking, and she said, “I’m auditioning for this school called North Carolina School of the Arts,” which is in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She wanted to be a dancer. Next thing I know, I go to my guidance counselor at school, I fill out an application. I said, “I think I want to try it.”
Jo Reed: What did your parents say?
Earl Mosley: Yeah, they were like, “What?” They looked at me like I was crazy. They didn’t say no, though. They were just like, “Where is this coming from?” And I said, “I think I want to-- I might want to be a dancer. I just want to see, because people keep saying it, so maybe I should just try it-- just try it.” And they were like, “All right, fine. Go ahead, go ahead. But I don’t know how you’re getting there. But go ahead.” Well, if you’re fortunate enough, you always have that cousin or that aunt, or somebody, that’s like, “Don’t worry, I got you.” So my cousin Gwen... I talked to her about it. She’s one of those ones that I could rely on. She said, “I’ll drive you.” So she drove both Maria and I to the audition. And... no prior training. I kid you not: no prior training. I went in there with the warm-ups on. I had a Mickey Mouse T-shirt on, and went in there, and the audition was ballet, and Graham. I didn’t know who Martha Graham was. I didn’t know what fifth position-- I didn’t know. But what I did know, I had a feeling that I could actually dance. And I thought if you could dance, then... you could dance. And I was so naïve, meaning I wasn’t educated to know what the physics of putting technique together was. I thought if I could look at something and copy it-- that was what I’d been doing all of my life. So I went to the audition, and... I followed, because I certainly didn’t know the vocabulary. So, long story short, they didn’t cut me at the audition. I was like, “Okay, I’m still here.” And now it’s time for the solos. I choreographed my own solo. In the audition, I totally forgot all of the movement, because I was so nervous, and I improv at least two-thirds of the solo. I mean, I... that’s over 30 years ago, now, but I think I just probably, basically, went crazy up in there. And I think they knew, too, because at the end of it-- I kid you not: At the end of the solo, I did a typical sliding on my knees, and went, “Ta-da!” <laughs> I did. I went, “Ta-da!” Well, I know for a fact, I could see their faces as I’m saying this. They just stared at me, no expression in their faces. And then they stared at each other. They said, “Thank you for coming.” And that was it. I was like, “Oh, my God. They didn’t say if I was accepted or not. I don’t know anything.” So I was nervous. I couldn’t sleep. Less than two days later, I got a letter of acceptance. And so did my friend Maria.
Jo Reed: Oh my god, talk about a life changing moment.
Earl Mosley: Oh my god... when that happened, I knew I really wanted to do it. This was something that I’d never dreamt could’ve happened, especially growing up on a little dirt road in Raleigh, North Carolina. I never dreamt it could’ve happened, and dance was something that was actually, like a different language, or something. And so I was intrigued. I was excited. It was bringing me out of my comfort zone. It was a new world of possibilities. Oh, my god.
Jo Reed: And your parents were okay with this…
Earl Mosley: And my parents still didn’t say no. They didn’t say yes, either. They gave me that thing of like, “You decide.” Fast-forward some years. Here I am. I’m in school. I’m doing this, I’m doing that. I get that phone call, unfortunately, from my dad, finally, they voiced their opinion: “We thought you were going to be an accountant. We thought you were going to do this. We thought you were going to do duh duh duh duh duh dah.” By then, I’d made friends who had been doing it for much longer, and told me about Martha Graham, told me about Alvin Ailey, Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor-- all these people that I had no idea of. And I was like, “I want to move to New York,” because everybody was moving to New York. That’s where you go: New York, New York, New York. And then I... bombshell: “I want to move to New York, also.” “What? Are you crazy? You’re going to end up on crack! You’re going to end up on the streets! I thought you were the sane one in the family! We had such high hopes for you!” My father literally said to me, “If you don’t move back home, don’t ever talk to us again. That’s it. I’m done with this.” Hung up the phone.
Jo Reed: <whispers> Wow. What did you do?
Earl Mosley: You know what I did? I had made enough friends through NCSA, because that’s a very well-- it’s a top-ranked school, so students come there from all around the world. I had made friends, a lot of them from New York-- they knew my situation, and some of them were like, “Well, guess what-- you can stay with my uncle here, or you can do this there. There’s that place called the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, you should go study there” They offered me so many suggestions. And again, I wasn’t one to sit around, and... I wasn’t one to let what my father said turn me away, because he’s the one that taught me, when someone tells you can’t do something, do it. So I was applying the lessons that he taught me, and actually, I guess it worked against him, if that’s the case, because I didn’t buckle up. I was like, “No, I want to do this. This is what I’m going to do.”
Jo Reed: So you got to New York—what did you do?
Earl Mosley: Got on scholarship at the Ailey School, which then was the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center. Got on scholarship there-- and I’m summing up a lot of things. Within three weeks of doing that, next thing I know, Sylvia Waters, who was the director at the time, is like, “Earl, how are you doing?” I’m like, “I’m fine.”
Jo Reed: And, Sylvia Waters was director of Ailey II.
Earl Mosley: I didn’t know the lady even knew my name. “I’m fine.” Two days later, she was like, “I want you to be in the company.” Yeah. Yeah. And I was like, “Holy crap!” And... I was floored, you know? She was like, “Go downstairs and rehearse. I need a dancer. Go downstairs and rehearse.” And that set the tone of what would come years later. I met Denise Jefferson,
Jo Reed: And, Denise Jefferson was director of the Ailey School.
Earl Mosley: Right. And her and Sylvia Waters, they gave me a platform where I could say, “Okay, you’re getting paid to do what you love to do, so you can continue to evolve and grow.”
Jo Reed: Do you see that time in New York as foundational in some ways?
Earl Mosley: Yes. Coming to New York was a huge moment in my life. Seeing the Ailey Company, getting into their Junior Company, developing all those relationships with the male dancers in the company, such as Carl Bailey, Gary DeLoatch-- those men, they would see the younger dancers and walk over to us, and, “How’re you doing today?” Or, “You have lunch money?” Or, “Are you going to class?” Or, “Any concerns?” Milton Myers was such a great teacher of mine. He made sure my technique stayed together, and I was disciplined, and I went to class. He opened his-- literally-- his home to me. You know, those types of things really had an impact on me being able to endure those times of the lows-- the low moments, where you could’ve easily have been discouraged, to say, “Okay, you know what? Maybe my dad was right. Maybe I should just go back to North Carolina, and be that accountant that they all think I should be.”
Jo Reed: Yeah. It’s a tough business.
Earl Mosley: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. There are no guarantees, you know? So those moments helped to sustain me, and sustain my desire just to dream about it: being this dancer, this performing artist; the hope that still felt like it was possible. And then, along with those things happening, again, Denise Jefferson and Sylvia Waters, and people like those ladies, were the ones saying, “Okay, now, here’s another-- here’s a little opportunity”-- like a little nugget. “Teach the teenagers. Teach the kids.” Because I think they saw something there, and they were like, “I think you might be good at this, so we want to give you opportunities.” And that’s what started the teaching part of my life. But I had no idea about choreography. I never thought I would be in that seat, of saying, “Okay, now, I’m going to create the dance.” Never-- I was never interested.
Jo Reed: How did that change? How did you get into choreography?
Earl Mosley: Then one day, Denise Jefferson... Denise Jefferson looked at me, and said, “I’m starting a new program here at the school, called the Junior Division. It’s a program for teenagers. And I want you to do their workshop. I want you to choreograph on them.” And my face was like... <inhales> I tried to play it off, but I was terrified. “You want me to choreograph on them?” She said, “Yes, I want you to choreograph on them.” And-- you know, and they were so... <laughs> like mamas, and authoritative, and confident in the way they said anything to you, the only reply was, “Yes, ma’am.” <laughs> So... fast-forward now. The teaching escalated. They trusted me. I always left a good impression, even if I messed up, and I did mess up a lot. I made a lot of mistakes. They reamed me. Don’t get me wrong. They let me have it. And I think, it’s what helped them to trust me even more, because they saw that I was really trying to learn from them disciplining me, as well as them saying, “Okay, now go out and make up a dance,”
Jo Reed: And you began Diversity of Dance pretty early on in your career.
Earl Mosley: Yes.
Jo Reed: It was a professional dance and teaching company -
Earl Mosley: Right.
Jo Reed: What was your thoughts about it? What was your goal?
Earl Mosley: To take all these life lessons and share with them colleagues at the time, who had mutual philosophies and beliefs about diversity, about how we’re all created different, we all come from different life experiences, and that’s a really beautiful thing. And don’t front about it; really... really try our best to express it. It’s okay if we don’t have that same look, whatever that look is. There’s always-- in dance, there’s always an aesthetic. There’s always a look. It’s okay that we actually do look different. It’s okay that we’re not all ballet dancers, or we’re not all modern dancers. But do we have a synergy, do we have a spirit, that brings us together? I think that makes it beautiful. Me and my colleagues at the time, my friends, we all felt that, and so we all said, “Wow. I love dancing with you. So why don’t we just do it?” It was really that simple: “Why don’t we just do it?” And... moving forward from that, next thing I know, we were putting on small concerts in New York City, and got a lot of positive feedback.
Jo Reed: And Diversity of Dance gives birth to the Earl Mosley Institute of the Arts or EMIA—
Earl Mosley: Right, right.
Jo Reed: -- Which has a real focus on teaching. What’s the backstory there?
Earl Mosley: Well, who was knocking on my door again? It’s Sylvia Waters. She’s like, “Well, I have this project that I have happening in Connecticut, and we’re working with seventh-graders, and I want you to come teach and set a small piece on them.” And again, “Yes, ma’am.” It was called Project Poetry Live. And there was a lady there named Vita Muir, who was a saint. She was the one that contracted Sylvia. She loved the way I worked with the middle-school-aged group. She loved the way I work. And she said, “I think that you are really a teacher and I can tell you love young people.” I took that conversation back to friends that were dancing with me and I said, “Guys, what if we take our dancing part of us, and really implement that into teaching, as well, not just dancing? Because we all love kids, so why don’t we reach out?” Hands down, unanimous, everybody agreed.
Jo Reed: And that’s how the Earl Mosley Institute for the Arts was born.
Earl Mosley: Yeah, that’s how it began.
Jo Reed: You know, aside from Hearts of Men, EMIA does dance education of all kinds for mostly underserved kids. And it does residencies and workshops, for teachers, it has residential summer intensives in Connecticut. And recently you developed a program which you call Art Express where you work with three schools and their dance students are eligible for your summer intensive, but then, you send an artist-in-residence and teaching assistants to those schools during the year.
Earl Mosley: Right.
Jo Reed: To work with the kids, so there’s a continuity.
Earl Mosley: Right, right. Well, the thing is, in all honesty, people have said-- and I wish this, as well. I wish EMIA could be a year-round experience. How do you keep that educational component of dance going? Thanks to the NEA, in allowing us to continue for 11 summers now, going on our 12th summer, we are able to have collaborations with these different institutions, like Educational Arts Center in New Haven, Brooklyn High School of the Arts, and Boston Arts Academy. We predominantly work with those three. Our teachers go into Boston to be with them for a week or two, or go into Brooklyn for a week or two, to actually teach, and set rep, and just continue what has started in those four weeks of being in Kent, Connecticut. Just to keep that going. So, it’s a huge plus and I’m happy to be a part of it.
Jo Reed: And, in closing, I think we need to circle back to Hearts of Men, because there’s a performance this weekend. All the guys here for The Hearts of Men intensive, they’re taking classes every day, or they’re rehearsing every day, they’re doing this for two weeks and then they put on a performance— and what a show it is.
Earl Mosley: It’s fascinating. I had no idea the reactions would be as huge as they are. We started the idea in 2011. The culminating performances were held at the Ailey Studios -- 55th Street. The audience-- again, the impact: “Oh, my God” People were crying. “Oh, my God! All these”-- 15, 16 guys. “Oh, my God! They’re dancing! They’re not just lifting; they’re dancing. They’re-- oh, my God! They’re really dancing! We don’t see this too often. Intergenerational-- we don’t see that too often. The diversity of it-- we don’t see that too often. This is great. Do it again!” And now, here we are in 2016, doing it as an intensive-- the third intensive. The first intensive was 2014, here at Montclair. The culminating performances were sold out. They have a thousand-seat theater here-- the proscenium stage at Memorial Auditorium. It was sold out. I was overwhelmed, and that doesn’t happen too often. After the performance, it was like a rock concert. After they performed, I kid you not, the audience went crazy. People stayed here after the performance. I’m not making this up. You can ask Dean Gerkis himself. After the performance, he was one of them. People stayed here, I would say, easily close to two hours in the lobby, still just talking, just celebrating. 2015, we did it at the Ailey School. We had 84 performers. Eighty-four. The same reaction. It was fantastic.
Jo Reed: I think there, we can leave it. I really want to thank you so much
Earl Mosley: Thank you, thank you.
That’s dancer, choreographer, and teacher, Earl Mosley. The Hearts of Men will be performed September 10 and 11 at Montclair State College. For more information go to emiadance.org.
You’ve been listening to Art Works, produced at the National Endowment for the Arts. I'm Josephine Reed. Thanks for listening.
The Earl Mosley Institute of the Arts uses dance to create a community of young men.