HINTON BATTLE DANCE ADADEMY ENRICHMENT PROGRAM
founded by 3x Tony Award Winner Hinton Battle
Hinton Battle
Founder
Three-time Tony Award winner Hinton Battle is recognized as one of Broadway’s most respected musical stars and is an acclaimed dancer, singer, choreographer, producer and writer.
He was scouted by the School of American Ballet and accepted to their prestigious ballet program with a full scholarship under George Balanchine. He debuted on Broadway at the tender age of 15 as the Scarecrow in the musical ‘The Wiz’ to critical acclaim. His career has since spanned over three decades with award winning performances in the most successful musicals in Broadway history - ‘Dancin’, ‘Dreamgirls’, ‘Sophisticated Ladies’, ‘Chicago’, ‘Ragtime’, ‘Miss Saigon’ and ‘The Tap Dance Kid’.
He has appeared in fifteen films and television programs, including the feature film ‘Dreamgirls’ in which he played opposite Jamie Foxx and Beyonce, ‘Touched by an Angel’, ‘Quantum Leap’, ‘Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story’, ’These Old Broads’, ‘Foreign Student’, ‘Touched By An Angel’,“Sweet”, and ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’ and ‘Smash’.
As a choreographer, Hinton’s credits include the 65th and 66th Academy Awards, the feature film ‘Idlewild’ featuring Outkast, - a film for which he created a new dance style called ‘SWOP’ (a fusion of swing and hip-hop styles). Additionally, he has directed and choreographed ballets for the Baltimore School of the Arts, Washington Reflections Dance Company, and Philadanco.
He directed and choreographed the Off-Broadway musicals ‘Respect’, ‘The Marvelous Wonderettes', ‘Evil Dead: The Musical’ and he is currently one of the producers of the hit Off-Broadway show, ‘Sistas: The Musical’, entering its third year at St. Luke’s Theatre in New York City.
He recently added author, producer and director to his list of accomplishments with the musical, ‘Love Lies’. It launched at the 2012 Midtown International Theatre Festival receiving 9 MITF Award nominations and honored with two. A year later, the play launched a cross-country tour, opening at the Warner Theater in Washington, D.C. starring Grammy Award-winners Brian McKnight and Angie Stone.
In 2013, Hinton wrote, directed and choreographed ‘Hinton Battle's American Variety Bang II’ in Osaka, Japan. Appearing with him was a cast of 26 American dancers, singers and musicians. The show, produced by Yoshimoto, played to sold out audience at the NGK Theatre.
Hinton returned to recording with Hinton Battle Meets the Count Basie Orchestra, produced by legendary jazz producer "88". Battle has appeared at NYC’s 54 Below, Caton Castle, among other jazz clubs and recently released his latest jazz CD “Something New”.
in 2016/2017, Battle will be launching three international dance schools in Japan and the U.S., which is slated to be a premier performing arts academy to train future dancers for the global stage.
Battle is the recipient of numerous awards honoring his versatility as an entertainer, among them the NAACP Image Awards, Midtown International Theatre Festival Award, Fred Astaire Awards, Ira Aldridge Awards, the Choreographer Media Honors, Planet Connection Award, the 2012 Champion of the Arts Award from Big Boi’s “Antwan Patten” Big Kidz Foundation, and the Amas 2014 Rosie Award for lifetime achievement in recognition of extraordinary accomplishment in theatrical arts.
TONY AWARDS 1981 TONY AWARDS 1984 TONY AWARDS 1991
"SWEET" BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER CHOREOGRAPHY REEL HINTON & GREGG SOPHIISTACATED LADIES
HINTON & ALFONSO RIBEIRO
TAP DANCE KID
Denise Saunders-Thompson
Associate
Denise Saunders Thompson has extensive experience in non-profit and for-profit, established or start-up organizations. She has advised organizations on administrative, programmatic and fundraising issues including strategic plans, policy and procedures, communications programs, budgeting and contracts. Currently, Denise is the Chairperson/Executive Director for the International Association of Blacks in Dance, a non-profit service organization, President & CEO of D.d.Saunders & Associates, Inc., a comprehensive fine arts advisory firm offering artist management/representation, arts producing, consulting, and production services, and a Professorial Lecturer for the Graduate Arts Management Degree Program at American University. Denise recently concluded 17 years of service at Howard University in the capacities of Professor, Theatre Manager/Producing Artistic Director for the Department of Theatre Arts and Manager of Cramton Auditorium. She is Co-Founder of PlayRight Performing Arts Center, Inc., a non-profit arts organization in Atlanta, Georgia, and former Business Manager for The Malone Group, Inc. a non-profit arts organization in Washington, D.C. that co-produced Black Nativity at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for six years. Denise currently serves on the Board of Trustees for Dance/USA and is a member of Actors Equity Association (AEA), and Women of Color in the Arts (WOCA).
Freelancing in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and across the nation in production and arts management, Mrs. Thompson has held positions at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Debbie Allen Dance Academy, Alliance Theatre Company, National Black Arts Festival, 1996 Olympic Arts Festival, 1996 Olympics, Lincoln Theatre, Several Dancers Core, the Atlanta Dance Initiative, the Mark Taper Forum, the Shakespeare Theatre at the Folger, Harrah’s Marina Hotel Casino as well as other numerous positions. In addition, she is a grant recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts, Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African Art, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and the St. Paul Companies. She holds an M.F.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles in Arts Producing and Management, and a B.F.A. from Howard University in Theatre Arts Administration.
Mrs. Thompson is the proud mother of her 8-year old son, Kellen, and wife to Darrin Thompson, Sr. Denise Saunders Thompson has extensive experience in non-profit and for-profit, established or start-up organizations. She has advised organizations on administrative, programmatic and fundraising issues including strategic plans, policy and procedures, communications programs, budgeting and contracts.
Currently, Denise is the Chairperson/Executive Director for the International Association of Blacks in Dance, a non-profit service organization, President & CEO of D.d.Saunders & Associates, Inc., a comprehensive fine arts advisory firm offering artist management/representation, arts producing, consulting, and production services, and a Professorial Lecturer for the Graduate Arts Management Degree Program at American University. Denise recently concluded 17 years of service at Howard University in the capacities of Professor, Theatre Manager/Producing Artistic Director for the Department of Theatre Arts and Manager of Cramton Auditorium. She is Co-Founder of PlayRight Performing Arts Center, Inc., a non-profit arts organization in Atlanta, Georgia, and former Business Manager for The Malone Group, Inc. a non-profit arts organization in Washington, D.C. that co-produced Black Nativity at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for six years.
Denise currently serves on the Board of Trustees for Dance/USA and is a member of Actors Equity Association (AEA), and Women of Color in the Arts (WOCA).Freelancing in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and across the nation in production and arts management, Mrs. Thompson has held positions at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Debbie Allen Dance Academy, Alliance Theatre Company, National Black Arts Festival, 1996 Olympic Arts Festival, 1996 Olympics, Lincoln Theatre, Several Dancers Core, the Atlanta Dance Initiative, the Mark Taper Forum, the Shakespeare Theatre at the Folger, Harrah’s Marina Hotel Casino as well as other numerous positions. In addition, she is a grant recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts, Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African Art, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and the St. Paul Companies. She holds an M.F.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles in Arts Producing and Management, and a B.F.A. from Howard University in Theatre Arts Administration. Mrs. Thompson is the proud mother of her 8-year old son, Kellen, and wife to Darrin Thompson, S