Fifty-eight years after one of the most well-known modern dancers was born here in Arkansas, her professional dance company is performing in the Natural State for the first time. It's the story of the Little Rock Nine set to movement.

(Lula Washington, Lula Washington Dance Theater) “In that piece, it's sort of based on a book by Daisy Bates.”

The dancers make up the Lula Washington Dance Theater, a Los Angeles-based company. The group's namesake was born in England, Arkansas in 1950. Five years later, her family moved to California.

She didn't start dancing until she was 22, and was nearly kicked out of a dance class at UCLA.

(Washington) “She came over to me and said, ‘You don't have a clue about anything that you're doing.’ And I said, ‘No, but I really want to do it, really bad.’ And she said, ‘I see that you're trying so hard, what I'd like for you to do is promise come to all of my ballet classes, and the modern classes, and then I'll let you be in the class and productions.’ So I promised that I would--and I did.”

And she never stopped. For nearly 30 years, Lula has run one of the most acclaimed dance companies and schools in California, and is now back home to share her passion with Arkansans.

(Washington) “I look at it like this: I don't have any physical wealth to give for anything. All I have is what I do, and I do dance. And so I can share that dance. And what I've learned is that the dances that I create can make a difference.”

The Lula Washington Dance Theater will perform at Reynolds Hall on the UCA campus in Conway, Thursday and Friday night at 7:30 p.m.

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