Famed choreographer Debbie Allen to return to Detroit for summer dance intensive

Famed actress and dance choreographer Debbie Allen will return to Detroit this July to oversee the fourth year of The Carr Center’s summer dance intensive program, and auditions take place this weekend.

The program is one of few opportunities outside of Los Angeles for students ages 8 to 21 to train with Allen, one of the country’s most revered African-American dance innovators and founder of L.A.’s Debbie Allen Dance Academy.

Auditions will be held Sunday, May 15 at the Detroit School of the Arts, 123 Selden St., from noon to 4 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Allen is a five-time Emmy winner, perhaps best known for playing dance instructor Lydia in the 1980s musical drama “Fame.”

Under Allen’s direction, choreographer Rasta Thomas will serve as director, and will lead Sunday’s auditions.

Detroit's Carr Center at 30: 'We want to take the African American culture to the world'

Flashback: After a year filled with losses, Carr Center emerges with new homes and a new outlook

Oliver Ragsdale, Jr., Carr Center president and CEO, said Allen will come to Detroit to work with students during the intensive that takes place in July.

“It’s literally an intensive,” he said, “meaning they start at eight in the morning, they finish at five every day, and they dance all day except for lunch. They take four to five classes a day, and they cover all the dance styles — jazz, tap, Katherine Dunham technique, ballet, hip-hop, musical theater, African. They experience all those things.”

“The Carr Center is one of the most vibrant art centers in the United States,” Allen told the Free Press via e-mail. “The opportunities and commitment to young people speaks volumes."

Allen, who's led the program in the past, returns as the Carr Center celebrates 30 years. 

Registration for Sunday’s auditions costs $25 and can be found here.