OVERexpressed & OUT features Antoinette Coward-Gilmore
Dancer & choreographer talks crab legs, artistry, and professionalism
Antoinette M. Coward-Gilmore is the Founder, CEO and Artistic Director of Danse4Nia, Philadelphia’s premiere arts organization that is the home to professional project-based dance company Phoenix Danse, youth dance company Nia-Next and arts education/ performing arts training program Danse4Nia Conservatory.
A native Philadelphian, Coward-Gilmore began her dance training in 1985 at The New Freedom Theatre founded by John E. Allen Jr. and Robert E. Leslie Sr. under the dance direction of Patricia Scott Hobbs and later, continued her studies at the Franklin Learning Center under Master Lester Horton Technique Teacher, the late Faye B. Snow. She later earned a BFA in Dance from the University of the Arts and an MA in Dance Education and Performance from the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University.
As a dancer who was the last generation of LEJA Dance Theatre in Philadelphia and briefly a member of Philadanco II, Coward-Gilmore was a founding company member of Philadelphia’s Eleone Dance Theatre before moving to New York to dance with the Forces of Nature Dance Theatre Company touring nationally and internationally.
Coward-Gilmore is a seasoned choreographer who has choreographed for The Philadelphia Theatre Company, Camden Repertory Theatre, recording artist Kashiash, Prince Music Theatre’s Rainbow Company/ Youth Arts In Action and countless youth, dance and arts programs. She has taught at Harlem School of the Arts, Kimmel Center for Performing Arts, Norfolk State University, University of the Arts, Coppin State University, Grambling State University, Temple University and currently teaching artist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and adjunct dance faculty at Drexel University since 2010.
Notably, she is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., the Actor’s Equity Association, Dance Scholars Association, the International Association of Blacks In Dance, Collegium of African Dance On The Diaspora, Women of Color in the Arts, Dance Studies Association and she serves as chair for the Social Justice Committee of the Pennsylvania Dance Educators Organization (PaDEO).
Antoinette’s Poem for Reflection:
Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou from And Still I Rise (Penguin Random House, 1978) Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size But when I start to tell them, They think I’m telling lies. I say, It’s in the reach of my arms, The span of my hips, The stride of my step, The curl of my lips. I’m a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That’s me. I walk into a room Just as cool as you please, And to a man, The fellows stand or Fall down on their knees. Then they swarm around me, A hive of honey bees. I say, It’s the fire in my eyes, And the flash of my teeth, The swing in my waist, And the joy in my feet. I’m a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That’s me. Men themselves have wondered What they see in me. They try so much But they can’t touch My inner mystery. When I try to show them, They say they still can’t see. I say, It’s in the arch of my back, The sun of my smile, The ride of my breasts, The grace of my style. I’m a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That’s me. Now you understand Just why my head’s not bowed. I don’t shout or jump about Or have to talk real loud. When you see me passing, It ought to make you proud. I say, It’s in the click of my heels, The bend of my hair, the palm of my hand, The need for my care. ’Cause I’m a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That’s me.