BLACKS IN DANCE CONFERENCE DRAWS RECORD CROWDS.

This year's International Association of Blacks in Dance Conference and Celebration in San Diego put youth in the spotlight. Indeed, this service organization for companies and people of African descent is increasingly attracting student dancers to its ranks. The conference offers prime networking opportunities, and participants grabbed at everything the fourteenth annual conference (January 18-21) had to offer, including panel discussions, performances, auditions and master classes, from Hollywood hip-hop to Katherine Dunham technique.

"I think it's been absolutely fabulous," said Lisa Jones, 19, a student at Virginia Commonwealth University, while waiting for the start of a panel about touring. "I've gotten to talk to people you only see in magazines."

Among the master teachers and speakers were Donald McKayle, Carmen de Lavallade, Karen Brown, Ron K. Brown and Chuck Davis, who led a master class from midnight to 3 A.M. on the first night of the event.

About 700 people registered for the conference, the largest number ever by nearly half. Entitled "2001 Dance Odyssey, A Journey Through Poetry in Motion," the event was hosted by Sandra Foster-King, artistic director of a San Diego dance troupe called Foster-King Dance Collection.

Two performances (one sold out) at the East County Performing Arts Center in nearby El Cajon featured Los Angeles's Lula Washington Dance Theater, Ronald K. Brown/Evidence (which brought down the house), Philadanco, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance and others.

Joan Myers Brown, artistic director of Philadanco and a founder of the IABD, said the size of this year's event and the educational opportunities offered for young people were key. But she and other IABD board members want to refocus attention back on the organization's original goal--to provide support for the black dance companies, which struggle with "acute racism in funding ... and presenting patterns."

The board decided that next year's meeting in New York will be devoted to reevaluating the needs of the organization and its constituency. In an effort to keep next year's event focused on those goals, IABD Executive Director Bonnie Bing said the 2002 conference will feature workshops and panels, but no performances. In addition, to increase membership, the 2002 conference will be open only to IABD members, a change from this year. Said Brown: "Something like this tends to take on a life of its own, and we don't want our life to get away from us."

Foster-King said she was crying "internal tears" of joy at the large turnout, which exceeded expectations and strained resources at times. "I knew that San Diego was missing a certain kind of dance that exists only in the culture of black people in dance," she said.