SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE -- Among them is Oakland dancer Blanche Brown, 78 when she participated in the documentary and 82 now, and still teaching a weekly dance class at San Francisco’s ODC.
“I can’t see myself stopping,” Brown says. “I’ve tried to retire four times. I look so forward to Friday night. The drumming and the dancing and the students.”
Brown, the wife of former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown (still married, though long separated), started her journey late. She was a 35-year-old housewife when she started studying dance at San Francisco State, but just as she doesn’t let age stop her now, she didn’t let it stop her then. With an emphasis on African and Haitian dance, her art has taken her all over the world as a performer and a teacher.
Photo by Sky Bergman