Philadelphia Dance Projects presents Putty Dance Project’s Dance Like it’s 1829

This show, which ran April 30-May 2 at Christ Church Neighborhood House as part of Philadelphia Dance Projects’ (PDP) Dance Up Close 2026 program, honored the extraordinary professional musician and Philadelphian Francis “Frank” Johnson (1792-1844). A multi-instrumentalist, composer, band leader, and teacher, Johnson pioneered racially integrated music groups and concerts, according to Penn’s University Archives. He was the first African American to publish sheet music and the first Black musician to tour Europe with a band.

Uncovering, not reenacting

Johnson’s compositions form the foundation of Dance Like It’s 1829. A collaboration between Lauren Putty White, a dancer and choreographer, and her husband Brent White, a trombonist and composer, the performance reimagined 19th-century music to bring history to life. Six dancers performed original choreography to music by Johnson, arranged by White and Nate Harrison and played live by Farid Barron on piano, Richard Hill on bass, Josh Lawrence on trumpet, Doug Hirlinger on drums, and White on trombone. The show highlighted dance as a timeless, accessible mode of communication, connection, and empowerment. Together with music, dance offers joy and belonging that transcend race, class, and bias.

The work achieves this by emphasizing the spirit of the music and the long history of interdependence between music and dance, which together shape American culture. Dance Like It’s 1829 “seeks not to reenact the past, but to uncover it,” explained Putty White.

Rooted in history and resistance

The audience entered to recordings of Johnson’s music and projections of historical documents, rooting the performance in the world of its inspiration. Fascinating images ranged from 19th-century sheet music to lithographs depicting American dance culture, including racially segregated balls. One depicted people in chains, reminding viewers that human enslavement coexisted with the era’s dances and ornate fashions.

Yet the dancers set a modern scene with a party atmosphere, greeting one another as they entered and watching from bar tables instead of leaving the stage when not dancing. Janessa Urwin’s costumes resembled contemporary party attire, with garments in bright pink, pale blue, and vivid green popping against black ones. Gold brocade and military accents nodded to the work’s inspiration. Johnson, the leader of a popular military band, composed patriotic music honoring American military history, naming compositions for figures like George Washington and General Lafayette.

Meanwhile, “Liberty” is Johnson’s arrangement of the French revolutionary anthem “La Marseillaise”. Jazzy and syncopated, the band’s rendition of “Liberty” traced a line from the French Revolution to the American Revolution, Civil War, Harlem Renaissance, and civil-rights movement, up to current battles for justice and equality. A distinct element of African American music influenced by African rhythms, syncopation intentionally disrupts. Two male dancers, Joe González and Victor Lewis Jr., complemented the music, punctuating balances and spins with syncopated steps. The way they moved together and shared each other’s weight suggested the mutual aid necessary for resistance and change in times that demand disruption.

Visual and musical distinction

Divided into sections set to eight works of music, Dance Like It’s 1829 established visually and sonically distinct scenes. Putty White’s choreography, developed in collaboration with the dancers, seamlessly connected dance styles from a range of cultures and time periods. Though technically a waltz, “General Lafayette’s Favorite” paired elements of contemporary social dance with layered, up-tempo music. Ballet and jazz met street dance in “Tom and Jerry”, and “Alice” was a luminous solo for Putty White. She filled the stage with artistic energy as she blended flowing arm movements with lightning-fast footwork. Fellow dancers, watching Putty White from the tables by the band, made admiring faces and gestures that reflected the audience’s response.

Dancers worked well together throughout, forming a strong, cohesive ensemble. Each is connected to the greater Philadelphia dance scene, with ties to area companies and university dance programs, and it would be great to see this particular ensemble on stage again. “Love in a Village” made full use of the space’s depth with inventive, varied movement and an especially compelling pairing. González and Sarah Warren, two tall, impressively coiffed dancers, fed off each other’s energy in a duet punctuated by Warren’s soaring kicks.

Philadelphia movements

Dance Like It’s 1829 showcased the past and present of Philly music and dance in equal parts. And it highlighted the importance of the Black traditions that continue to shape American arts and culture. Frank Johnson’s career provides a case study of Black artistic excellence in Philadelphia decades before the United States abolished human enslavement or granted African American men the right to vote. His tunes remain bangers perfect for dance, with layers of complexity that algorithms and AI cannot generate. As PDP director Terry Fox put it, Johnson’s popularity in the 1800s “reminds us that Philadelphia’s story has always been told through motion.”

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