History often overlooks a wide variety of important figures and stories that never make it into the canon or our collective memory. With the Recentering Narratives Project, Prince Credell, Policy Advisor for Diversity & Inclusion at Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT), is working to shed light on these blind spots within the company’s history. The project aims to complement and enrich the NDT archive by recognising the many multi-racial and multifaceted artists who have graced the NDT stage over the decades.

Rather than highlighting NDT’s past commitment to celebrating difference, the project seeks to acknowledge artists of colour whose creativity and vision have helped shape the company’s artistic identity and the wider dance community. Through the Recentering Narratives Project, their contributions will be named, recognised and shared — not least because many of these former NDT dancers continue to make a profound impact on the art form today.

This October, we honour Philadelphia native Zane Booker, who danced with NDT from 1989-1996. Booker started his career at Philadanco before moving to Europe to join NDT and the Ballet de Monte Carlo. After over a decade, Booker guested with several other companies, including Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project. His career has taken many turns, shaped by both artistry and activism. He forged a parallel life as a choreographer and community-builder in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1990s and early 2000s. Zane later choreographed for Howard University and the University of the Arts, served as a ballet master for Philadanco, and also directed his own artist collective; Smoke, Lillies, and Jade Arts Initiative. From honouring past mentors to creating spaces for non-profit organisations in Philadelphia, his story is one of a kind.

“During my adolescence, my mother began searching for activities for me to pursue. I tried a few sports and playing musical instruments, but none of them really stuck. I also had cousins around my age who started dancing, and that’s how I was introduced to the world of dance. I was about 7 years old when I took my first dance class, a Katherine Dunham-based jazz class at the Philadelphia School of Dance Arts, directed and founded by Joan Myers Brown. Two years later, at 9, I showed up again in the tap dance classes, which I enjoyed!”

“It was from there that I started to build a relationship with dance and mentors like Mrs. Brown, Harold Pierson, and Delores Brown, who persuaded me, class by class, to take on a new dance style. That was how I eventually found myself in ballet and modern dance classes. The school performed at The Academy of Music annually, so I performed a lot as a youngster. My early mentors encouraged my talent, and I was one of the few boys in the programme. Nevertheless, they always assured me that there was more growth and development to be had if I wanted to continue in dance. After all, I was pretty young at that stage in my life, and dance reinforced my ties to family and community.”

“During my early teenage years in Philadelphia, I was fortunate to dance in the Philadelphia Dance Company’s training program (Danco 2) and eventually in the 1st company during high school, where I collaborated with Gene Hill Saigon, Louis Johnson, and Tally Beatty. The training programme took place during the early to mid-afternoon hours. While the 1st company started work from the late afternoon until the evening.”

“I spent a great deal of time observing experienced dancers rehearse Beatty’s masterpiece, Pretty Is Skin Deep, Ugly Is to the Bone, featuring legends like David St. Charles and Deborah Manning, which gave me a close look at how masterful professionals work daily. In the company, I received instruction from Denise Jefferson, Pat Thomas, Marion Cuyjet, Pearl Primus, and Anne-Marie Forsythe, all of whom have influenced my teaching approach today.”

“What drew me more than NDT’s reputation was the dance language, because it was a contemporary language infused with classicism – disciplined yet free. It matched who I was becoming as an artist: someone caught between traditions but eager to shape them into something new and personal. When I first joined NDT 2, I had the fantastic opportunity to be featured in Jean-Christophe Maillot’s work titled After All: a tribute to the dancer of color, Ronald Darden. I also danced the works of many emerging choreographers of the time, such as Ohad Naharin’s Kyr.”

“In the Netherlands, I experienced less apparent racial tension as an American expat, and I learned that racial dynamics differ significantly from place to place, which seems obvious. Still, I had to live through it to experience it for myself, and found a community outside of my dance colleagues, including local queer performers and activists of the time, such as drag performer Nickie Nicole, with whom I organised events and soirees.”

“I felt free living in the Netherlands, and the only real questions I had around race arose when dancing Sarabande, which Jiří created on Jean Emile, who was more senior than I and still dancing in the company. I was fortunate to have the conversation with Jiří around that, which I respected so much because it was really a testament to his integrity, to sit and speak with me about it. I grew so much at NDT, but was so young, and I also experienced injuries when I was promoted from the second company. I spent two years in NDT 2 with Arlette who watched over us, and more than four in NDT 1 with Jiří.”

“My career took many turns before I moved back to Philadelphia. When I moved back, I began choreographing for conservatories, Ballet X, and I remain connected with the artistic team of Philadanco to this day. Alongside my choreographic and teaching endeavors, I developed a deep sense of responsibility to tell stories about my community, to honor the lives lost, and to use dance as a catalyst. As a result, I produced other dance initiatives that were inspired by community and social engagement.”

“Many of my mentors, some of whom I mentioned earlier, were sadly lost to HIV/AIDS in the 1990s, and later in my own work, I felt compelled to create spaces, as well as commemorative performances to honour artists lost during the epidemic. Through my projects, I learned that dance could help communities remember, heal, and unify, especially when there’s trauma experienced in the form of generational loss.”

“Later, as the artistic leader of the Smoke, Lilies and Jade Arts Initiative, we also created a multi-disciplinary work to honor a Black Trans woman who was killed by the police, named Nizah Morris. My grassroots projects were specifically designed to give space to and foreground Black and queer individuals, and I also organised several panel discussions focused on the arts and HIV/AIDS awareness. I saw how dance could link so many artists to various creatives and non-profit networks through engagement. For example, we also collaborated with local churches and The Attic Youth Center, which serves LGBTQIA+ adolescents in the city.”

“What I learned most, I believe, is that giving to community yields significant benefits in terms of mental health, grounding, and sustainable personal support. Community is reciprocal by nature, and its rewards are invaluable when you participate in it actively. Sometimes I doubted leading the social projects because I worried about their success through the “concert dance lens”. Eventually I came to see that the community got behind me and the work, and the projects took on an identity that became meaningful for the Philadelphia community and beyond. I learned to lean into what I did have to contribute: an instinct for performance, the desire to share untold stories and knowledge, and the hunger to keep learning and collaborating with others.”