{"id":11729,"date":"2021-06-01T14:51:31","date_gmt":"2021-06-01T14:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/?p=11729"},"modified":"2025-04-21T07:16:23","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:16:23","slug":"richard-moten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2021\/06\/01\/richard-moten\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Moten"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Richard Moten<\/h2>\n

Capitol Ballet (ca. 1968-1977)
\nJoan Kerr Dance Company
\nPhiladelphia Civic Ballet: Soloist (ca. 1976-1989)
\nPhiladanco<\/h2>\n
\"\"
Photo via the Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em>, 1989.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
Born ca. 1950, Richard Moten spent most of his career dancing in Philadelphia. With the Capitol Ballet, Moten performed as one of the \u201cIndian Braves\u201d in <\/span>Pocahontas<\/span><\/i> at the Cramton Auditorium of Howard University on May 31, 1968; in Doris Jones\u2019 <\/span>Asha No. 1 <\/span><\/i>at the National Museum of Natural History on June 27, 1969; at the Henderson A. Johnson Gymnasium of Fisk University on April 22, 1970; and in Hinton Battle\u2019s <\/span>Hinty<\/span><\/i> at the Lisner Auditorium during the 1976\/1977 season. <\/span><\/div>\n
In the early 1970s, Moten danced as a member of a modern dance company, the Joan Kerr Dance Company. He then joined Philadelphia Civic Ballet ca. 1976, and the Philadelphia Daily News<\/em> states that Moten was a soloist with the company. It was at PCB that he started choreographing; in 1978, Philadelphia\u2019s Channel 3 televised A Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.<\/em>, for which Moten created a piece set to music by Stevie Wonder. He also choreographed More Miles Per Gallon<\/em> in 1980, described as \u201ca statement through jazz movement of transferring today\u2019s hard economic times into constructive energies\u201d by The Morning News<\/em>, and Point of Reference<\/em>, performed by Philadanco in 1992.<\/div>\n
Moten most likely left Philadelphia Civic Ballet in 1989, as there is no evidence of his performances with the company following this year, and became a member of Philadanco, where he danced in the early 1990s.*<\/div>\n
\n

Moten seemed to be much appreciated and often featured in the companies with which he danced, and The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em> called the dancer \u201ctall\u201d and \u201cgraceful.\u201d<\/p>\n

*Note that there are varying records of the time period in which Moten danced with Philadanco\u2014<\/span>Joan Myers Brown and the Audacious Hope of the Black Ballerina <\/span><\/i>states that he was with the company before 1975.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bancroft steps up to dance program, The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/a>
\nPlanting seeds of nourishment for the arts, The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/a>
\nShow Notes, Philadelphia Daily News<\/a>
\nBallet set for King show, The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/a>
\nCircus, shows, concerts are coming to the area, The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/a>
\nSome winners across the river, The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/a>
\nEvents, The Morning News<\/a>
\nModern Dance Not Void of Sex, The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/a>
\nThe Washington Post<\/span><\/i>, 30<\/span>th<\/span> May 1968, p. C6\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nThe Tennessean<\/span><\/i>, 23th April 1970, p. 37<\/span>
\nDixon Gottschild, Brenda, et al. Joan Myers Brown and the Audacious Hope of the Black Ballerina: A Biohistory of American Performance<\/em>. United States, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Richard Moten Capitol Ballet (ca. 1968-1977) Joan Kerr Dance Company Philadelphia Civic Ballet: Soloist (ca. 1976-1989) Philadanco Born ca. 1950, Richard Moten […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dancers"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11729"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16034,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11729\/revisions\/16034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}