The American Spirit Dance Company of Oklahoma City University, directed by Jo Rowan, will dazzle audiences March 9, 10, and 11 with the 19th Annual Spring Show. The company, comprised of students at OCU's Margaret E. Petree College of Music and Performing Arts, School of American Dance and Arts Management, will bring the Kirkpatrick Auditorium stage to life with its toe-tapping, show-stopping numbers.

This year's revue features audience favorites such as "We're in the Money," "Crapshoot," and "Almost Like Being in Love." The dancers will warm hearts with "Let There Be Peace on Earth," "Letter to Sarah," and "Why God Why." The aerobic men's number, "Classically Hip" and the lyrical "I Can't Stand the Rain" display both the artistic and technical capabilities of OCU dancers. The American Spirit Spring Show truly offers something for everyone.

At the conclusion of the evening performance on Saturday, March 11, the School of American Dance and Arts Management will continue its tradition of honoring the founders and supporters of indigenous American dance. Jo Rowan and John Bedford, dance department chairman and dean, respectively, will present the "Living Treasure in American Dance Award" to tap dance great Leonard Reed, inventor of the Shim Sham Shimmy. Reed, age 92, has worked in show business as a producer, manager, and impresario, in addition to having a distinguished performing career.

Additionally the "Preservation of Our Heritage - American Dance Awards" will be presented to Jacqui Malone and Robert Reed. Malone, an expert in African-American vernacular dance, has recently authored "Steppin' On the Blues." Reed is founder, artistic director, and producer of the St. Louis Tap Festival, the St. Louis Hoofers' Club, and the Robert Reed Tap Heritage Institute Inc.

OCU's School of American Dance and Arts Management began presenting the "Living Treasure in American Dance Award" in 1989.

"We created it in an obvious moment of opportunity to honor the creators of these dance styles," Rowan said. "The 16th Century inventors of ballet are no longer with us, but many people who created tap and jazz are still alive."

The Chinese tradition of honoring leading artists while they are still living serves as the inspiration behind the "Living Treasure Award," which is given for significant contribution to American dance and dance education. Past honorees include Tommy Sutton (1989), Al Gilbert (1990), Gus Giordano (1991), Honi Coles (1992), Maceo Anderson (1993), Peg Leg Bates (1994), Henry LeTang (1995), Harold Cromer (1996), Buster Brown (1997), Jimmy Slyde and Dianne Walker (1998), and Cholly Atkins (1999).

The first "Preservation of Our Heritage Dance Award" was presented in March 1999 to Melba Huber and Sali Ann Kriegsman. The award honors those who have supported American dance through their advocacy.

"It is through their diligence and dedication that American dance remains in the hearts and minds of the American public and the world," Bedford said.

The 2000 "Living Treasure in American Dance" honoree Leonard Reed is a multi-talented performer whose career has run the gamut in show-business: dancer, producer, comedian, songwriter, arranger, master of ceremonies, choreographer, band leader, and director. Starting in 1992, his special gift of limitless talent and energy have taken him on an odyssey from medicine shows to carnival and circuses, from burlesque and vaudeville, to Broadway's Palace Theatre, all the way to London's Palladium and beyond.

Partnered with emcee and comedian, Willie Bryant, Reed played all the major U.S. theatres, performing comedy and dance routines. It was during this tour that the dance called the "Shim Sham Shimmy" was created. The Shim Sham remains an institution among tap dancers. Reed is the only living producer of the world famous Cotton Club, which starred performers Lena Horne, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, and the Nicholas Brothers, to name a few.

Reed also wrote for several shows, created comedy acts, and produced revues. He appeared on the acclaimed Ed Sullivan Show and starred in the long running musical Sweet and Hot. A songwriter as well, Reed has written and arranged music for Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Chick Webb, Lionel Hampton, and his wife, Barbara DeCosta.

Currently, Reed travels the nation, teaching master tap classes and his famous "Shim Sham Shimmy." He was recently given a Lifetime Achievement Award at a ceremony in Los Angeles, hosted by Dick Clark. He and his wife also operate Barblen Productions where Leonard is still doing what he does best: writing, arranging, and producing arts for the new millennium of rising stars.

Robert L. Reed, also a recipient of the 2000 "Preservation of Our Heritage Award," is founder, artistic director, and producer of the St. Louis Tap Festival, the St. Louis Hoofer's Club, and the Robert L. Reed Tap Heritage Institute Inc. He is on the panel for the Missouri Arts Council and was named the official tap master for Missouri by the Columbia University Missouri Folk Arts Program. Reed is a protege of Maceo Anderson, an original and only living member of the Fabulous Four Step Brothers. He has toured with Cab Calloway, was the featured dancer at the legendary Peg Leg Bates Country Club, and can be seen in the documentary "Dancing With the Peg."

Reed has opened for such luminaries as Sammy Davis Jr., Jerry Lewis, Cher, Liberance, Redd Foxx, David Hasselhoff, The Smothers Brothers, The Temptations, and The Dramatics. He was a featured performer at the Conde Duque with legendary drummer Panama Frances in Madrid, Spain. He also performed with famed dance choreographer Michael Peters in Rome, Italy, and was a featured performer in Nagoya, Japan; Frankfurt, Germany; Monte Carlo, Switzerland; and New Zealand. He consults for several festivals, choreographs and teaches worldwide. August 3 has been designated "Robert L. Reed Tap Heritage Day in St. Louis" by the Honorable Mayor Clarence Harmon. Reed recently toured the U.S., performing in Riverdance.

Jacqui Malone, also a recipient of the 2000 "Preservation of Our Heritage Award," is a dance historian, associate professor in the Queens College Department of Theater and Dance and a former member of the Eleo Pomare Dance Company. In 1987, she began extensive research on African-American vernacular dance with particular emphasis on black vocal groups, historically black college marching bands, and black sorority and fraternity song and dance rituals. "Steppin on the Blues: The Visible Rhythms of African American Dance" (University of Illinois Press) is a culmination of that study and was selected by "Choice" magazine as an outstanding academic book of 1997. The de la Torre Bueno Prize Committee of the Dance Perspective Foundation awarded "Steppin' On the Blues" a special citation which stated: "Malone's sophisticated weave of history, social anthropology, and dance sets a new standard for the field." Her forthcoming book, "Class Act: The Life of Cholly Atkins" is currently in production at the University of Illinois Press.

She has served as member of the Performing Arts Advisory Committee, Center for African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution; the Dance Archives Study Committee, which was formed in 1990 to coordinate the documentation and preservation of dance in the United States; and for three years has been a member of the Jazz Study Group at Columbia University. In 1994, she was a principal advisor and panel moderator for the Smithsonian tribute to Cholly Atkins, "From Tap to R & B: Celebrating choreographer Cholly Atkins" and program designer and moderator for "Jazz at Lincoln Center's Dancers and Big Bands," which featured Marion Coles, Buster Brown, Cholly Atkins, and LeRoy Myers.

Malone, who has lectured at numerous colleges and museums, is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Ford Foundation Individual Grant, a Scholar-In-Residence Fellowship (Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture), three PSC-CUNY Research Awards (The Research Foundation, the City University of New York), and a Presidential Research Award (Queen College.)

During intermission of the shows on Friday, March 10 at 8 pm, and Saturday, March 11 at 2 pm and 8 pm, Malone will be on-hand to autograph copies of her book, "Steppin' on the Blues," in the lobby of Kirkpatrick Auditorium in the Kirkpatrick Fine Arts Building. Michael Allen, author of "How to Make It in Musicals," will sign copies of his book as well. Both "Steppin' on the Blues" and "How to Make It in Musicals" are available at the OCU bookstore and may be ordered through amazon.com.

As a choreographer and dancer, Michael Allen has staged critically acclaimed productions of Annie, The Wiz, A Chorus Line, 42nd Street, and Evita, and has worked with such legendary performers as Jerry Lewis, Sammy Davis Jr., and Milton Berle, to name a few. He was featured at New York's Tap Extravaganza, honoring legends Gene Kelly, Ann Miller, and his mentor and friend, Maceo Anderson. As artistic director of "Kids to Go" in Colorado Springs, he gives diverse and exciting musical theatre programs for children 8 to 12. He is also the owner of a studio specializing in musical theatre and has coached numerous students as a performing arts consultant and dance teacher.