 |
Deneen Zezell Graham Kerns is a dance teacher and pageant contestant from North Carolina. In 1983 she became the first African-American to win the Miss North Carolina beauty pageant; she remained the only African-American to have won the Miss North Carolina pageant until Alexandra Badgett was crowned in 2019. [1]
Graham was born in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Her parents, Jean and Bobby Graham, were both educators in Wilkes County public schools. [1] [2] She entered the 1983 Miss North Carolina pageant at 19, as Miss Elkin Valley. [3] North Wilkesboro held a Deneen Graham Day two weeks after she received the Miss North Carolina title. [1] Vanessa Williams, winner of the Miss America 1984 title, has said that the Ku Klux Klan threatened to burn a cross on Graham's lawn after she won the North Carolina pageant. [4] [5]
In 1986, she graduated from the North Carolina School of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance. [1] She traveled to the Mediterranean, Far East, and Alaska with the Department of Defense Entertainment Tours, and toured the United States with the first national tour of the musical Heartstrings. [6] She appeared in "Theatre of the Stars" productions of such musicals as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes , South Pacific , Hello, Dolly! , The Music Man , and The Will Rogers Follies . As a performer with the Miss Georgia pageant from 1988–94, she served as co-choreographer and chief choreographer. She was also a member of the Atlanta Hawks Dance Team (Cheerleaders) during the 1994 season; she served as the assistant to the dance team choreographer. [6] She was inducted into the Wilkes County Hall of Fame in 2016.
She is a member of the Dance Masters of America. Many of her students at Carol Walker Dance Academy have received the highest awards in regional and national competitions, and the academy's dance team are currently (as of 2008) National Dance Champions. [6] [7]
| This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources .(June 2017) |
Wilkes County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is a part of the state's western mountain region. As of the 2020 census the population was 65,969. Its county seat is Wilkesboro, and its largest town is North Wilkesboro. Wilkes County comprises the North Wilkesboro, NC Micropolitan Statistical Area.
North Wilkesboro is a town in Wilkes County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 4,131 at the 2020 US Census. North Wilkesboro is the birthplace and original home of Lowe's Home Improvement, which continues to have a major presence in the community. The town is also known as one of the birthplaces of the sport of stock-car racing, and the North Wilkesboro Speedway was the first NASCAR-sanctioned track. Due to the town's proximity to the nearby Blue Ridge Mountains and its numerous tourist venues, North Wilkesboro has been nicknamed the "Key to the Blue Ridge".
Wilkesboro is a town in and the county seat of Wilkes County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 3,687 at the 2020 census. The town is located along the south bank of the Yadkin River, directly opposite the town of North Wilkesboro. Wilkesboro is a Small Town Main Street community and has recently revitalized its historic downtown to include the Carolina West Wireless Community Commons, Wilkes Communications Pavilion, Heritage Square and Splash Pad. Cub Creek Park is adjacent to the downtown and contains many amenities, which include baseball, walking trails, mountain biking trails, trout fishing, dog park, basketball, tennis, and pickleball courts, picnic shelters, etc. Wilkesboro is also the home of the annual MerleFest, Carolina in the Fall, and Brushy Mountain Peach & Heritage festivals.
Miss America is an annual competition that is open to women from the United States between the ages of 18 and 28. Originating in 1921 as a "bathing beauty revue", the contest is now judged on these competition segments with the following scoring percentages: Private Interview (30%) – a 10-minute press conference-style interview with a panel of judges, On Stage Question (10%) – answering of a judge's question while onstage, Talent or HER Story (20%) – a performance talent or 90 second speech, Health and Fitness (20%) – contestants demonstrate physical fitness onstage while dressed in athletic wear, and Evening Gown (20%) – contestants model evening-wear onstage.
Susan P. Stroman is an American theatre director, choreographer, film director and performer. Her notable theater productions include Oklahoma!, The Music Man, Crazy for You, Contact, The Producers, The Frogs, The Scottsboro Boys, Bullets Over Broadway, POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, and New York, New York.
The Miss South Carolina Teen USA pageant is the competition that selects the representatives for the state of South Carolina in the Miss Teen USA pageant. The pageant has been directed by RPM Productions since its inception.
Baayork Lee is an American actress, singer, dancer, choreographer, theatre director, and author.
Wilkes Central High School is a public high school located in Moravian Falls, North Carolina. It is a part of the Wilkes County Schools system. The school's enrollment is typically around 1,000 students. The school's district includes the towns of Wilkesboro and North Wilkesboro as well as the southern regions of Wilkes County. The current principal of the school is Dr. Heather Freeman. Wilkes Central has the largest enrollment of Wilkes County's four public high schools.
Graciela Daniele is an Argentine-American dancer, choreographer, and theatre director.
Lynne Taylor-Corbett is a choreographer, director, lyricist, and composer. She was born in Denver, Colorado.
Miss America 1984, the 57th Miss America pageant, was held at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey on September 17, 1983, on NBC Network. Debra Maffett crowned her successor, Miss New York 1983, Vanessa Williams at the end of the nationally televised event. In July 1984, Williams was forced to resign over the unauthorized publication of nude photographs and was succeeded by first runner-up, Miss New Jersey Suzette Charles, who served as Miss America until September 20, 1984. Among the contestants who did not place among the ten finalists, Miss New Mexico 1983 Mai Shanley, eventually went on to win the Miss USA 1984 title.
Sara Ann Mearns is an American ballet dancer. She is a principal dancer at New York City Ballet.
Vanessa Lynn Williams is an American actress, singer, producer, and dancer. She gained recognition as the first African-American woman to receive the Miss America title when she was crowned Miss America 1984, but resigned her title amid a media controversy surrounding nude photographs of her being published in Penthouse magazine. Thirty-two years later, Williams was offered a public apology during the Miss America 2016 pageant for the events.
Margo Sappington is an American choreographer and dancer. She was nominated in 1975 for both a Tony Award as Best Choreographer and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography for her work on the play Where's Charley?. In 1988, her ballet Virgin Forest was the subject of an award-winning documentary by PBS. In 2005 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award for choreography from the Joffrey Ballet.
Charonne Mose is a Canadian Emmy Award winning Choreographer, Webby Award winning Creative Director and dancer, who now resides in Washington, DC.
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league with teams in the United States and Canada. Nearly every team, with one exception, has a squad of dancers for cheerleading that are usually involved in dancing, charity work, fundraisers, and modeling. However, the #MeToo Movement has resulted in many NBA teams replacing their all-girl dance teams with family-friendly hype teams in recent years.
Molly E. Molloy was an American dancer, choreographer and teacher who worked internationally. She was based in Paris, New York and London and was the originator of the Molloy Technique of Jazz Dance, a form of Modern American Jazz which she notably taught to choreographer Arlene Phillips and her troupe Hot Gossip.
Melanie LaPatin is a United States Professional Ballroom Dance Champion and world-renowned choreographer, best known for her choreography work on Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance" and ABC's "Dancing With the Stars." Originally from Brooklyn, New York, LaPatin formed a professional partnership with Tony Meredith in 1981, marrying him in 1989. Together they traveled the world, competing, coaching, performing, lecturing, choreographing, and represented the United States in twelve Professional World Latin-American Dance Championships, winning over 100 championship titles. LaPatin eventually moved to back to New York to coach and open a Latin and Ballroom dance studio, Dance Times Square.
Shaun Evaristo is a Filipino-American professional dancer and choreographer and currently CEO of Movement Lifestyle, a management company for choreographers. Shaun has taught at dance institutions that are well known by other dancers; amongst those are the Urban Dance Camp in Germany, the Broadway Dance Center in Japan, and Beat Mix in Korea. He has performed for Omarion, High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens and Justin Bieber, and has choreographed several dance routines for J. Lewis, NLT, Travis Garland, Luhan (singer) and for Korean groups Big Bang, 2NE1, Se7en, BTS, and Henry's 1st single, "Trap".Jeon Jungkook also stated that he worked with lifestyle movement before debut.
Vanessa Williams is an American actress, singer, and fashion designer. She initially gained recognition as the first African American winner of the Miss America title when she was crowned Miss America 1984 in September 1983. Several weeks before the end of her reign, however, a scandal arose when Penthouse magazine bought and published nude photographs of Williams. Williams was pressured to relinquish her title and was succeeded by the first runner-up, Miss New Jersey 1983, Suzette Charles. She was the first Miss America to give up her crown. Thirty-two years later, in September 2015, when Williams served as head judge for the Miss America 2016 pageant, former Miss America CEO Sam Haskell made a public apology to her for the events of 1984.