For 10 years Dance & Bmore has been providing opportunities for aging communities throughout Baltimore to move, laugh, sing, and thrive by being creative and connected. During this time of separation and social distancing we have transitioned our Elder Arts Wellness program to a virtual interactive class for 65 yrs + We also have an archive of Youtube videos on DanceandbmoreTV featuring the Dance & Bmore Elder Ensemble AKA Forever Fit & Fun Club!

I started creating programming specifically for Seniors in 2011. We called our first program the Mid Day Cabaret at the Waxter Center for Senior Citizens on Cathedral. I then became a repeat guest artist for the Village Learning Center Senior Tea. I had a short season of classes at the reopened 29th St community center before beginning our year long series at the J Van Story Branch.

During the April 2015 uprising the first question that came to my mind was how are the Seniors in the community? Who is checking in on them? I spent the spring gathering friends to help me visit senior Centers in West Baltimore doing music and movement for stress relief because they really needed it. Their blood pressure was up, their nerves were on edge and some of the sweetest older ladies you know had taken up cursing again after many year of abstinence.

Under the direction of Artistic Director CJay Philip, the Dance & Bmore ensemble creates a dynamic yet playful fusion of dance, poetry, live vocals and original music. Their rich and theatrical perfromance style engages audiences while heightening their social awareness.

Five pieces on video which include choreography, some original music and spoken word by CJay Philip:

1. The Birth; exploring the idea of a second birth. When is your creativity born? How is it nurtured and does it relate to community, conflict and lose.

2. Be More or Less; takes a painfully honest look at body image, personal examination and ownership.

3. Present Tense; a poem someone gave me written by a 14 year old boy...profound wisdom at such a young age intrigued me.

4. We Need You was inspired by a new play premiered at Centerstage and highlights the desire for the father figures or our lives at every stage of our own feminine evolution and/or revolution.

5. The piece 5 Minutes originally done in 2007 was set on Dance & Bmore for their debut concert May 2011

Some of my greatest memories in the theater are shared with Baltimore Youth. They are strong, passionate, talented and resilient. I learn as much from them as they do from me. As founding director of the Childrens Production Compnay at the Gordon Center we creative classic Musical along with new works. 

As wirter/director/choreographer of Voices of Carmen CJay was able to bring this original work to the USA in 2019.

VOICES OF CARMEN is a musical adaptation of the opera Carmen set in a High School. The musical brings a contemporary spin to this iconic story that's filled with fresh yet familiar renditions of George Bizet’s compositions, as well as a dozen original songs, from Pop to Hip Hop and R&B, written and arranged by CJay and Winston Philip. This vibrantly staged and choreographed piece examines escalating conflict among young people. This production hopes to serve as a catalyst for community dialogue and improved emotional health and awareness, while providing resources for conflict resolution.

Yes FazaFam Family Jam is fun, it's bonding it's convenient to combine family time and family fitness but to so many families we serve it's so so much.

I'm my mothers child. A social worker and community activist, my mom showed us by example that community matters, being there for one another, helping out with the little things created a sense of family. Our family life was far from perfect. My earliest memories of my father were centered around violence, abuse alcoholism and neglect. Those are memories I can't erase and it took a toll on all my siblings especially my older brother who saw more than I ever did as the youngest.

Parents are people and they make mistakes. I can only imagine the list of things my father wished he'd done better. I met my father 12 years later as a sober man... I was surprise. He was nervous, open and funny man, he was real funny. He had a lady friend who was warm and as nice as could be and he love fishing and told me all about. He took me fishing with him and his buddies a few times. No drinking just fishing and hanging with my dad teaching me how to bait a hook and the best place to throw a line. I love those memories. And I appreciate him reaching out to take the time to create New memories for us. They couldn’t take away my first memories of him but imagine if those first were the only memories I had.

I believe for some families our program is a healing agent, a place to produce memories that are happy, healthy and freeing of guilt, shame and blame. We create a safe space to make fresh new memories and although they sometime lay over top of scars they are still there and once great memories are real, no one can take them away.

The idea of creating an online entertainment news series came about in the Fall of 2011. I was at a round table about marketing and cross promotion in the arts community. The use of social media and traditional paper media was discussed for a while then I raised my hand and asked " What about television" you would have thought I dropped a stink bomb or something. I mean the face making, moaning and complaining was so deep. What I heard was disappointment and frustration. The feeling of being used as filler if theirs nothing better to report on and God forbid a storm or a scandal comes up cause then your "Bumped".

I went home and told my husband how hopeless these art professionals where about seeing themselves and their efforts aired regularly in a news media formate. I don't even think they saw themselves the way I did at the time but faithlessness was screaming a me and sucking the life out of the room. I walked home that day to clear my head. Artists are some of the most faithful people on the planet, believing in the unseen, having hope in the face of hopeless situation and taking seemingly nothing and turing it into something creative and magical. When we loose our ability to dream beyond what we see in the present, we are loosing the very soil that art grows from.

I decided to dream for all the broken spirits I felt in that room and day dreams turn to sketches on note pads and formats and catch phrases until the right one came out. The Baltimore Arts Scene...yeah that's what it will be. It's not about a show but about an energy and life that already exist and we are just capturing it to show it to people who maybe have never scene it before. I feel like one of those documentary scientist on National Geographic capturing mystical creatures in their natural habitat and sharing their stories and history in hopes they will not become extinct.

In 2012 as I watched in amazement at the development and growth of Station Norths Arts and Entertainment District I found myself wondering over and over again about the tallest building in the neighborhood and what was happening inside. 11 W 20th Street has 26 floors and the awning outside says J Van Story Branch Apartments for Seniors. That's what it was 20 years ago but today its a mixed population of Seniors and disabled of all ages. No children except for the occasional grandchild paying a visit. I paid my first visit to meet with the building manager to find out more about the residences. I was curious what it was like for them to see the development in their neighborhood and if they had any personal connection to the creativity sprouting up all around them. My first visit was an eye opener from the front desk person who literally would not look up to acknowledge or address me through a thick (possibly bullet proof) glass, to arm officers in the lobby with guns and bullet proof vest. I found out that day that in the state of Maryland disable includes recovering attics and unfortunately where you have recovery you also have dealers lingering to make their product readily available to anyone falling off the wagon. I also found out how vulnerable and depressing it had become for the seniors living there and how little programming they had. So I decided along with one of my dancers to do a free movement and music class for those 55yeras and older. They loved it. We sang we danced we shared stories and gave hugs and afterward I went to my car and sat there and cried. It was so hard to leave because I thought, I would never want to leave my mother to live out her last days in a place like that. So I came back and I brought friends and volunteer groups and every few months for over a year I would visit the Van Branch seniors and to make music and move together. Eventually someone caught wind of what I was up to and asked if I would like to be part of a community grant. I said yes and we won. I also say if you wait for the funding you'll never do the good you ought to do. Trust and believe that what you do has value and eventually other people will believe as you do and put a price tag on what you already knew was worth something.

Seoul to Soul Fest - Baltimore
Carmen a Bigger Bounce - Zurich Switzerland

CJay Philip, Dance & Bmore presents a new work that is part music concert, part theatrical production, part concert dance and All The Way Live! The live band and live singers and dancers set in a live radio broadcast debut an album of new music written by CJay that will take you back to what you love most about a live concert jam.

Voices & Choices premiere May of 2012 and continues evolve. Originally a structure improve piece paring poets with dancers who would embody their spoken word. I continued to discuss and explore with the company the voices that we each have in our own heads that influence the choices we make every day.

We wanted to allow the audience to participate in the piece bringing their own voice to words they chose or poetry pieces they'd read and see the influence their words make on the movement of the dancers or singer. We've also added improvisational singing to create songs, sounds and feelings from words chosen at random out of a small clay jar. It's as exciting for me as the singer as it is for the dancers and the audience because no one truly knows whats we will create together :-}

CJay Philip directed a new play by Max Garner based on the iconic fame and tragic death of Marvin Gaye. Marvin's Trial premiered at MICA's BBox Theatre in Dec of 2012 and was presented at the 2013 D.C. Black Theatre Festival. Both productions were a tremendous success.

Multidisciplinary Aspect- After thinking up the role of Music who's lines where all sung not spoken, CJay and the newly cast singer DeMerris had to come up with a vocal sound track that match the jumps in time period and style throughout the piece. As an added but subtle time indicator CJay designed the workshop costume plot with actors in shades of grey until 1969 but 1970 on all costumes were in color. This was not an easy task as the play was not at all linear but the talented cast rose to the challenge. CJay also wove accents of creative movement throughout.