| Summary: | Dancer and dance company director Joan Gray was born on July 29, 1949 in Chicago, Illinois, as one of eight children. After high school, Gray attended North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. She then worked as an administrative assistant at South Shore Bank in Chicago. A 1977 meeting with a drummer pointed Gray to Muntu Dance Theatre which was founded in 1972 to give artists an opportunity to express their African heritage and performed around the world to give displays of traditional African, Caribbean and American dances. In 1984, Gray became a dancer for the company, and in 1987, she was named president of the theater where she served for decades. She continued to dance with the theater until 1991. Gray was active with a number of organizations, serving as a board member with the African American Arts Alliance, the International Association of Blacks in Dance and the Chicago Dance Coalition.
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