2008 Series Choreographers

Shani Nwando Ikerioha Collins (SNIC), a New York based visual performance artist, native of Greensboro, North Carolina. Holds a Master of Arts degree from Hollins University/American Dance Festival and a Bachelors of Art in Dance from Hollins University, where she was mentored and inspired by Donna Faye Burchfield. Collins spent a year studying dance, music and theatre at the University of North London and has received the Martha Myers Choreography Award from American Dance Festival. She has performed with Urban Bush Women, Bill T. Jones, Nathan Trice/RITUALS, David Dorfman, and Marlies Yearby among others. SNIC's Eternal Works has been commission and performed at Dance Theatre Workshop, Judson Church, Lincoln Theater, Aaron Davis Hall, Hollins University, Long Island University's Kumble Theater, Dixon Place, St. Marks Church, The Ailey School, Howard University, and in Mexico at the Performatica Dance Festival, 2007.SNIC is a recipient of the 2006 New York (Bessie) Performance Award and is currently performing with Ronald K. Brown/ Evidence, on faculty at the American Dance Festival, and developing her vision through Eternal Works. Her new work entitled “The hand that rocks the cradle, holds the World” is a multi-media collaboration where two sisters delve into how sexuality is shaped by looking at childhood, memory, and the intimate relationship of mother/daughter.

Alfred L. Dove is a Director, Choreographer and Dance Education Specialist. Dove holds a Masters in Fine Arts from the University of California at Irvine and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting from Howard University, in Washington, D.C., and has joined the dance faculty at Northern Kentucky University as a full-time lecturer. Alfred Dove has been a member of many committees, panels, also he has lectured, choreographed and directed at several colleges and universities across the United States. Dove has been an instructor at Fort Hayes Performing Arts High School, Columbus State Community College and The Ohio State University, and has also worked with Ballet Met in Columbus and directed the City's Biennial production of The Chocolate Nutcracker. He has given workshops at the Northeast Ohio Dance Conference and National Blacks in Dance Conference held in Washington, DC. Mr. Dove has performed in national and international touring Broadway productions: Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin In the Sun assistant choreographer European Tour, Langston Hughes’ Sound of Soul and Black Nativity choreographer & featured dancer; Geoffrey Holder’s The Wiz lead winged monkey; Donald McKayle’s Purlie, Sweet Charity and Emperor Jones and Judith Jamison’s Philadelphia Opera production of Mefistofele. Dove has worked with “in-school/at-risk” and incarcerated youth programs for over twenty years and finds great satisfaction in giving back. Mr. Dove is currently The Dove Arts Project’s (The DAP) Founding Director and Administrator of Ulysses Dove’s choreographic works. The Dove Arts Project’s goal is “Foster opportunities to advance the choreography and philosophy of legendary choreographer Ulysses Dove”.


"LA MORA" Danis Perez Prades is the artistic director of the Experimental Afro-Cuban Dance Ensemble OYU ORO based in Harlem, New York. Originally from Santiago de Cuba, Danis is a dancer, choreographer, artist director, dance ethnologist, and dance educator. “La Mora" is one of the best interpreters of the dance forms of Afro-Cuban that are derived from the Yoruba, Congo, Carabali, Arara, and Dahomeyan cultures of West Africa. “LA MORA" began dancing at the early age of 7 years old. She joined the amateur dance group Afro-Cuban Movements at 10 paving the way to her membership in the Afro-Haitian folklore ensemble Guilermon Moncada. At the age of 13 she began working as a guest of the national folkloric ballet "CUTUMBA", an opportunity that allowed her to participate in international festivals at 15 years old. Since her graduation as a Financial Media Technician at sixteen she remains under contract with "CUTUMBA". At the same she joins the Centro de Superacion Arts School, where she studied the specialty of Afro Cuban-Folklore with international personalities like O’Farrell, Johann Garcia, Silvina Fabar, Lazaro Ross, Juan B. Castillo, and Ernesto Arminan. In this school she also studied Modern Technique with Eduardo Rivero Walker, and with first Dancers; Aristides and Mariano. In 1994 she was evaluated as Primera Bailarina and Primera Profesora by the National Dance Commission in Cuba, an organization whose roster includes such great exponents of Cuban Dance as Manolo Micler, the Principal choreographer for the "Folklorico Nacional de Cuba" and Cristy Dominguez “Primera Bailarina Choreographer of the Ballet of National Cuban Television. Ms Perez taught in Cuba for international courses to students from:Holland, New Zeeland, Canada, Germany, Scotland, and Japan. She has been invited on her own to teach outside of Cuba since 1995 in Italy, Spain, and France and in the United States. . Danis "LA MORA" is an international artist, who offers a profound contribution not only to the dance world.

Jo Anna Hazel Norris is a dancer, choreographer, director, and dance education specialist. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts, from The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, with a major in Dance and special studies in Dance Production under the tutelage of Professor Dave Covey. Norris is originally from Detroit, Michigan, where she, graduated from the historical class of the Detroit High School for the Fine and Performing Arts. As a choreographer, her work engages the performing arts as a transcendent and transformative catalyst for social, political, economic change and artistic empowerment. The New York choreographic debut of the work entitled No Direction Home was created in response to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Norris has presented work at the American Dance Guild’s 50th Anniversary Festival: Many Voices of Dance Today in New York City; BRIC Studio in Brooklyn, NY and the Bohemian National Home in Detroit, MI. Currently, she is working choreographically with a collective of artists based in Brooklyn, NY and Detroit, Mi. Jo Anna as a dancer has received professional study from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, the Martha Graham School and the American Dance Festival. She has also studied and performed with many noted world renowned choreographers, dancers and performers such as the late great Aaliayh, Garth Fagan, Terry O’Connor, George Faison, Penny Godboldo, Denise La Mora, Twyla Tharp, and Regional Yates. She has also studied under Jawole Willa Jo Zollar artistic director/founder of Urban Bush Women (Brooklyn, NY), Ron K. Brown artistic director/founder of Evidence (Brooklyn, NY), Be Be Miller artistic director/founder of Be Be Miller Dance Company, Marie Basse Wiles artistic director/founder of Maimouna Kieta School of West African Dance (Brooklyn, NY), Assane Konte artistic director/founder of Kankouran West African Dance Company, the late Tommy Gomez and the late Lenin Williams.

William Oaks IV (dancer, choreographer, multi-media artist) is a graduate of Howard University where he studied Dance and Theatre Arts Administration. Oaks is a member of SNIC’s Eternal Works, a former member of Kankouran West African Company in Washington, DC, and has served as Company Manger for Ase Dance Theatre Collective in Brooklyn, New York. William Oaks is currently a faculty member of The Calhoun School, and assists in productions for Black Entertainment Television.


Makeda Thomas New York/Trinidad dancer, choreographer and Artistic Director of Makeda Thomas/Roots and Wings, is deeply committed to participating in the cultural life of her era by creating dance works through cross-disciplinary collaboration with artists around the world. Her work is a fresh, rich use of contemporary modern and traditional dance with a platform that gives equal importance to the stage, workshop performances, and multimedia projects for dance-theatre. Thomas work has been presented at HARLEM Stage/Aaron Davis Hall, Dance Theater Workshop, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Chicago Women's Performance Arts Festival, Maputo's Teatro Africa, Caribbean Contemporary Arts (CCA7), and as a Cultural Envoy for the U.S. Department of State. Her choreography has been commissioned by 651 ARTS Black Dance: Tradition & Transformation (2007) and received awards from the United States Embassy (2006 & 2005), Puffin Foundation (2005), New York State Council on the Arts (2005), Bossak-Heilbron Charitable Foundation (2005), Arts International (2003), Yellow fox Foundation (2006), and the National AIDS Council of Moçambique (2005). As a dancer, Makeda Thomas has toured internationally in the companies of Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, URBAN BUSH WOMEN, and Rennie Harris/ Puremovement, and independently with Robin Becker Dance, Lula Washington Dance Theater, and Stephen Koplowitz. She began her study in Brooklyn, New York with Michael Goring, continuing on scholarship at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, The Paul Taylor School and Hofstra University where she earned a B.A. in Dance and English. Thomas work entitled “Fresh Water” is a work about family, legacy and continuity; tradition and heritage; about the fragility of life and the fragility of culture; created in the midst of Makeda Thomas returning home to Trinidad after 20 years living abroad.

Penelope Joann Armstead-Williams is a dancer and an emerging choreographer with considerable promise; she received her Bachelors of Fine Arts in Dance and Bachelors of Arts in Economics at the prestigious New York University’s Tisch School of Arts. Williams began choreographing in college as a member of Georgetown University's Black Movements Dance Theatre under the direction of Alfreda Davis. Her work was selected to represent Georgetown's dance community as part of a concert celebrating the culmination of Bobby McFerrin's residency as professor Davis’s visiting artist. There after Penelope, continued her studies at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, where her work entitled Cradles of War was selected by NYU to be performed at Dance Theatre Workshop’s College Partnership Series 2007. Upon graduation in May 2007, Penelope joined the Philadelphia Dance Company (Philadanco), where she continues to enjoy the magic of the dance world and all of its habitats. As a dancer, Williams has performed works by Bridget L. Moore, T. Lang, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Hope Boykin, Christopher Huggins, the late Talley Beatty, and the late Ulysses Dove

Kwame Azalius Ross Artist, Musician, Choreographer, Director, Priest has been a working artist since the age of nine. Being raised by dancing artist Juanita Ross and Azalius B. Ross, Kwame has experienced a life of Artistic investigations. As a performer he has worked with Africa 1 Dance Theater, Children of Dahomey, Viva Brazil, Forces of Nature, Song and Dance Company of Mozambique, the National Dance Theater of Nigeria, and Urban Bush Women. His leadership spans as former Associate Artistic Director of Urban Bush Women, to former Cultural Ambassador of Egypt, to presently, Founder and Artistic Director of KAR Dance Project. Mr. Ross has been commissioned by numerous organizations Long Island University, Florida A&M University, Tulane University, Lincoln Center Festival, Carnegie Hall, St. Marks Church Dance Project, Riverside Church, Cutno Artist Group, and Cairo Opera House Modern Dance Theater. Kwame A. Ross' work is based on the belief that every soul can express itself, when given the moment and platform to voice their opinion. It is his intention to provide such platforms for expression for freedom of mind, body and spirit. Mr. Ross has studied extensively in four continents, giving a dialogue of expression of unlimited expression. He has received funding from Puffin Foundation, Jerome Foundation; Dance USA, Harkness Foundation and the National Endowment of the Arts. Presently Mr. Ross is developing a performance art work around the last fifty years of the independence of Africa. A Work titled “Movement of the People”, original score by Charles Vincent Burwell. To be premiered in May of 2008 at Choreographic Sketches.