Climbing the Ranks (with Stephanie Hughley)

Black Bodies (with Tanya Wideman-Davis and Thaddeus Davis)

Tanya Wideman-Davis is the Co-Artistic Director of Wideman/Davis Dance and is on faculty as Assistant Professor at The University of South Carolina. With an extensive career as a dancer, choreographer, and teacher, Tanya completed her Master of Fine Arts from Hollins University/ADF (2012). Tanya’s academic and choreographic research, as well as her speaking, examine race, gender, femininity, identity, and location. This research grounds her choreographic method and performances and challenges the traditional methodologies and ideologies of classical ballet. Research projects include Dance Theater of Harlem: Radical Black Female Bodies (2014), Female Relationships: The Gender Gap in Dance (2012), The queering of a life of dance and HIV/AIDS (2011).

Thaddeus Davis is the Co-Artistic Director of Wideman/Davis Dance and is on faculty as an Assistant Professor at The University of South Carolina. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Butler University in 1993 and his Master of Fine Arts from Hollins University/ADF in 2011. After an extensive performing career with leading professional companies, he continues to perform, research, choreograph, collaborate, and teach. His current research explores the intersections of gender, class, race, and technology through an African American lens. His research is reflected in his choreography and writings, including: A Dissembled Life (2011), Dance Theatre of Harlem: Modernism, History, Culture (2011), and Balance (2009).

More information on Tanya Wideman-Davis and Thaddeus Davis

Heritage Works website

Music:
Yoruba Adventure - Westar Music
Original Music Performed by Idy Ciss and Assane M'baye

We would like to thank our funders:

McGregor Fund

Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan

The Kresge Foundation

Fred and Barbara Erb Family Foundation

Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs

Deeper Than Dance (with Assane Konte)

Assane Konte, a national of Senegal, West Africa, is one of the original founders of KanKouran West African Dance Company. He also serves as the company’s Artistic Director, choreographer, and costume designer.Mr. Konte left Africa with the dream of establishing his own dance company in Washington, D.C., the nation’s capitol. Although Mr. Konte choreographs primarily for his own company, his ingenious creativity and spirit is always in demand at home and abroad. Consequently, he conducts annual programs in Poland, Hawaii, Japan, and St. Croix. Mr. Konte has held faculty positions in the dance departments of several prestigious universities in the Washington, D.C. area including Georgetown, George Washington, American and George Mason Universities. He presently serves on the faculty at Howard University.

More information on Assane Konte
Heritage Works website

Music:
Yoruba Adventure - Westar Music
Original Music Performed by Idy Ciss and Assane M'baye

We would like to thank our funders:

McGregor Fund

Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan

The Kresge Foundation

Fred and Barbara Erb Family Foundation

Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs

Multi-disciplinarian (with Holly Bass)

Holly Bass is a multidisciplinary performance and visual artist, writer, and director. Her visual artwork spans photography, installation, video, and performance and can be found in the collections of the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the DC Art Bank, as well as private collections. As a teaching artist, she offers workshops nationally and internationally and runs a program for adjudicated youth in DC. Her work explores the unspoken and invisible social codes surrounding gender, class, and race.

More information on Holly Bass
Heritage Works website

Music:
Yoruba Adventure - Westar Music
Original Music Performed by Idy Ciss and Assane M'baye

We would like to thank our funders:

McGregor Fund

Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan

The Kresge Foundation

Fred and Barbara Erb Family Foundation

Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs

Climbing the Ranks (with Stephanie Hughley)

Stephanie Smith Hughley is executive producer and co-founder of the National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta, Georgia. She danced with the Dance Theatre of Boston and the National Center of Afro American Artists. Hughley auditioned for a part in the Broadway production of Bubbling Brown Sugar, studied dance at the Alvin Ailey School of Dance and the Little Red School House and apprenticed under the directorship of Ashton Springer. She became General Manager of the Negro Ensemble Company in 1982. Hughley managed and supervised the production of over twelve Broadway shows including, Your Arms Are Too Short To Box With God, Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Bubbling Brown Sugar and toured the United States and Europe as the Company Manager of For Colored Girls.

More information on Stephanie Hughley
Heritage Works website

Music:
Yoruba Adventure - Westar Music
Original Music Performed by Idy Ciss and Assane M'baye

We would like to thank our funders:

McGregor Fund

Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan

The Kresge Foundation

Fred and Barbara Erb Family Foundation

Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs

Museum Matriarch (with Juanita Moore)

Juanita Moore is a professional with over 30 years of museum experience. She has served as a curator, educator, administrator and museum planner. Juanita Moore is the former President & CEO of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit. Being the oldest child in a big family helped her develop leadership and management skills that she still uses to this day in her roles of running museums across the country.

More information on Juanita Moore
Heritage Works website

Music:
Yoruba Adventure - Westar Music
Original Music Performed by Idy Ciss and Assane M'baye

We would like to thank our funders:

McGregor Fund

Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan

The Kresge Foundation

Fred and Barbara Erb Family Foundation

Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs