Rooted in West African and African Diasporic traditions, I bring together movement, creative storytelling, and community practices to share the art of humanity.
I am a Columbus-based artist whose work grows from cultural knowledge, lived experience, and the relationships that shape us.
My journey in West African dance began at age seven. Today, I bring that grounding into choreography, performance, teaching, and the development of projects that make room for shared stories.
Identity, interdependence, women's wisdom, grief, and resilience move through my work. I am interested in what our bodies remember, what we pass between generations, and what becomes possible when we create together.
Alongside my independent practice, I serve as Artistic Director of Thiossane Institute and Lecturer in Dance at The Ohio State University. My experience in program direction at the Lincoln Theatre also informs how I bring artistic ideas, people, and resources together.
In development · Immersive dance theater
The Daughters Who Remain
A work exploring the women who sustain us, the wisdom we inherit, and the connections we carry forward.
Traditional African movement and present-day lived experiences come together to explore grief, resilience, and a sense of interdependence.
Community exchange
Facilitated movement and storytelling exchanges invite women and girls across generations to share knowledge and experience.
A shared experience
The vision brings dance, live music, fabric contributions, and community stories into a public performance for Columbus.
Currently developing toward my first independently produced full-length immersive work.
A window into my artistry
Selected work
Movement as a way of telling. Performance as a place of connection.
Soukeyna Joy
MFA project · Choreography & artistic research
Created for my MFA project, Soukeyna Joy brings together my artistic research and creative practice to explore a girl's initiation. It asks how African Americans can reconnect with, repurpose, and carry forward West African cultural practices—and how African dance can serve as an initiation experience for young girls today.
Guided by a mentor or elder woman, the girls move toward a deeper understanding of their self-worth, social development, and cultural identity and pride. They emerge from the experience fully initiated and more aware of their own power.
MFA showing The Ohio State University · February 2023
Live drumming Kevin Seals, Damani Wade, and James Kemp
Let the Water… grew from a pilgrimage to West Africa in 2019 and the connection I found among a close circle of Black women artists on the trip. Our shared experiences, joy, and sense of finding ourselves brought renewed energy to our lives and artistic practices.
The work turns toward the shores of Africa: shores from which many of our ancestors were forcibly taken, and to which we now return in a journey of coming home. It holds the grief of that history alongside the joy and renewal of return.
Let the water do what it is going to do. Let it move you, grow you, shape you, hold you, and give you joy.
MovementPhoto: Terry GilliamStoryPhoto: Terry GilliamConnectionPhoto: Captiona, LLC
Ways to work together
From the studio to the community.
My practice connects artistic creation, cultural learning, and the work of bringing people together.
Choreography & performance
Original work, commissions, and artistic collaborations grounded in West African and African Diasporic movement traditions.
Teaching & residencies
Classes, workshops, and residencies that connect movement with cultural context and honor participants' lived experiences.
Creative production & community projects
Developing artistic experiences that bring performance, storytelling, and community participation into conversation.
Teaching & mentorship · Ready, Set, Grow
Learning through song & movement.
Creative practice can give us another way to explore what we are learning—and connect it to our own lives.
Created by Thiossane Institute and funded by the Commission on Black Girls in Columbus, Ready, Set, Grow was a year-long mentoring program for Black girls and young women ages 16–24. I served as a movement instructor and mentor.
The program explored financial literacy, law and judicial practices, knowing your rights, health and wellness, and social-emotional learning. My role was to connect those sessions to creative practice through song and movement.
I often took the ideas from our sessions and found ways for us to explore them together through our voices and bodies.
Ready, Set, Grow · A session at The Ohio State UniversityReady, Set, Grow · Closing program
Bookings · Collaborations · Partnerships
What could we create together?
Have a project in mind, a space for movement, or a story to explore? I'd love to hear from you.
