Chuck Davis was one of the foremost, beloved teachers and choreographers of traditional African dance in America. He traveled extensively in Africa and the diaspora to study with leading African artists. Davis founded the Chuck Davis Dance Company in New York City in 1968 and the African American Dance Ensemble in Durham, NC in 1983. He founded DanceAfrica at BAM in 1977, where it has become the longest-running series; it expanded to other cities. He served on many distinguished panels and received numerous awards and accolades, including honorary doctorates. In 2010, the St. Joseph’s Historic Foundation founded the GlaxoSmithKline Charles “Chuck” Davis Endowment, and BAM established the Chuck Davis Emerging Choreographer Fellowship in 2015. His archives are held at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC.

Abdel R. Salaam became DanceAfrica’s artistic director in 2016. He is also the executive artistic director/co-founder of Forces of Nature Dance Theatre (FONDT), founded in 1981. Born in Harlem, Salaam is a critically acclaimed choreographer and has served as a dancer, teacher, and performing artist on five continents throughout his 50-year career in the dance world. He has received numerous awards and fellowships for excellence in dance, including the National Endowment for the Arts, New England Foundation on the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, New York State Council for Arts, National Council for Arts and Culture, and Herbert H. Lehman College. Salaam and Forces of Nature Dance Theatre were honored with a 2017 Bessie for Outstanding Production for DanceAfrica’s centerpiece performance, Healing Sevens.

He is currently a director at the Harlem Children’s Zone/Forces of Nature Youth Academy of Dance and Wellness at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Harlem. The company also received the 2013 Audelco Dance Company of the Year Award. Salaam has served on the American Dance Festival’s faculties in the US and Seoul, Korea; Herbert H. Lehman College; Alvin Ailey American Dance Center; Restoration Youth Arts Academy; and Harlem Children’s Zone. Inspired by Dr. Maulana Karenga, Salaam created Kwanzaa Regeneration Night Celebration at the Apollo Theater, now in its 42nd year. 

Under Salaam's artistic direction and leadership, DanceAfrica received the 2021 Bessie award for Outstanding Service to the Field of Dance. And in 2022 was nominated for Outstanding Musical Composition or Sound design for “Terrestrial Wombs”.

Al Crawford is a NYC based lighting artist working globally in a broad variety of genres. He currently serves as the General Manager of City Theatrical, Inc the world’s prominent manufacturer of bespoke lighting products and accessories. 

Al was the Lighting Director of the world renowned Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for 25 years. While with the Company he produced the lighting for Ailey in virtually every major theater, performing arts center and opera house on the planet having toured to 48 states and over 60 countries including historically significant performances in Russia, China and South Africa. He has had the opportunity to design for many important choreographers in the dance world including Judith Jamison, Robert Battle, Garth Fagan, Matthew Rushing, Ron Brown, George Faison, Mark Dendy, Trey McIntyre, Christopher Huggins, Hope Boykin, Osnel Delgado, Jeanguy Saintus, Baba Chuck Davis and others. In addition to maintaining the Ailey repertoire, he has designed 21 new works for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and 12 for Ailey II. 

Crawford founded Arc3design, a lighting design group dedicated to merging his theatrical aesthetic into all areas of art, architecture, dance, live music, theater, broadcast, and live event production. Arc3design creates the lighting for over 100 projects annually. Recent and current projects include architectural installations at New York Central Synagogue, Barbizon Lighting World Headquarters, World Trade Center NYC, New Jersey Performing Arts Center; dance design for BAM’s Dance Africa, Haiti’s Ayikodans, Cuba’s Malpaso Dance Company, Trinity Irish Dance Company, Limon Dance Company and HopeBoykinDance; and events including multiple state dinners for the White House (Obama Administration), Cedar Point’s multimillion dollar light show Luminosity, Sea World’s Electric Ocean, and brand events for Spotify, Google, You Tube, Samsung, Intel, Dom Perignon, and Lamborghini.

Al has served on the Board of Directors of the Gilbert Hemsley Lighting Programs and the Board of Trustees  of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He currently serves on the advisory board of the Studio School of Design. 

Al has been awarded the Knight of Illumination Award, considered globally to be one of the top achievements in Lighting Design. He is a member of United Scenic Artists (USA-829) and the International Alliance for Theatrical Stage Employees (Local 635). He is a graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.

David Margolin Lawson is a New York-based sound designer, composer, and recording engineer. He has worked with, recorded, and designed for many New York area performing arts organizations including: Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), La Mama, E.T.C., The Juilliard School, The Public Theater, The Signature Theater, UP Theater Company, HERE Arts Center, The New School, Repertorio Español, Urban Stages, and others. Recent works include the Neuma Records release of SIGNALS. Nearly an hour of new, electronic instrumental music co-composed with David Merrill (www.lawsonandmerrill.com). David is a faculty member at Pace University where he teaches courses in Theatrical Sound Design.

Jasiri AU Kafele is a Brooklyn native artist and founder of KA Decorative Corp, which has been doing decorative painting for over thirty years. He is a mix media artist working in photography and plaster sculpture. Jasiri also participated in the Brooklyn preforming arts movement as a poet throughout the 90’s.

Kristin Colvin Young is honored to be a part of DanceAfrica 2022. Kristin is the Production Stage Manager for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and celebrates her 23rd season with the company. She has also stage managed for Parsons Dance Company (1997—2000) and was a founding member of Battleworks Dance Company in 2002. Starting her career at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in 1997, Young had the pleasure of working with companies such as Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Mark Morris Dance Group, STREB, and Stockholm/59˚. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College with a BA in dance and sociology, Young frequently lectures at colleges and universities encouraging the next generation of stage managers.

Ngoma Woolbright is a native of Jacksonville, FL. He began his career as a stage manager in 1968 with the Chuck Davis Company, where he later became technical director. He has worked with several dance companies in and around New York City. Until recently, he was the technical director for the Forces of Nature. Woolbright’s credits include Lyon and the Jewel, Frankenstein’s Rib, The Greatest of All Time, and Muhammed Wait for Me. He has been stage manager for DanceAfrica since its inception in 1977.

Normadien Woolbright is a graduate of the Performing Arts High School, holds a BA in dance education from Lehman College, and studied with Chuck Davis beginning as a teenager. She became artistic director of the Chuck Davis Dance Company when Davis relocated to Durham, NC in 1989. She now serves as road manager and director of educational projects for the African American Dance Ensemble. She remains active in the field of dancing through teaching, performing, and participating in school residencies.

Amy Tran (she/her) is thrilled and delighted to be working on this year's DanceAfrica Festival with BAM. She has just graduated from Pace University with a Bachelor's in Stage Management, having gotten the pleasure to learn under Chris Zaccardi, Genevieve Kersh, Katie Silver, Lindsey Turteltaub, and Pamela Remler. Some of her favorite PSM credits include The Wedding Singer, Footloose, and Into the Woods, and favorite ASM credits include Mamma Mia and Peter & the Starcatcher. She plans on continuing working as a New York City-based stage manager. So much love to her friends and family for all their support.

This DanceAfrica favorite returns to the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House for the 25th year. The ensemble serves as a symbol of youth involvement in the preservation of African heritage, celebrating both ancestral roots and the modern-day community.

The DanceAfrica Spirit Walkers were founded by Baba Abdel R. Salaam in 2016 to theatrically honor the ancestors of Africa and its diaspora through the annual DanceAfrica Memorial Tribute, originally developed by the late Baba Chuck Davis. The group comprises professional dance artists and musicians from the RestorationArt alumni and Forces of Nature Dance Theatre, melding  African vernacular forms, modern, hip-hop, and contemporary dance.

As Chief Executive Officer of Asase Yaa Entertainment Group, LLC, Kofi Osei Williams has ascended to a position of tremendous influence on African Dance, Music, and Culture in Brooklyn, New York where he also oversees the creative and business direction of the affiliated Asase Yaa African-American Dance Theater, Asase Yaa School of the Arts, Asase Yaa Children’s Arts Camp and the non-profit Asase Yaa Cultural Arts Foundation. Beginning as a drummer, Williams scaled the ranks as a student, historian, touring performer, educator, administrator, and company co-founder. He has worked with artists ranging from jazz greats Pharaoh Sanders and Dianne Reeves, new age guru Paul Winters to Djembe Drum innovator M’Bemba Bangoura, soul chanteuse Erykah Badu and conscious hip hop star Talib Kweli. 

Detailing his role as CEO with Asase Yaa, Williams states, “I develop our programs, and curriculum and run most of our day-to-day operations. I also remain a musician for the dance theater and writer and director for plays in the summer camp. One of our ongoing core missions has been to bring people from Broadway and professional companies into the neighborhood to teach at affordable prices so kids can benefit and flourish in the arts.”  Kofi is a musical director and co-founder with Baba Abdel Salaam of Arkestra Africa.  The creation of  Arkestra Africa (orchestra of all African instruments) was to highlight the music in the 45th anniversary of Dance Africa. Baba Abdel wanted to give the musicians a moment and it was not just a drum solo. But a moment where the audience has a chance to sit down and focus on the genius and the music. He gave Kofi the position of Musical director and it’s second year at Dance Africa Kofi formed a band that is prepared to make the audience dance.

Fresh off a 60 show tour spanning Europe and the US, Brooklyn native Amma Whatt is known as an intuitive and insightful songwriter and singer to audiences around the world. 

Whether she’s lending what the New York Times says are her “silk-infused vocals” to bands like Nate Smith and Kinfolk, or teaching children vocal self-expression and rhythm, Amma continues to expand her reach as an multi-faceted artist and educator. Pop Matters calls her "a distinctive soul singer who absolutely seduces your ear."  She is proud to join the legacy of her mother Amma Oloriwaa! and father Kweyao Agyapon (ibaye) who have performed in many DanceAfrica programs and continue in the Council of Elders!

Ibiwunmi Omotayo Olaiya aka Wunmi is a singer, songwriter, performer and fashion designer. Born in London, and raised in Lagos, Nigeria. Wunmi’s work draws from a childhood steeped in the sounds, style and ethics of Afrobeat as well as the roots movement coming out of Jamaica. As a teen in London, soul, rare grooves, acid jazz/funk, broken beat and drum and bass would further influence Wunmi’s sensibility.

Wunmi studied fashion in London; then her role as the iconic dancer for Soul II Soul would bring her into the dance and music scene of New York, where she would begin to design costumes for her choreographer friends. She has been awarded a ‘Bessie’ for her work with Marlies Yearby and Ron Brown. In the past year commissions for works by Nora Chipaumire and Ron Brown have been produced by Urban Bush Women, Alvin Ailey Dance Company, Cleo Parker Dance Company, Philadanco Dance, and Dayton Contemporary Dance Company (respectively).

Wunmi returns annually to Nigeria to produce her clothing brand Wow Wow by Wunmi. There she works closely with textile artisans and a small group of tailors, to create her exclusive line of heirloom quality, one of a kind pieces. The online store is up and growing! Check it out at wowwow.wunmi.com.

The National Dance Company of Ghana was first established at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana under the directorship of the Late Emeritus Prof. J.H. Nketia. The first of such an institution in the country. It was endorsed by the first President of the Republic of Ghana in 1962.

To achieve the objective of the company, the Ensemble was trained and developed by the Late Emeritus Prof. Mawere Opoku as its first Artistic Director. Mawere Opoku’s choreographed pieces and arrangements of traditional dances remain the standard repertoire of the Ensemble.

The late Prof. Francis Nii Yartey succeeded Prof. Opoku in 1976 until 2006. In addition to the standard repertoire, Nii Yartey embarked on the development of his own concept of the African Dance Theatre creating extended works that explored not only the existing forms but also the polyvalent features of performance in African societies within the framework of Dance Drama, an approach that has become the hallmark of the National Dance Company.

Mr. David T. A. Amoo, a professional dancer and set-designer, continued the artistic works from 2006 – 2013, lifting the company to another level by combining his visual arts and dance backgrounds. He was followed by Mr. Nii-Tete Yartey who revived productions and the image of the company from 2013 to 2018. Currently, Stephany Ursula Yamoah is the Artistic Director of the Company.

The Company provides services to its numerous clientele (Public and Private/locally and Internationally) through the creation of high quality modern choreographic works, workshops, teaching, and presentation of indigenous and contemporary dance forms as well as dance-theater productions.

Ms. Stephany Ursula Yamoah is a choreographer and performer whose creations explore the complexities of dance in connection to the everyday lived experience. She has a growing body of works, mostly based on historical narratives, African folk tales and social issues. She is the Artistic Director of the National Dance Company of Ghana, (Ghana Dance Ensemble, National Theatre), where she choreographs and trains Ghana’s elite performers, and organizes dance engagement activities for the local community.

In her over 20 years of active work and experience in the arts, she has filled the roles of a performer, choreographer, teacher, manager, fundraiser, and judge. She studied in the School of Performing Arts at University of Ghana, where she obtained both bachelors and master’s degree in Dance and Theatre Arts. She gained further training in Contemporary dance, Improvisation, Ballet and Afro Modern dance from the American Dance Festival at Duke University in Durham North Carolina, with the Jaara African Music and Dance Company in Oakland, California, the Noyam African Dance Institute in Dodowa, Ghana and with Salia ni Seydou and Cie Auguste Bienvenue, both in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso respectively. She served as a faculty member, graduate assistant, and teaching assistant at the department of dance in the University of Ghana and Ashesi University for several years. She has conducted workshops for East Bay Center for Performing Arts in Richmond California, Laney College in North California, Untold in Amsterdam Netherlands and several schools, churches, and groups in Ghana and abroad.

She has worked with highly distinguished choreographers and companies such as Philippe Menard (France), Prof. Nii Yartey and Oh! Nii Kwei Sowah (Ghana), CK Ladzekpo (California, USA) Salia Sanou, Seydou Boro, Auguste Quedragou and Bienvenue Bazie (Burkina Faso), Lila Greene (France/USA) etc. 

She is a true dance activist who employs performing and visual arts for disseminating information, entertaining, as well as educating the world on political, cultural, and social issues through her deep history of collaboration and roots in African and contemporary dance. Stephany believes that the arts are powerful tools for social change, education, and development. Her vision is to empower her society, especially women and children, through the arts by sharing similarities and celebrating differences.

Kofi Anthonio is a practitioner with over two decades of international experience and high artistic acclaim to his roles as an artist-scholar born and raised in Ghana, West Africa. He is a choreographer, educator, administrator, curator and performer. He holds an MFA degree in Dance Education from the University of Ghana and currently a PhD holder at the Institute of African Studies, Legon. He is a recipient of Andrew Mellon FoundationResearch Grant. This grant aided him to complete his PhD successfully at the Institute of African Studies, Legon. Anthonio’s art practice is deeply rooted in contemporary, popular, and traditional African dance forms. He attended the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in 2011 with a scholarship from the United States Embassy (Accra) to study their programme structure and workshops to help strengthen the School of Performing Arts Department of Dance Studies University of Ghana Curriculum. 

In addition to his teaching, Anthonio serve as a choreographer in one of the renowned theatre production houses in Ghana called Roverman Production and maintains a lifelong affiliation with the Noyam Dance Institute and National Dance Company of Ghana where he has had his professional training. His research examines dance from an ethnographic perspective and also looks at indigenous knowledge embedded in music and dance practices of the Anlo-Ewe in Ghana. He delves deeper into sub-Saharan traditional African dance and Diasporic forms. Choreographically, he explores indigenous performance traditions, staged folkloric spectacles, and emergent contemporary forms rooted in sub-Saharan African, resulting in original works that challenge the notion of identity, humanism, and coloniality.