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DENEANE RICHBURG | MOVEMENT ARTIST 2009-Present Deneane Richburg is the founder and Artistic Director of Brownbody. As the creative home for Richburg’s choreographic work, through Brownbody, she honors the complex narratives of U.S. based Black diasporic communities by taking participants on journeys that disrupt assumptions, ideologies, and disenfranchising popular narratives around blackness. As a modern dance choreographer and former competitive figure skater, Richburg is interested in pushing the boundaries of creative expression on the ice via engaging these narratives as a framework in which somatic based movement exploration occurs. Richburg blends different movement worlds and creates work for both the ice and the stage. Richburg received her MFA in dance and choreography from Temple University in 2007 and working alongside Lela Aisha Jones, she co-founded The Requisite Movers. Richburg has had the honor to dance for a number of artists/companies including, Chris Walker, Dr. Kariamu Welsh, and Lela Aisha Jones | FlyGround. |
photo credit: Julieanne Harris
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PATRICIA "PEACHES" JONES | MOVEMENT ARTIST
2011-Present Patricia “Peaches” Jones is a movement artist specializing in dances and rhythms of the African Diaspora. She has been honored to study diasporic movement, rhythm, and culture for over 20 years with amazing artists and teachers from Guinea, Senegal, Mali, Cuba, Brazil, and the United States. In addition to her artistic practice, Peaches worked in public health for over a decade dedicating her time towards her other passion for healing communities. Peaches currently dances with Lela Aisha Jones | FlyGround, and is a former member of Kulu Mele African Dance and Drum Ensemble, Philadelphia’s premier African dance ensemble. Additionally, she is working to develop choreography, classes, workshops, and experiences that utilize the healing properties of diasporic rhythms and movement to cultivate physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being for individuals and community. |
Photo Credit: Aidan Un
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ALEX SHAW | SOUND ARTIST, COMPOSER
2012-Present Alex Shaw is a Philadelphia-based percussionist, sound artist/composer, cultural producer, musician, performer, and arts educator working in the field for over twenty years. Intercultural, interdisciplinary collaborations and compositions merging diverse percussion traditions, vocal textures, field recordings, and digital imagination encompass his current artistic focus. He is the director of Alô Brasil, and has performed with the award-winning Spoken Hand Percussion Orchestra for over a decade. Alex has produced dozens of public performances and cultural programs including Consciência Negra: The Legacy of Black Consciousness in Brazil (2016), The Mandinga Experiment (2016), Co-Director of Modupúe | Ibaye: The Philadelphia Yoruba Performance Project (2017-2019), and Revivals of Blackness (2020-2021). He is the former Artistic Director for Intercultural Journeys (2014-2020), a founding board member and lead teaching artist for World Cafe Live since 2008, and a faculty member at University of the Arts since 2010. Alex has received several competitive artist grants and an Emerging Legacy Award at the UPenn MLK Commemorative Symposium for Social Justice. His teachers include Giba Conceição, Bernardo Aguiar, Gabriel Policarpo, Eduardo Santos, Randy Gloss, Nani Agbeli, Kahlil Cummings, Mestre Cobra Mansa, and Mestre Valmir Damasceno, among others. He holds a BA from Swarthmore College and an MFA in World Percussion from the California Institute of the Arts. |
photo credit: Rocco Peditto
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AMANDA L. EDWARDS | MOVEMENT ARTIST 2015-2021 Amanda L. Edwards is from Mount Vernon, NY. She began her training at The Dance Theatre of Harlem, where she participated in the Community Program, Summer Programs, and the Pre-Professional Program. She attended Earl Mosely Institute of the Arts during the summers of 2013 and 2014. She graduated from The University of the Arts with honors in May 2015. Amanda participated in the Nomad Express Choreography Lab for three weeks in Burkina Faso, West Africa during summer 2016. She has worked with choreographers Iquail Shaheed, Jen McGinn, Olivier Tarpaga, Esther Baker-Tarpaga, Kim Bears-Bailey,Meredith Rainey, Dancespora, Putty Dance Project, and Klassic Contemporary Ballet Company. |
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AIGNER PICOU | MOVEMENT ARTIST 2016-2021 Aigner Picou started dancing at a young age. She studied ballet, modern, and african from elementary school through high school. In college, she focused her training on modern and african dance and performed with both dance ensembles. |
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SURYA SWILLEY | MOVEMENT ARTIST 2019- Present A native of Charlotte, North Carolina, Surya Swilley is a Summa Cum Laude graduate of Johnson C. Smith University where she received a BA in Dance and a BA in Communication Arts. In 2011, she received a scholarship to attend the Garth Fagan Summer Movement Institute. She is an alum of the American Dance Festival and has served as the assistant rehearsal director to Michelle Gibson. Additionally, she is an alum of the Urban Bush Women’s Summer Leadership Institute. Through a multilingual approach to movement, Swilley addresses a gamut of personal and systemic topics, including her spirituality, sexuality as well as social justice and injustice in her work. She has been honored to work and study under great artists including Candace Jennings, PJ Pennewell, Shani Collins, and LaTanya Johnson. Swilley is a Level 1 Embodiology practitioner, a movement methodology created by Dr. S. Ama Wray. She has performed with Lela Aisha Jones | FlyGround, Martha Connerton/Kinetic Works, and Kariamu and Company. In addition to being a videographer, Swilley holds an MFA in dance from Temple University where she was admitted as a Future Faculty Fellow in the fall of 2017. |
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OJEYA CRUZ BANKS | MOVEMENT ARTIST
2019- Present Ojeya Cruz Banks (PhD) is a dancer-anthropologist-choreographer. She works as an Associate Professor of Dance at Denison University. Her research is inspired by her African and Pacific Islander American lineages from Guåhan/Guam to Alabama, Kentucky and Louisiana. For over a decade, she worked as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Otago in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Cruz Banks’ research and teaching focus on Black/African and indigenous Pacific dance education, freestyle, choreography, and performance. Her choreographies and publications include topics such as West African dance (Guinea & Senegal) and Pacific Island dance as source of somatic practice, spiritual well-being, and decolonization. Ojeya’s short dance film titled Tåno/Land premiered at the 2016 Pacific Arts Festival and in 2018, her dance film collaboration OriginalSpaces:Black/African/Pacific Intersections was selected to be shown at the Gibney center in NYC. Her dance film Ocean in our Blood: Black Atlantic Blue Pacific was premiered at the Pacific Dance Festival in Auckland, New Zealand June 2020. |
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FOLA AFOLAYAN | ADMINISTRATIVE & ARCHIVE ASSOCIATE 2019- Present Fola Afolayan is a theatre artist. Her work explores the connection of history of the African Diaspora to current day events. Her solo show Diaspora Crossroads has been performed at The Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Conference, SoLow Fest in Philadelphia, and at Louisiana State University. Folaranmi has also workshopped the show as an artist in residence at 1812 Productions in Philadelphia. She earned her BFA in Theatre from North Carolina A&T State University and her MFA in Acting from Louisiana State University. |
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GRACIELLA MAIOLATESI| MOVEMENT ARTIST
L. Graciella Maiolatesi (she/they/we) is a Queer-Black-Fat-Femme Creative based in Philadelphia. Along with Lela Aisha Jones|FlyGround, she has worked with Leah Stein Dance Company, Jumatatu M. Poe, Kariamu Welsh, S. Ama Wray, Bebe Miller, Angel Edwards, Stafford C. Berry Jr., and more. Having received their MFA in Dance from Temple University, they are now the Co-Managing Director of thINKingDANCE, Leah Stein Dance Company’s REAP Curatorial Director, Co-Founder of Fat Futures Collective, and the Artistic Director of Femme Noire Movement Collective. FNMC works to create intersectional movement investigations that liberate and witness Black-Femme bodies, spaces, and modes of being. Redefining “Femme” as “modes of radical softness,” Graciella’s movement work explores softness as a practice of freedom for Black folk to engage with and sustain, believing that embodying softness is the most radical act we can do in a world that works to systemically harden us. Living Black, Fat, and Free. Period. |
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JAMĒ McCRAY | MOVEMENT ARTIST, ECOLOGIST
2020-2021 Jamē McCray, PhD, is a coastal ecologist and choreographer whose work explores questions of place through three forms of inquiry: research, movement, and community engagement. She is founder of Ecotonic Movement, an organization dedicated to facilitating conversations about climate change through the performing arts. Currently serving as the Managing Director at the Alliance for Watershed Education, Jamē’s research focuses on environmental education and management of natural resources. Her scientific interests reflect a lifelong fascination with how people move through and interact with their environments. As a dancer, collaborating artist with the Dance Exchange, and founding board member of the Superhero Clubhouse, Jamē works with artists and community members to create engaging performances and workshops firmly grounded in science. She believes that collaborative artforms like dance provide an untapped source of creative solutions to complex environmental challenges. A Brooklyn native, Jamē earned a B.S. in Biology from the University of Maryland Baltimore County, a M.A. in Marine Policy from the University of Miami, and a Ph.D. from the University of Florida in Wildlife Ecology. |
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JENNIFER TURNBULL | MOVEMENT ARTIST
2021 Jennifer Turnbull is a choreographer, performance and teaching artist. Turnbull develops art-based curriculum that weaves in concepts of formal education creating relevance and space for self-determination. Jennifer utilizes a lifetime of dance training to create most artwork in collaboration with art family. Collaborations have led to multidisciplinary ensemble performance, dance, music and film projects with SWARM, BARETEETH and other Philadelphia-based artists. The artistic process is a space to get free and hold our liberation as truth. The product is a critique of that which holds us down and apart from each other and ourselves.Jennifer is Codirector of Spiral Q with Liza Goodell where they unleash the power of art to connect people to their collective creative force for change. |
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AHMARI JAILA WILLIAMS | MOVEMENT ARTIST
2021 Ahmari Jaila Williams is a senior at James S. Rickards High School in Tallahassee, Florida (her hometown) where she is a member of the Raider’s flag football team and manages the football team. She has been dancing since the age of 7 and received her training initially at family gatherings. Ahmari is a former member of Philadelphia’s Omo Kúlú Mélé Dance and Drum Ensemble, trained with Nia Love Dance Without Walls in NYC, and is currently a member of Lela Aisha Jones | FlyGround. |
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NYJA WHITE | ADMINISTRATIVE PRODUCTION INTERN, MOVEMENT ARTIST 2021 Nyja White is a rising Junior at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois where she is pursuing her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Theatre Arts with a minor in Theatre Dance. As a POSSE Scholar, Nyja has taken leadership roles in Student Senate, Women of Color, Residential Advising, and being a Titan Ambassador. She currently serves as President of Illinois Wesleyan’s Black Student Union Stage Manager for the School of Theatre Arts,Vice President of the Student Choreographed Dance Concert, and Assistant Student Researcher with Dr. Michelle Gibbs focusing primarily on the African American woman’s experience in Theatre and Dance. Her interest in Theatre began when she was seven years old. Spending ten plus years working with Anthony Bean Community Theatre Nyja knew she shared a passion for Theatre. Continuing her artistic training, Nyja has completed internships working with Breaking Chains Advancing Increase, Performing Arts Director David Kote’, and Creative Director of No Dream Deferred, India Mack. Nyja aspires to have her own African American based Theatre- Dance Company for children who want to express themselves and have a place to call home. |
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SAROYA CORBETT | MOVEMENT ARTIST
2009-2016 Saroya Corbett is a certified Dunham Technique instructor. She has a Masters in Fine Arts degree in Dance from Temple University and a Bachelor of Arts from Spelman College. Her dance ability can be attributed to being well trained under professionals like Katherine Dunham, Vanoye Aikens, Glory Van Scott, Tommy Gomez, Ruby Streate, and Kariamu Welsh. Throughout Saroya’s performing career, she has performed with the dance companies, Kariamu & Company and FlyGround, and presented her own work through Saroya Corbett Dance Projects. In 2014, Jazz Dance: A History of the Roots and Branches was released by the University Press of Florida, which included Saroya as a chapter author. She serves as the history and theory chair for the Institute for Dunham Technique Certification and she serves on the steering committee for the Coalition Diasporan Scholars Moving (CDSM). |
photo credit: PC Chrirsk Photography
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DANIELLE CURRICA | MOVEMENT ARTIST
2011 Danielle Currica is Guyanese American movement artist. Beginning her training in Memphis TN, she attendied Virginia Commonwealth University. That summer she would begin working with Philadelphian dance companies DanceTheaterX and idiosynCrazy productions, and later with choreographers Meredith Rainey/Tania Isaac, Kate Watson-Wallace, and Megan Mazarick. She received a 2015 Rocky Award for her dance and admin work with organizations <fidget>, Dance/USA Philadelphia, Ars Nova Workshop, and Headlong. Joining Peek-A-Boo Revue in 2009, she would elevate to choreographer and soloist- Sophie Sucré. Featured with NY based Brown Girls Burlesque in 2012, she has since headlined The Burlesque Hall of Fame, Philadelphia, New York, and Colorado Burlesque Festivals, Philadelphia Pin-Up Peep Show, and the 2017 Munich Burlesque Festival. In 2012, Danielle helped establish the Philadelphia Burlesque Academy, as teacher and mentor to the local professional burlesque community. |
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DR. JULIE B. JOHNSON | ADVISOR, STRATEGIST 2013-2016 Dr. Julie B. Johnson is a dance artist focused on intersections of creative practice, community interaction, and social justice. She is interested in dance taking place in and out of the studio, on and off the stage, and anywhere in between. Julie is the Chair of the Dance Performance and Choreography Department at Spelman College. Dr. Johnson also serves as an editor of The Dancer-Citizen, an online scholarly journal exploring the work of socially engaged dance artists. She is thrilled to work with FlyGround as an advisor and strategist, and also as a member of the coordinating committee for FlyGround's initiative, Dancing for Justice Philadelphia. Julie earned her PhD in Dance at Temple University where her research focused on meanings and experiences of 'community' in a West African dance class in Philadelphia. |
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ARIELLE PINA | ADMINISTRATIVE & MARKETING ASSOCIATE 2015-2019 Arielle Pina is a Philadelphia-based artist hailing from Boston, MA. She explores topics of equality with collaborators of many disciplines to create a cohesive, diverse body of work. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from The University of the Arts, and received The Nadia Chilkousky Nahumck Award for Creativity and Dance-Making. She also attended the Headlong Performance Institute, a post baccalaureate in hybrid performance. Since graduating, she has shared her work at dance venues and film festivals in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, Belgium and Paris. |
photo credit: Julieanne Harris
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ZAKIYA L. CORNISH | MOVEMENT ARTIST
2016-2018 Zakiya L. Cornish is a New Orleans native. Classically trained in West African dance, she worked as a New Orleans-based independent performer and teaching artist for several years and is well known as a stellar teacher of traditional and contemporary African dance classes across the country. Her graduate research at Temple University entailed an exploration of the intersections of African American identity and West African Dance. Zakiya is a former member of Lela Aisha Jones | FlyGround and Kulu Mele African Drum and Dance Company. Through her connections with these companies, she has worked with Tony-award winning choreographer Jeffrey Page and the renowned Ron K. Brown of Evidence. Zakiya’s choreographic work focuses on traditional and contemporary dance and music of the African Diaspora. |
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AYA RAZZAZ | ADMINISTRATIVE & ARCHIVE ASSOCIATE
2018-2019 Aya Razzaz is a choreographer and performer from Syria, Palestine and Jordan based in Philadelphia. Aya’s work lives in the intersection of social justice and performance, and revolves around the somatic experiences and narratives of Arab refugees. Aya continues to investigate where displacement lives in the body and how we, as a society, view, carry and disregard refugees in our communities. |