| From 1999-2007, New York/Trinidad dance artist Makeda Thomas
performed internationally with Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, Urban Bush
Women and Rennie Harris/Puremovement. In 2003, she founded Roots &
Wings Movement! and
has since expressed a wide-ranging creativity. A
commitment to creating dances through cross-disciplinary and
cross-cultural collaboration around the world has led to artistic homes in New York,
Port of Spain, and Moçambique. Makeda Thomas/Roots & Wings Movement! applies this revolutionary cross-regional process to a radical company dynamic that has been witnessed by audiences throughout the United States, in South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, the Netherlands, Mexico and Trinidad. In 2005, the company incorporated as MGMT Arts, Inc.
MAKEDA THOMAS
Dancer/Choreographer/Artistic
Director, Makeda Thomas creates new dance works
through cross-disciplinary collaboration with artists around the world.
Makeda Thomas is from Trinidad &
Tobago and has presented work at HARLEM Stage/Aaron Davis Hall, Dance
Theater Workshop, and Symphony Space in New York City, Brooklyn Academy
of Music, BRIC Arts|Media|Brooklyn, the Chicago Women's Performance
Arts Festival, Maputo's Teatro Africa, Port of Spain's Caribbean
Contemporary Arts, Queen's Hall, Zimbabwe's 7 Arts Centre, Seattle's Broadway Performance Hall, Teatro de la Ciudad in Mexico, and as a Cultural Envoy for the U.S. Department of
State. Her choreography has been commissioned by the Central District Forum for Arts & Ideas (2008), 651 ARTS Black Dance:
Tradition & Transformation (2007) and received awards from Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation (2009), the
United States Embassy (2006 & 2005), Puffin Foundation (2005), NYS
Council on the Arts (2005), Bossak-Heilbron Charitable Foundation
(2005), Arts International (2003), Yellowfox (2006), and the National
AIDS Council of Moçambique (2005).
Her film work has been shown at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, MadLab Theater's First
International Film Festival, the 41st Congress on
Research in Dance "Dance Studies & Global Feminisms" at the Hollins Meditation Chapel; and BRIC as part of Choreographic Sketches II. Ms.
Thomas has been a Visiting Artist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University, Long Island University, Hofstra University,
Hollins University, Florida Memorial University, and University of
Hawaii; conducted research in South Africa and The Netherlands, and arts
education programs with American Dance Festival, The Dalton School,
Arts in Education Institute of Western NY, and NYC Dept. of Education.
In 2004, during its 25th
Anniversary season, she was named Resident Choreographer of Companhia
Nacional De Canto e Dança. Graça Machel (Former First Lady of South
Africa and Moçambique) served as the Honorary Patron of her
internationally acclaimed work, A Sense of Place (2005), on
which she presented at the 1st Conference on New Perspectives in
African Performing & Visual Arts at Ohio University. In 2007, Thomas was a featured choreographer in ‘This Woman’s Work: Choreographic
Development Project Representing Women of Color’ - joining Camille A.
Brown, Bridget Moore, Shani Collins, Princess Mhoon Cooper, Francine
Ott, & Ursula Payne. In 2008, in her role as Artistic Advisor, Ms.
Thomas remounted FIN by contemporary African dance choreographer
Augusto Cuvilas. The work went on to performances at The Baltoppen in Copenhagen,Denmark, Teatro Africa
and Centre Culturel Franco Mozambicain in Maputo and Zimbabwe's Tetrad
Reps Theatre.
As a
dancer, Makeda Thomas performed internationally in the companies of
Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, URBAN BUSH WOMEN, and Rennie Harris/
Puremovement in Facing Mekka, said by the Los Angeles Times to be
"arguably the greatest tribute to black womanhood since Alvin Ailey’s
“Cry.”" Thomas has also performed as a guest artist with
Shani Collins/ETERNAL WORKS, Robin Becker Dance, Lula Washington Dance Theater, and
Stephen Koplowitz. She began her study in Brooklyn, New York with
Michael Goring and Eleo Pomare, 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. She holds an MFA in Dance from Hollins University. Thomas continues to create and perform
internationally, while living in New York City & Port of Spain.
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"...achieves the rare successful blending of humanistic feeling and meaning with sophisticated visual style." - Eva Yaa Asantewaa
"Her work displays choreographic sophistication, a fine fusion of modern and African dance, a dexterous use of multi-media, and an extraordinary compassion."
- Amanda Smith
*Photos by Mariamma
Kambon
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