Program / Event Details
Provider: Artivate at Levine Music

Contact Details
Washington D.C., MD 20008

West African Dance
Our West African Dance workshop offers an exciting and interactive exploration of West African dance, music, and song. Participants embark on a cultural journey, connecting the roots of traditional West African dance and music to the emergence of American hip-hop and contemporary dance styles.
In this workshop, students learn various traditional dances, gaining insight into their historical significance and cultural context. We also explore how African music and movement have historically conveyed messages, highlighting the primary role of the MC in rap as a means of delivering poetic social commentary.
Our offerings include the Origins (as a workshop and/or 45-minute performance), West African Dance Fundamentals, West African Dance Technique and Choreography, and an interactive lecture and demonstration on West African Dance History.
Max Workshop Audience = 50 Students
Fees are for daytime school programs in Maryland, Washington, DC, and Northern Virginia only.
Evening, weekend, workshop, and non-school fees differ – please contact us.
Additional travel fees apply.
About K. Shaka Opare
Kwame Shaka Opare is the visionary creator of Triumph of Disruption: A Movement to Subvert and the founder of Engage Creativity. With over three decades of experience in the arts and arts education, his extensive work spans the performing arts, education reform, youth advocacy, and scholarly pursuits including several projects in West Africa. An acclaimed performer on stage and screen, Kwame is also a distinguished strategist in arts education, celebrated for his innovative pedagogy and exceptional ability to engage students, fostering a dynamic learning environment.
Biography
Kwame Shaka Opare is a classically trained West African dancer with an MFA in Dance from the University of Maryland. At 14, he became a principal dancer with Kankouran West African Dance Company (Washington DC). As a young adult, he moved to New York where he established himself as a dynamic instructor and choreographer. In the late 90s, he began touring with the Broadway show STOMP, in the lead role and as rehearsal director where he remained for 8 years. The desire to explore the possibilities of West African dance in contemporary performance brought the creation of the DishiBem Traditional Contemporary Dance Group in 2003. Kwame has created critically acclaimed works that speak to social issues, including his award-winning choreography Sweet Suite Nina, about the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the people of New Orleans and the Gulf region. Kwame Shaka was named Brooklyn Academy of Music’s (BAM) inaugural recipient of the Baba Chuck Davis Emerging Choreographer Fellowship. With the fellowship, he spent over three months studying, documenting, performing, and choreographing with the National Dance Company of Ghana and at the University of Ghana, Legon. Kwame Shaka used his expertise as a photographer to create a short documentary film that would accompany his live performance entitled, .theProcess: Ghana (BAM 2017)
Kwame is frequently invited to lecture and teach about his use of dance to “disrupt the status quo of marginalized youth in public schools.” As a dance specialist advisor for the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards, he played a vital role in developing the national dance curriculum. His choreography fuses traditional West African dance, STOMP (percussive dance), and contemporary styles, using modern performance to explore and address pressing social issues.