Certified
Professional Umfundalai Teachers

Anderson is a  dance artist  whose embodied research lives within Umfundalai, house footwork, Horton, contemporary ballet, and improvisation. She is an Assistant Professor of African Diasporic Movement at Columbia College Chicago and presents her artistic work with her project-based company BĀLA Dance Project.  Anderson holds a BFA in Dance from Temple University and an MFA in Dance from the University of Illinois Urban-Champaign (UIUC). 

Berry is a Professor of Practice in both African American and African Diaspora Studies and Theatre, Drama, and Contemporary Dance at Indiana University.  He was Associate Artistic Director of Baba Chuck Davis' internationally acclaimed African American Dance Ensemble (AADE) for 14 years;  Berry was awarded the 2021 IU Global Popular Music Team Research Grant . 

• Uongozi Leadership Circle

• Umfundalai Council of Elders

Brown is  the Program Manager for the North Star Black Cooperative Fellowship (NSBCF). She supports community wealth building initiatives that honor and reclaim the legacy of Black cooperative economics and invite alternate ways of being.  She is also a dancer, choreographer, and teaching artist with a passion for using dance to build community and promote social change. Browne holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Special Major in Dance & Black Studies from Swarthmore College.

Darden studied performance and choreography at the Esther Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University (Philadelphia, PA) where he currently teaches Umfundalai. He also teaches adult dance classes at Urban Movement Arts and Range of Motion Philly (2018-2023).  He has performed with D2D: Dare to Dance Co., Berry & Nance Dance Project, Kariamu & Company:Traditions, and the Nance Dance Collective. 

Josephine Heard is a long-time Kariamu & Company Traditions performer. She is a founding member of National Association of American African Dance Teachers (NAAADT) and sits on its Executive Board.  Heard holds a BA in Integrated Arts from the Pennsylvania State University.​

• Umfundalai Council of Elders

Holmes  apprenticed with Urban Bush Women, was a principal dancer with Kariamu & Company: Traditions, African American Dance Ensemble, Tania Isaac Dance, Dance Theatre X, Denovo,  and Ephrat Asherie Dance. Jones developing FELA! She co-led, as a member of Black Batey, the plenary event for the ADTA/NDEO collaboration and the Expressive Therapies conference closing. Holmes is a board member of the American Dance Therapy Association.

Mullone is an Assistant Professor of Dance at Bridgewater State University and a New England board member for the American College Dance Association.  She has performed in Texas, Louisiana, Philadelphia, Virginia, New York, Germany and Mexico. Her training background is in Agrippina Vaganova technique, Martha Graham, Jose Limón, Katherine Dunham, Umfundalai, various Africanist forms.  For 11 years, she performed with Beckles Dancing Company. 

Munir  is professionally trained in ballet, modern, jazz and African dance (Umfundalai). She trained at the New Freedom Theatre, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Eleone Dance Theatre, and Kariamu & Company: Traditions. She performed as a principal roles with Grace Dance Theater for over 11 years.   She is a proud member of Beta Delta Zeta Grad Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Incorporated, by way of the Mighty Mu Eta Chapter (PennState University). 

Pittman is a New York-based dancer-choreographer whose works sits in the Black Radical Tradition.  She holds a MFA in Dance and Choreography from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a graduate minor in African American Studies. As an educator, she has taught at Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Movement Research, MoMA, Sarah Lawrence College, Marymount Manhattan College, and is currently an Assistant Arts Professor of Dance at NYU: Tisch School of the Arts.

Makini is a choreographer and performer who strives to engage in and further dialogues with Black queer folks, create lovingly agitating performance work that recognizes history as only one option for the contextualization of the present, and continue to imagine options for artists’ economic and emotional sustainability. 

Robinson holds a BFA and an EdM in Dance  from Temple University.  She serves on the Executive Board of the National Association of African American Dance Teachers . She is currently the director of dance and the Performing Arts department chair at Lick-Wilmerding high school in San Francisco, California and a guest teacher for Broadway Dance Center in NYC and ODC Dance Commons in San Francisco, CA. 

• Uongozi Leadership Circle

Ross is an Afro- Indigenous movement artist, choreographer, and dance educator. Ross holds a BFA in Dance from Temple University's Boyer College of Music and Dance. She has performed with Urban Artistry with Junious Brickhouse, Bmore Houseful with Esperonto Bean, Laura Edwards Dance Company (LED), MOTUS Company with Diana Matos, Ladies of Redemption, MoDance Work with Monique Walker, and Kariamu & Company: Traditions with Dr. Kariamu Welsh . 

Samuels-Smith studies Umfundalai at Norfolk State University in Norfolk, Virginia under the tutelage of Dr. Xllyehma Mills.  She currently works with gifted high schools students in the Norfolk public school system.

Ward is  a tenured Professor in the Department of Health, Physical Education and Exercise Science at Norfolk State University. She is Co-Director of and performs  with the Eleone Dance Theatre of Philadelphia, PA. She holds a B.S. in Physical Education with an emphasis in Dance from Indiana University, M.Ed. and Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology from Temple University, and MPH with a concentration in Epidemiology from Eastern Virginia Medical School. 

• Uongozi Leadership Circle

• Umfundalai Council of Elders

Weaver is the Executive Artistic Director of Mojuba! Dance Collective, an African contemporary dance company dedicated to exploring  traditions of the African Diaspora to restore community wellness,  validate the Black narrative experience, and reestablish cultural connection. She is the visiting guest artist in Dance at Cleveland State University and has sat on multiple panels regarding the sacred dance roots in Gospel traditions .