TENDAYI KUUMBA

Tendayi Kuumba is an international dancer, choreographer, singer, & songwriter, & Spelman College grad. Recently, Tendayi performed as a background vocalist/dancer and original cast member of Special Tony Award Winning David Byrne's America Utopia on Broadway as well as its World Tour and HBO Film adaptation directed by Spike Lee. She was the Chita Rivera Outstanding Female Dancer on Broadway in 2022 as Lady in Brown in the Tony Nominated Broadway Revival of for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf.

Former touring company member of Urban Bush Women, Tendayi is also a longtime collaborator with partner Greg Purnell under the alias UFLYMOTHERSHIP with sonic/choreographic projects Heroiné, Incog-negro, U.F.O: Unidentified Fly Objects, U.F.O: Stardust Melanin, and U.F.O "The Mixtape." Other solo/collaborative choreographic works have been featured at Gibney Dance, in partnership with Stephen Petronio Residency Center, Live Ideas: Drexciya Redux - An Afrofuturist Cabaret at NYLA, Movement Research Spring Festival, Czech Republic of NY Prague Effects Residency, Dancespace Collective Terrains platform, Spelman Colleges' Toni Cade Bambara Scholar- Activism Conference, Harlem Stage E-Moves 2019, Hi-ARTS: Critical Breaks Residency, BRICLab, Dance Mission Theater’s D.I.R.T Festival 2021, Park Avenue Armory’s 100 Women/100 Years, and Lincoln Center's Restart Stages.

She's worked with choreographers T. Lang, Marjani Forte'-Saunders (7NMS), ASÉ Dance Theater Collective, Nathan Trice/Rituals Performance Project StrangeLove, Jim Findlay's Electric Lucifer workshop, and Philadelphia Opera’s We Shall Not be Moved directed by Bill T. Jones. She continues to build her pedagogy as a teaching artist occasionally at NYU Tisch and as a B.O.L.D Facilitator for Urban Bush Women. She gives thanks and blessings for life, love, breath, and the pursuit of happiness through creativity.