Celia Weiss Bambara is a dancer and a choreographer with a Ph.D. from the University of California of Riverside. She is a dual citizenship in the US and Burkina Faso and maintains a bi-national pick- up company in the Ivory Coast and North Carolina. Currently, Celia is an assistant professor of dance the acting director of the dance program at UNC Asheville. She is a practiced-based scholar and her work addresses the intersections of practice as research in contemporary and African diasporic dance. Her dance work has been shown in the United States, internationally in the Caribbean, West Africa, France and Germany at venues including Links Hall in Chicago, The Drucker Center in Chicago, Outerspace in Chicago, Praxis Place and Outerspace in Chicago, Institut Francais in Abidjan, Goethe Institut in Abidjan, Alliance Francaise in Chicago, Jane Addams Hull House in Chicago, San Francisco at the Mission Theater, Claremont Mckenna College, Epiphany Episcopal Church in Chicago, Alliance Francaise in Chicago, African American Museum in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Occidental College, University of Southern California, National Theater in Abidjan (CNAC), INSAAC (National Arts Conservatory in Abidjan), National Television in Haiti, Trinidad at Alice Yard and the Republic of Sydenham, in Jamaica at the Caribbean Studies Association, Donko Seko in Mali, MJC Picaud theater in Cannes, France, Flox Galleries in Kirchaue Germany and at the Belk Theater at UNC Asheville. Most recently her solo work has toured in Jamaica, Trinidad, Ivory Coast, Iowa, San Francisco, Germany, France, Chicago and Michigan. Her site-specific dance works have been seen in Chicago at Doukan Arts Center, The Silver Room for the Annual Block Party in Chicago, in Trinidad at Alice Yard and in the Botanical Gardens at UNC Asheville. She has completed long-term dance based projects in Abidjan with her company the CCBdance Project, which she co-founded in 2006. Her awards include grants from the Puffin Foundation, US State Department, the University of Illinois, Chicago (Postdoctoral Fellowship), the National Theater Center in Abidjan (Ivory Coast), the Djerassi Foundation, the UCIRA (University of California Institute for Research in the Arts) for collaborative work in Haiti, the BVAR, Dance and Performance Institut (Trinidad) and Donko Seko (Mali). Celia’s movement research combines the base of Haitian dance with other African forms, modern/contemporary dance, yoga and Klein Mahler technique. More recently she has begun the study of Body Mind Centering. She has danced for JAKA in Port-au-Prince, Martin Dancers and Ayizan in Los Angeles as well Rachel Thorne Germond in Chicago. She has collaborated with notable artists including Djenane St. Juste, Christian Bambara, Dicko Yanogo, Jean-Luc Okou, and Florencia Pierre among others. Celia has taught at INSAAC (National Arts Conservatory, Ivory Coast), UC Riverside, Occidental College, Glendale Community College, UCLA, Romona High School for the Arts, University of Illinois Chicago as well as with Chicago Arts Partners in Education. She has taught Master Classes at USC, Occidental College, Grinnell College, UCLA, University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Denison University. Celia has also taught Haitian traditional dance, African contemporary and improvisation/composition at cultural centers/dance studios in Michigan, Los Angeles, Iowa, Chicago, Santa Barbara, New York, Jamaica, Haiti and Tobago, Trinidad, Burkina Faso, Mali and the Ivory Coast. The sites for her teaching include Dance New Amsterdam (New York), Donko Seko (Mali) Gateway Dance Theater (Des Moines Iowa), Links Hall (Chicago), Rast Ballet (Chicago), praxis place (Chicago), heart beat house (Los Angeles, CA), Shana (Port-au-Prince), Jaka (Port-au-Prince) and for the Ministry of Culture in Tobago, EDEC in Abidjan, Ecole de Danse Edit in (Burkina Faso) and in (Abidjan) for the “Un Pas Vers L’Avant” festival at the INSAAC and National City Park as well as at the Foyer de Jeunes in (Dakar, Senegal) through CIE Premier Temps teaching initiatives in the community. She is 200 hour RYT certified through the International Yoga Alliance and she has taught yoga in Michigan, North Carolina, Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast. More info: http://www.celiaweissbambara.com and http://www.ccbdanceproject.com
Meg Foley is a Philadelphia-based performer and choreographer. She makes dances, events, and objects that explore the materiality of dance and physical identity as form. Her work has been presented in Philadelphia, New York, California, Canada, Germany, and Poland. She teaches at University of the Arts and is creative co-director of The Whole Shebang, an arts space in South Philly. megfoley.org
