Artistic Director

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Considered a "breakout star" by Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch,” and a Clyde Fitch “changing-making artist to track,” MK's work has been commissioned by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, the University of Richmond, and the Dance Exchange. As a 2016-2017 U.S. Fulbright Fellow, they worked closely with the Noyam African Dance Institute and the National Dance Company of Ghana. In 2017 they received a 40 Under 40 award from Prince George's County Social Innovation Fund for their leadership and achievement in the arts. In 2020, she was awarded by Richmond, VA Dance Awards for her collaborative choreography of a commemorative justice site-specific work performed at one of the United States oldest African burial grounds. 

Care Infrastructure Specialist/Administrative Director

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Christine C. Wyatt (she/her/we) is a Black, free-lance, dance artist, facilitator of movement experiences and Grief Doula; born and raised on Piscataway Land (Baltimore, MD). She has her amazing parents to thank for all her endeavors in the performing arts. After a multitude of experiences in the 15 years of performance and training in music, theatre, and dance, Christine received a B.F.A. in Dance & Choreography in May of 2018. Known for her community centric work and organizing at Virginia Commonwealth University, she presently continues legacies of resistance, equity, care, and abolition through her art making, organizing, and community based practice with The Dance Union Podcast, Richmond Doula Project and MKArts/MK Abadoo.

 

Her study of Africanist movement values and improvisation have influenced her practice and perspective of art as resistance, movement as story telling and seeking of liberation. She has continued her study and embodiment of these philosophies through her Richmond-based mentors MK Abadoo, Kevin Lamar Jones, Alicia Diaz, Dr. Gaynell Sherrod, and Dr. Tawnya Pettiford-Wates. 

 

Christine is in constant pursuit for art making processes and relationships that facilitate ease, rest, and transformation in an effort to actively cultivate Black joy, resilience, and reparations

Core Artist and Creative Aging Facilitator

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​Judith Bauer (she/her) is an 87 year old performer/facilitator based in Washington, DC. She began dancing at age 70 as a way of dealing with health issues. Ms Bauer is a core collaborator with MKArts where she has the opportunity to share the rich experiences of other Black women and girls. She is a participating artist with Dance Exchange in Takoma Park, MD where she is primarily involved in intergenerational and family programs and is a member of its Dance On Advisory Board. She is also a member of Quicksilver, the senior dance company of Arts for the Aging. Quicksilver’s mission if to bring movement opportunities to frail seniors in the DC/MD/VA area. In her earlier life she worked as an economist, was a consultant/coach specializing in developing presentation skills and enjoyed serving as a local historian.

Core Artist and Film Director 

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Torian Ugworji is an artist working on identifying and portraying magical realism in the current African American culture. Under the moniker Tserendipity, Torian is developing his film language. A conduit for supporting artistic talents, Torian has an innate ability to collaborate and consult. He is a supporter of the arts, and can be found at local dance concerts, jazz venues, indie movie premieres, theater shows, etc. Currently, Torian is an educator at Science leadership Academy in Philadelphia

Core Artist 

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Julinda grew up in Brooklyn, New York and studied dance with George Faison, Fred Benjamin, Eleo Pomare, Dianne McIntyre, Maurice Hines, Ella Thompson Moore, Loremil Machado, and Pepsi Bethel (to name just a few memorable teachers). She also studied at Dance Theatre of Harlem and Clark Center for the Performing Arts.

Julinda earned a BS and MA in Dance and Dance Education from New York University, an MSEd in Early Childhood Education from Brooklyn College, and most recently completed her doctorate in Educational Leadership from Regent University. She has been writing about dance and theater for more than 30 years and is the author of a young reader’s biography, Alvin Ailey: A Life in Dance, editor of Black Choreographers Moving Towards the 21st Century which has been used as a textbook for college and university dance history classes and numerous articles and reviews. Recently published works, Dancing in the Bible and The Tabernacle Teaching, and a chapter in I Will Dance ‘til a Hundred and One! by Janine Turner are available on Amazon.com.

Core Artist

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Sehay(they/them), a multi-disciplinary artist, educator, reiki level 3 practitioner, transcender of “time”, a vessel for their ancestors, lover, and truth seeker. Sehay engages and practice the intersectionality of Black, Queer, and Trans-embodiedness while experincing abudancce of joy, pleasure and rest as a way to reclaim themself.

Grant Writing & Social Media Assistant

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A Virginia native, Keola has been dancing since the age of four, beginning her training at Pine Camp Cultural Arts Center. She then furthered her training by dancing nationally with Richmond’s City Dance Theatre until 2018. Over the course of her career, Keola has accumulated many awards and titles including the Pierians Foundation’s Emerging Artists Award in 2016; Henrico High School: Center for the Art’s Brad Boynton Award for Excellence in the Arts in 2018; and VCU’s African American Studies’ Black History in the Making Award in 2020. She is expected to graduate with a BFA from the Dance and Choreography Department at VCU.  She has worked with the Dance Union and has been a proud member of B.A.S.E. (Black Art Student Empowerment) since 2019. She is currently in the Fellowship Program with The Red Project NYC. 

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Engagement & Community Partnership Building Assistant

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Joi Brown is a native of Hampton, VA by way of Panama City, Florida. She is a scholar, dancer, community organizer, and  emerging choreographer. She is a graduating senior in the dance and choreography department of Virginia Commonwealth University. Throughout her time at Virginia Commonwealth University she has had the opportunity to be  the inaugural undergraduate scholar/student researcher of the Racial Equity, Arts and Culture Core of VCU’s Institute of Inclusion, Inquiry and Innovation. As such she has been engaged in a year long research project entitled Intergenerational Performances of Black Womanhood, of which she is the primary student investigator. . Brown’s work has been accepted into venues including: VCU’s 2020 spring concert,  Dance Now, the  Mid-Atlantic South Regional Conference of the American College Dance Association (ACDA), and Richmond Dance Festival.