Dance With The Gantt Master Class: Umfundalai
This program is made possible by the generous support of The David and Nicole Tepper Foundation
Calling all dancers who love African and African-inspired dance! Visit the Gantt to take part in Umfundalai dance class that will be both challenging and inspirational. Intermediate-level and higher dancers are encouraged to attend this vibrant session, taught by professional dancer and choreographer, Bianca Bonner.
"Umfundalai is a contemporary African dance technique that comprises its movement vocabulary from dance traditions throughout the diaspora. The literal word, Umfundalai, means "essential" in Kiswahili. Much like Katherine Dunham, the late Kariamu Welsh, D. Arts, Umfundalai's progenitor, has designed a stylized movement practice that seeks to articulate an essence of African–oriented movement or as she has described, "an approach to movement that is wholistic, body-centric and organic."
Source: umfundalai.net
About The Instructor
Bianca Bonner was raised in the Bronx, NY where she began dance training at Ruth Williams Dance Studio and later with Mary Barnett, former Associate Artistic Director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, in ballet, jazz, modern, and African dance, Kariamu Welsh, Charles “Chuck” Davis, and more renowned dance instructors. She holds a BA in Broadcasting and Mass Media and an M.Ed. in Dance from Temple University in Philadelphia.
Bonner toured with Chuck Davis' African American Dance Ensemble to national and international venues and served on the board of the Charlotte Dance Festival. She was named Best Choreography at the Charlotte Emerging Dance Awards, a choreography award from the North Carolina Theatre Conference for Studs Terkel's Working, and a John W. Parker Award for Excellence in Directing from the North Carolina Theatre Conference for Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf. Bonner was the Director of Education and Community Engagement at Charlotte Ballet and is currently an educator for Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools.
About The Gantt Golden Year Dancer-in-Residence
LaTanya Johnson’s rhythmic journey blends the art of movement and storytelling through voice, theater, and visual arts.
Johnson choreographed and provided movement coaching for many productions including, A Raisin in the Sun, Seven Guitars, Ain't Misbehavin’, The Bluest Eye, For the Love of Harlem, A Soldier's Play, and The Piano Lesson. She has worked with Theatre Charlotte, On Q Productions, Free Reign Theater Company, and Brand New Sheriff (BNS) Productions. In 2016, Johnson curated a dance series in celebration of the Gantt Center’s 40th Anniversary, entitled "Catch the Dance".
Johnson’s conservatory training includes Philadanco (Philadelphia Dance Company), Historical New Freedom Theatre in Philadelphia, and Urban Bush Women Summer Leadership Institute, to name a few. She is the founder and artistic director of the Sycamore Project, a Charlotte-based “artivist” initiative using the arts to advocate and promote social and environmental justice.