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Tamara Thomas Dance is a new artistic endeavor that allows for the opportunity to share my artistic vision, supported by a robust arts environment.
 

Tamara Thomas Dance is African based – Ideologically and kinesthetically.  In claiming independent artist status, the aim is to honestly create and share human topics using an African sensibility.  The African Diaspora is large and is an umbrella for many unique cultural and spiritual lineages and experiences.  The resulting choreographic material that comes from that African well constantly feeds me and is also fed, as this is indeed a symbiotic relationship. 

This work, is made possible in the recognition of the shoulders that it rests on.  I honor the endorsement that the ancestors give me, as I move to the beat of their drum while making my own rhythms and existing as shoulders for the next generation.

Biography


Tamara Thomas is an educator, performing artist and choreographer.  After receiving her undergraduate degree, she moved to Durham, North Carolina to dance with Chuck Davis’s African American Dance Ensemble.  She subsequently transitioned to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to attend Temple University’s Master in Fine Arts in Dance program.  While in Philadelphia, she served as a member of Kariamu and Company Traditions, Kulu Mele African American Dance Ensemble, and Danse4Nia Repertory Ensemble.  In addition to being a performing artist, as a choreographer, she has shown her works at events and venues such as World Café Live, the Temple Black Alumni Arts Showcase, the Black Women’s Arts Festival and the International African Arts Festival. 

 

Having traveled internationally, Tamara has had the opportunity to study and give instruction in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Jamaica, West Indies.  In 2004, she received an emerging artist grant from the Durham Arts Council to travel to Senegal, West Africa to study traditional music and dance.  In 2008, with the Leeway Art and Social Change grant, she was able to travel to Guinea, West Africa to work with members of Les Ballet Africaines and the Hip-hop group Methodik. 
 

Tamara holds a BS in Policy Analysis and Management and an MFA in Dance.  In combining the two disciplines, he has conducted a number of workshops and residencies directly servicing youth populations.  Her artistic vision, which involves the integration of arts and community development, has been shared with organizations such as Dreams Wilmington, Upward Bound, and the Friends Neighborhood Guild.  Having taught at Temple University, Rowan University and New Media Technology Charter School, she currently serves as a Lecturer at the Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts in the School of Dance.

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