Kwame Azalius Ross (Short Term 2005)

Kwame Azalius Ross is the founder and artistic director of Prophecy Dance Company and former associate artistic director of Urban Bush Women. He has studied several African Diaspora dance forms (Caribbean, Western and Central African) since the age of nine. His choreographic works encompass productions with Children of Dahomey, Ballet Hispanico, S.D.R. Films, Sylvia Del Villard Dance Company, National Song and Dance Company of Mozambique, Urban Bush Women and The Ailey School. For the past three years, Ross has been commissioned by Florida A&M University to choreograph for the Orchesis Dance Company, as well as for Kumbuka Dance and Drum Collective and Tulane University. His work has been supported by the Jerome Foundation, Puffin Foundation and with a 92nd Street "Y" Harkness Space grant. Ross is currently a faculty member at Lincoln Center Institute and Associate Professor at Long Island University. He collaborated with the National Dance Company of Mozambique, Urban Bush Women, and Lincoln Center Institute in the critical acclaim creation of Shadows Child, a work for young audiences. In 2003, Ross received a National Endowment of the Arts grant as Artist-in-Residence at the Cairo Opera House Dance Theater and the Cairo School of Modern Dance (Egypt). In 2005 he made a research trip to Salvador Bahia, Brazil to study the Orisha Dances of Candomble and work with Ilye Aiye.