The People
Team
Artists
Artistic Director · Choreographer
Onye Ozuzu
Onye Ozuzu (American-Nigerian) is a performing artist, choreographer, administrator, educator and researcher currently serving as the Dean of the College of the Arts at the University of Florida. Since 1997, Onye has been presenting choreographic work nationally and internationally at venues such as Seattle Festival of Improvisational Dance (WA), Kaay Fecc Festival Des Tous les Danses (Dakar, Senegal), La Festival del Caribe (Santiago, Cuba), Lisner Auditorium (Washington, D.C.), McKenna Museum of African American Art (New Orleans, LA), and danceGATHERING (Lagos, Nigeria). Recent work includes "Touch My Beloved's Thought," a collaboration with composer Greg Ward and "Project Tool," a work supported by the Joyce Foundation, Chicago Dancemakers Forum, and the National Performance Network Creation Fund. For the past three years, Onye has been developing significant collaborations with African diasporic artists meeting in Lagos, Nigeria at danceGATHERING, a festival that she co-curates with Nigerian artist Qudus Onikeku.
Dancer · Performer
Joshua Akubo Gabriel
Joshua Akubo Gabriel is a dancer, choreographer, educator and community organiser and activist based in Kaduna, Nigeria. He is the founder and director of Duniate Culture LTD, Art Resource Center, Kaduna. He works at the intersections of dance, community engagement, and activism. His current project, Talk KD (Kaduna), is evolving into Move KD (Kaduna), which aims to build an inclusive community of artists and non-artists in response to the region's political, economic, and ethno-religious crises. He aims to use this MA to document and share his practice with future generations and a global audience. He is working to build relationships with stakeholders and gain recognition for his work from relevant institutions in Nigeria.
Musician · Sound Collaborator
Ben LaMar Gay
Ben LaMar Gay is a composer and cornetist who moves sound, color, and space through folkloric filters to produce electro-acoustic collages. His unification of various styles is always in service of the narrative and never solely a display of technique. By being active in Chicago's experimental music scene and having spent a three-year residency in Brazil, Ben has collaborated with several influential figures in the world of music, including Joshua Abrams, the Association of the Advancement of Creative Musicians, Bixiga 70, Black Monks of Mississippi, Celso Fonseca, George Lewis, Nicole Mitchell, Jeff Parker, Theo Parrish, Mike Reed, Tomeka Reid, and Itibere Zwarg. Ben received his Bachelor of Arts in Music Education from Northeastern Illinois University. He has served as a music instructor in Chicago Public Schools, a guest lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a facilitator with the Chicago Park District's Inferno Mobile Recording Studio for six years. He has received artist residencies from Edgar Miller Legacy Glasner Studios and the Red Bull Music Academy. His range of performances, commissions, and creative projects span from his hometown in Chicago's very own Symphony Center and across the globe to places such as Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Nigeria, Poland, and the Netherlands.
Video & Projection Designer
Simon Rouby
Prized director, animator and accomplished artist, Rouby dedicated the better part of his career exploring and contributing to the African narrative. Always interested in the decomposition of movement, it is frame by frame that Simon Rouby came to cinema, directing several short films. In 2015, he directed "Adama," his first animated feature film, entirely produced in Reunion Island, selected the same year for the Césars and European Film Awards as well as more than 180 festivals around the world. Simon Rouby's film practice is transdisciplinary in essence and maintains a constant dialogue with visual arts. After "Adama," he was selected for a year as a resident at the Villa Medici in Rome where he began the creation of "Pangea," a project for which he was awarded the Atelier des Ailleurs prize in 2018, and led him to spend five months in the Kerguelen Islands, where he worked on the archipelago's preserved landscape. The result is an immersive video installation, which will later become his second animated feature film as a director. He recently participated in the art direction and storyboard of the animated documentary feature film "Flee," which was nominated for three Oscars in 2022.
Visual Artist Collaborator
Oathman 'Native' Maqari
Born in Zaria, Nigeria, into a family of educators and growing up there in the 1980s when NNPC still had a functioning printing press in the city, Maqari had an early introduction to Arts and publishing. He later studied Arabic literature in Al-Azhar, Cairo, Egypt, and went on to earn a BFA in comparative literature from Columbia University, New York. He moved to Paris, France in 2005, where he has since worked as a multi-disciplinary Artist with projects ranging from graphic novels to film and video installations. He has authored many works in both institutional and publication domains. Maqari is a Laureate of The French Institute at Villa Kujoyama Japan 2023, has shown works internationally, and was a part of some prestigious programs like the much sought-after French Academy at The Villa Medici in Rome. He is the current holder of the Ubisoft Innovation Grant For Arts and Technology 2020/2021, where he is working with a team of programmers in improving the way computers can read Arabic scripture using Pattern Recognition Algorithms.
Creative Team
Creative Producer · Grant Writer · Production Support
Kate Spear
A Maine girl at heart, Kate Spear is a dancer, choreographer, and organizer based in Denver, CO. Balancing life as an artist and arts administrator, she crafts performance work while tending to the wellbeing and heartbeat of dance makers and nonprofit organizations. She frequently merges a patchwork-like storytelling with athletic, momentum-based movement in order to engage the audience's visceral and emotional capacities. While the themes and subject matter change, collaboration is a key tenet of her creative process, both artistically because of the creative sparks when two minds meet and politically because of the necessity for multiple voices. She truly believes in art's power to generate communities that empower individuals, create belongingness, and ignite social change.
Creative Producer
Marýa Wethers
Marýa Wethers (she/her) has lived and worked in Lenapehoking (NYC) since 1997. She is the Director of the GPS/Global Practice Sharing program at Movement Research and also works as an Independent Creative Producer & Curator. As a dancer, Marýa received a 2017 NY Dance & Performance ("Bessie") Award for Outstanding Performance with the Skeleton Architecture collective. As a curator, she conceived and created the three-week performance series "Gathering Place: Black Queer Land(ing)" at Gibney Dance and curated for Mount Tremper Arts Watershed Lab Residency (2019 & 2018), Queer NY International Arts Festival (2016 & 2015), and Out of Space @ BRIC Studio series for Danspace Project (2003–2007). Her writings have been published in Configurations in Motion: Performance Curation and Communities of Color (2016 & 2015) organized by Thomas F. DeFrantz at Duke University and the Movement Research Performance Journal 25th Anniversary Issue #27/28 (Spring 2005). She graduated from Mount Holyoke College with a BA in Dance, minor in African-American Studies, 1997.
Creative Producer
Jadd Tank
Jadd Tank is a choreographer and creative lead based in Houston, Texas. His work explores the limitless connections between objects, bodies, and events, shaping spaces and the identities they forge. Notably, Jadd served as Movement Consultant for Halloween Ends (2022), Co-Director for 3rd Body, and Creative Producer for Glimpses of a Future on Netflix. He also contributed as a Creative Producer to Together We Walk at Dubai World EXPO 2021 and collaborated and performed for acclaimed artists like Michelle Ellsworth and Maqamat Dance Theater. Jadd's choreographic footprint extends to various media, including Susan Youssef's Marjoun & The Flying Headscarf, music videos, and digital projects. In 2024, he worked with the University of Florida and Mellon Foundation as a Creative Producer on the year-long F.L.O.A.T project. Currently, Jadd is pursuing his MFA at the University of Colorado Boulder, continuing to expand his artistic horizons. More of his work can be explored at jaddtank.com.
Grant Writer · Production Support
Marie Casimir
Marie Casimir is a Haitian-American interdisciplinary artist, producer, curator, and educator. Her work blends improvisational movement, choreography, and performative text, often exploring cultural memory and Black diasporic identity. Featured at venues like Oklahoma Contemporary, Links Hall, Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, and the Austin Dance Festival, Casimir has earned honors including a Ragdale Artist Fellowship and a Regional Emmy nomination. As the founder of Djaspora Productions, Casimir fosters global artistic exchanges for artists of color. She co-founded the Instigation Festival, celebrating improvised music and dance in Chicago and New Orleans, and serves as Producing Partner for Black Arts Retreat and Juneteenth on The East (OKC). Casimir served as Associate Director of Links Hall, Curator of Public Programs and Performances at Oklahoma Contemporary, and taught in the Clara Luper African & African American Studies program at the University of Oklahoma. Her work can be explored at marie-casimir.com.
Operations & Admin Support · Website Developer
Ahnivenitta Surratt
Ahnivenitta Surratt is an interdisciplinary artist. She has received recognition for animation projects completed with independent animation studio Fountain Pen Productions. She holds a BA in Digital Arts and Sciences from the University of Florida and is currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Colorado Boulder.