Charles Moore Dance Theatre (CMDT), under the artistic direction of Ella Moore, is presently the oldest dance company in Brooklyn. Founded in 1974 by the late Charles Moore and Ella Thompson Moore, the company’s colorful African, Caribbean and African-American dance programs have thrilled New York audiences for years. The company of dancers and musicians perform at Symphony Space, Lincoln Center, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Central Park, and has been broadcast on the PBS series, “Great Performances”. CMDT is noted for its reconstruction of African dances thought to be lost forever. Their educational activities include residencies in schools throughout the city, as well as running their own center for Ethnic Studies. Each artist, devoted to the preservation and reconstruction of African dances is loyal to the Charles Moore Dance Theatre mission of maintaining an explosive nature while teaching and performing in CAP in African Studies, and enlightening students throughout the New York City Boroughs and outlying areas. Ms. Moore holds her BA in Arts and Education from Howard University. Her noted musician, Wayne Daniels, has ten years of teaching and accompanying experience for dance classes and performances at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, Guyana National School of Dance, Sabar Senegalese Dance with Babacar, Youssouf Koumbassa and the West African Dance Studio. Wayne is also a Teaching Artist at the Monica House after school program for the Creative Outlet Organization. He strongly generates excitement, inspiration, and knowledge to those he teaches.

Karen Farnum is a graduate of the High School of Performing Arts in dance and continued her studies receiving her BFA Magna Cum Laude at Adelphi University. She received her MA in Arts Administration from NYU and has been in the CAP African Studies Program for several years.She is a choreographer and Instructor of Modern Dance, Ballet and Jazz at Devore Dance Center. Karen is the Artistic Director the Allen Liturgical Dance Ministry (ALDM). Her 300 member group specializes in dance as a form of worship. In 2006 she traveled to South Africa for performance and teaching and was featured in the New York Times for her impact on Dance Ministry. In addition to being the costume designer and seamstress for the ALDM, Karen’s other talents include her vocal abilities as a tenor and her performance on bass drum for the Drum Corp. Karen’s teaching spans generations of community beginning with age 2-70. The discipline and pleasure of Karen’ knowledge and dancing carries into the classroom and she is widely respected by the students that surround her.

Tammy Hall (storyteller) travels worldwide collecting folklore firsthand from people in order to share stories that emanate from the rich aural traditions of these cultures. A former New York City Junior High and Elementary School teacher., Tammy leads storytelling and writing workshops for numerous organizations such as the Children’s Museum of the Arts at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, Queens Borough Public Libraries, The Sanctuary for Families, Mount Prospect Park, the Old Stone House Museum for NYC Public Schools, Carnarsie Childhood Center at the Newark Museum, Yonkers Public Schools, Interfaith Gathering of Hope, and Music for Many held at the Center for Science and Technology. As an advocate to literacy, Tammy arranged the curriculum roster for the Brooklyn Arts Council and is presently developing Hatchlinks, the early Audubon Curriculum associated with Restoration Youth Art Corporation. Tammy received her BS at Harding University in Arkansas. After working as an elementary school teacher, Tammy embarked upon her dream of storytelling and conducting writing workshops throughout the Greater metropolitan area. Tammy’s storytelling is an expressive way of bringing people together and guiding them on a journey of the world’s cultures, peoples and landscapes through the imagination. She believes that “the ancient and proverbial wisdom contained in stories, holds the answers to many of today’s problems”. Tammy’s incorporation of song and dance brings the stories to life. She enraptures students with novel and telling stories both old and new.

Spirit Ensemble is a musical duo whose repertory is rooted in African and Afro-Caribbean traditions. African drummer, Hasan Bakr and mbira player, Kevin Nathaniel Hylton, perform an array of their own original compositions. Both American-born musicians, they are experts in the music of Africa and the African Diaspora. Each plays a variety of traditional and contemporary instruments. As long time Teaching Artists for Symphony Space, they pulsate, bright rhythm of sounds, that colors dancing. Exotic, instruments of the world include the mbira, kora, shekere, steel pan, hand drums, bamboo flutes with voices that weave a tapestry of percussive patterns and melody. Kevin was a Scholar of the House, Yale University with a BFA Cum Laude. Kevin and Hasan have recorded two CD’s, Ancestral Music and Ancestral Voices. Teaching experiences include Lincoln Center, Juilliard, Museum of Natural History, Guggenheim Museum and are the founders, directors of the Mbira Society of North America Together, this dynamic duo can cause audiences of all ages and nations to dance, with joy and abandonment.

Women of the Calabash under the artistic direction of Madeline Yayodele Nelson, a group of three women, combine traditional instruments, lush vocals, and musical forms with contemporary influences. They have enchanted audiences of all ages teaching and performing music from Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and Black America. This company define finely detailed music that blends simplicity, warmth, delicacy and power that identifies various African languages, and play instruments reaching back in the pleasures of rediscovery and the renewal offered by traditional forms. Almost primeval with a sense of grace and ease they combine percussion demonstrations, African history lesson and coolly understated political messages. Ms. Nelson handcrafts many of the instruments, all made from natural materials that explodes the air with sound. Their performances have brought diverse audiences to their feet at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall, Town Hall and the Walker Art Center. They have been heard on national radio and television, and have played to standing crowds across four continents. Cited as “Musicians Extraordinaire” by the National Council for Culture and Art, they received the prestigious Monarch Merit Award, a Blue Ribbon for Best Music Video, a CINE Golden Eagle Award, and Ms. Yayodele was a featured percussionist on Paul Simon’s multi-platinum Rhythm of the Saints album. Women of the Calabash recorded “The Kwanza Album” of International acclaim, and has graced the stage with great performers to include Philip Glas, Max Roach and The Temptations, to name a few. Symphony Space is honored to have these women in our CAP program for twenty-seven years, still inspiring youth and communities.