Shalewa Mackall, Founding Director
"Mackall dances and choreographs with propulsive sensual energy."
-Attitude: the Dancers' Magazine
Shalewa Mackall's work as a choreographer and educator reflects her lifelong dedication to the preservation, documentation, performance and creation of dances in the many traditions of the African Diaspora. Working with students at every stage of life from pre-school to elders in dance studios, community centers, churches, schools and universities she has embraced as her mission communicating the power and beauty of movement as a tool for healing and connection. Weaving together elements of Modern Dance, many different traditional forms and contemporary Club and Hip-Hop Dance, the movement language Shalewa has developed, Movement for the Urban Village, shares its name with her performance company, and is a vehicle for the full realization of her creative vision.
Shalewa has collaborated with installation artist Kim Mayhorn on the presentation of Zong an experimental Dance Theater piece exploring the Middle Passage experience, presented at HERE in New York City. Shalewa has been an artist in residence with Toledo, OH's Alma Dance creating the work Hang Time for them. She has also created movement for Wild Child Production's, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide when the Rainbow is Enuf and Cheryl Harnest's Sacred is the New Profane, winner of the 2008 Midtown International Theatre Festival Award for Outstanding Overall Production of a Solo Show.
Shalewa has been very fortunate that her experiences as a performer have included work as a dancer with many outstanding companies including: Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, Maimouna Keita, Feet of Rhythm, Ballethnic, Harambee and Giwayen Mata. This work has taken her to such esteemed venues as Sorrano National Theater of Dakar, Senegal, Lincoln Center, The Joyce Theater, Symphony Space, Dance Theater Workshop, Riverside Church and The National Black Arts Festival. Shalewa's work as a choreographer and educator has included presentations, performances and residencies for a wide variety of institutions and organizations including, Stanford University, Wesleyan University, Princeton University, Barnard College, Rutgers University, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Bronx Museum of Art, The Brooklyn Children's Museum, The Museum for African Art, The Kitchen, HERE, The Wooster Group, The Tea Party and W.E.R.I.S.E. Shalewa has also served as a peer-review panelist for The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and the Brooklyn Arts Council.
Shalewa is a member of the faculty at Saint Ann's School and Charles Moore Dance Theater, facilitates Fieldwork groups and works as a teaching artist throughout the New York metropolitan area.
photo by Jaecyne Howell
