Tendayi Kuumba

Chita Rivera Outstanding Female Dancer on Broadway 2022 as Lady in Brown in the Tony Nominated Broadway Revival of for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf. Tendayi is an international dancer, choreographer, singer, & songwriter, & Spelman College grad.

Additionally in recent years, Tendayi was an original cast member background vocalist/dancer of Special Tony Award-Winning David Byrne’s American Utopia on Broadway as well as its World Tour since 2018 and the HBO Film adaptation directed by Spike Lee.

A former touring company member of Urban Bush Women, Tendayi is a longtime collaborator with partner Greg Purnell under the alias UFLYMOTHERSHIP. Together they build sonic/choreographic projects. These projects include Heroiné, Incog-negro, U.F.O: Stardust Melanin, U.F.O “The Mixtape” and “The Adventures of Mr Left Brain & Ms Right” from their recent Bloodlines commission by the Petronio Residency Center. Other solo/collaborative choreographic works have been featured and cultivated at Gibney Dance, in partnership with Stephen Petronio Residency Center, Live Ideas: Drexciya Redux – An Afrofuturist Cabaret at NewYorkLiveArts, Movement Researches’ Spring Festival, Czech Republic of NY, “ Prague Effects” Residency, Dancespace “Collective Terrains ” platform, Spelman Colleges’ “Toni Cade Bambara Scholar- Activism Conference, Harlem Stage E-Moves 2019, Hi-ARTS: Critical Breaks Residency, BRICLab, Dance Mission Theaters’ D.I.R.T Festival 2021 & Park Armorys’ 100 Women/ 100 Years, Lincoln Center’s Restart Stages and AfroPunk.

She’s worked with choreographers T. Lang, Marjani Forte’-Saunders (7NMS), ASÉ Dance Theater Collective, Nathan Trice/ Rituals Performance Project StrangeLove, Jim Findlay’s Electric Lucifer workshop & Philadelphia Operas’ We Shall Not Be Moved directed by Bill T. Jones. She continues to build her pedagogy as a teaching artist and former Part Time Lecturing professor of African Diasporic Dance at Rutgers University and as a B.O.L.D Facilitator for Urban Bush Women.  Recently named one of Dance Magazine’s 25 to watch of 2023, she gives thanks and blessings for life, love, breath, and the pursuit of happiness through creativity.

Photo by AngieLMV Photography.