Tendayi Kuumba

One of Dance Magazine‘s “25 to watch 2023” & Chita Rivera’s Outstanding Female Dancer on Broadway 2022 as Lady in Brown in the Tony-nominated Broadway revival of Ntozoké Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuf, choreographed/directed by Camille A. Brown. International dancer, choreographer, singer, songwriter, and Spelman College graduate, Tendayi formerly performed as a background vocalist/dancer and original cast member of Special Tony Award-winning David Byrne’s America Utopia on Broadway and its World tour in 2018 and the HBO Film adaptation directed by Spike Lee.

Choreographer, vocalist, actress, and previously a touring company member of Urban Bush Women, Tendayi is a longtime collaborator with partner Greg Purnell under the alias Üflymothership. A Collective of sonic/choreographic projects including, The Mixtape, Incog-negro, and other works that have been featured at AfroPunk, Gibney Dance, Stephen Petronio Residency Center, New York Live Arts, Movement Researches’ Spring Festival, Czech Republic of NY, “Prague Effects”, Dancespace “Collective Terrains ” platform, Spelman Colleges’ Toni Cade Bambara Scholar- Activism Conference, Harlem Stage, Hi-Arts, BricLab, Dance Mission Theaters’ D.I.R.T Festival 2021 & Park Armorys’ 100 Women/ 100 Years, and Lincoln Center’s Restart Stages. She’s worked with choreographers T. Lang, Marjani Forte’-Saunders (7NMS), ASÉ Dance Theater Collective, Nathan Trice, and Philadelphia Operas’ We Shall Not be Moved, directed by Bill T. Jones. She continues to build her pedagogy as a teaching artist and B.O.L.D Facilitator for Urban Bush Women. She gives thanks and blessings for life, love, breath, and the pursuit of happiness through creativity.

Photo: Üflymothership