Biography

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Biography

Zelma Badu-Younge, one of the most charismatic cultural fusion artists, captivates her audience as she steps on stage. This mesmerizing performer is considered one of the most electrifying choreographers; with her high-energy synthesis of West African traditions combined with other world dance forms. Both a dance artist and dance scholar, Badu-Younge, Associate Professor of Dance at Ohio University, is a recent recipient of the Ohio Arts Council Individual Creativity Excellence Award grant for choreography (2008) and the 2009 NAACP Image Award for Excellence in Faculty Academics and Research. Other awards include: a Laidlaw Foundation Award, the Canada Council Arts Grant "B” Award, a Chalmers Award for choreography, the Canadian Year of Asia Pacific (CYAP) grant and a nomination for Outstanding Choreography by the Dora Mavor Moore Awards. 
 
Educated in Canada, she holds a B.F.A. in Contemporary Dance and Choreography (Concordia University), M.F.A. in Dance Ethnology (York University), and a Ph.D. (with honors) in Integrated Studies in Education (McGill University.) Both her M.F.A. and Ph.D. research took her to West Africa, where she studied the Music and Dances of Ghana. Zelma Badu-Younge has received some the finest training in Canada, the United States, and Ghana including: l’Académiedes Grands Ballets Canadiens, The Ailey School, and University of Ghana’s School of Performing Arts. She danced with Philadanco (Philadelphia, PA), and the Forces of Nature Dance Theatre Company (New York); and has shared the stage and or was presented along with many national and international dance artists and groups including: Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, Garth Fagan Dance, Assane Konte of Kankouran West African Dance Company, Helen Mensah of the Ghana Dance Ensemble, Margie Gillis, and I Ketut Rina (Indonesian). 
 
She has also performed with national and international performing artists and groups such as: Rio samba (Germany), The State Dance Ensemble (Sri Lanka), Nanta – “Cookin” (South Korea), Olodum (Brazil), De Jimbe (Afro-Irish Group - Ireland) Groupe "DJEMBE RYTHM" (Senegal), PACE (Denmark), Barenaked Ladies (Canada), Rufus Bonds Jr. (of The Color Purple - Broadway), Halim El-dabh (composer for Martha Graham), Bob Becker of Nexus (Canada), Ju Percussion (Taiwan), Percussion Ensemble Chung Ang (South Korea), Cie Cameleon (France), Abbos Group (Uzbekistan),Satriya Budaya (Indonesia), Akin Euba (USA), Choi Jong Sil (South Korea),Thomas Lang (USA), Tomohiro Yahiro (Japan), Dudu Tucci (Germany/Brazil), Tony Royster Jr. (USA), and others from Sweden, Italy, Cuba, Costa Rica, Spain, Argentina, Portugal, South Africa, Poland, Slovenia, Uruguay, and China. 
 
Zelma has instructed, lectured, performed, given workshops or choreographed throughout the United States, Canada, as well as in Australia, Mexico, Taiwan, South Korea, China, Italy, Germany, and Ghana. She recently served as Canadian Heritage’s Artistic Assessor for The National Arts Training Contribution Program, a Specialist for Jury, for the Canada Council for the Arts; is a member of the Ohio Dance Board of Trustees (chairperson for Outreach and Education) and is a member of the Committee for the Arts and Innovative Thinking (CAIT.) Badu-Younge is also Dance Director and Choreographer for, Azaguno, a multi-ethnic ensemble that focuses on research, preservation and performance of African, African American, Caribbean and Latin American Music and Dance Styles. 
 
Recent activities include directing an African Performing and Visual Arts Conference for Performers, Visual Artists, Educators, Teachers and Scholars (2007 & 2009) held at Ohio University. This conference drew world-renowned keynote speakers and special guests from, Princeton University, Yale University, Swarthmore College, Lesley University, Temple University, and The Ghana Institute for Music and Development; as well as other scholars from 18 different American states, three Canadian provinces, and from France, England, South Africa, Nigeria, and Benin. She was an invited guest speaker, on African Dance, at the Third International Symposium on the Music of Africa (Spring 2009) at Princeton University; choreographed a work for Ballet Creole (Spring 2009); directed Moving Bodies International Dance Film Festival (Spring 2009) featuring guest speaker/filmmaker Philip Szporer; coordinated the Ohio Dance Festival (Spring 2009), as well as produced and presented an evening of European and African Contemporary Dance with invited guests, Cathy Sharp Dance Ensemble from Basel, Switzerland and her own group, Azaguno (Fall 2009). Zelma has been commissioned to choreograph a work for the National Dance Company of Ghana (2010) to be premiered at Ghana’s National Theatre. 
 
Perspectives Magazine article - Muses of Movement 
http://www.ohio.edu/research/communications/upload/Muses_of_movement.pdf

Contact

WORK
Ohio University
School of Dance
Putnam Hall 222
Athens, OH, 45701
Tel. 740 593 1826

E-mail: or baduyou@ohio.edu

 

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