Biography
- PhD, philosophy, art theory and aesthetics, Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts (2020 completion)
- MFA, new media arts and performance, Long Island University
- Certificate, Martha Graham technique, Martha Graham Center for Contemporary Dance
- BFA, theatre arts/dance, Howard University
Prior to joining the Temple faculty, yaTande served as adjunct faculty at Long Island University's Dance Department, Program Director of Southside Cultural Center of Rhode Island, and Dance Program Manager at AS220. He has taught nationally and internationally at various schools and colleges namely The Ailey School, the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, Deeply Rooted Dance Theatre, Harlem School of the Arts, Dance Institute of Washington, and Centro Nacional de Danza Contemporánea (MX), and others.
He is an artist/culture worker and BLACK SEED Native committed to #cultureascatalyst. His artistic career has been varied centering around nurturing and cultivating individual and communal spirit through performance, education and curation/community engagement. He has worked with such luminaries in the field of dance and performance as the Martha Graham Dance Company, Kankouran West African Dance Company, Rod Rodgers, Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group, Martha Clarke, Ralph Lemon, and many others.
His works have been presented through Rhode Island College, Kumble Theater, La Mama, Grace Exhibition Space, Panoply Performance Laboratory, Brooklyn International Performance Art Festival and in the streets of NYC, Chicago and Detroit. His grants and commissions for the creation and exhibition of his works are numerous: Providence Art, Culture and Tourism, New York State Council for the Arts, Puffin Foundation Grant, and others. He has founded and directed various performance collectives, was a Movement Research Artist in Residence (2013-15), and presently founding co-director of Denizen Arts a creative collaborative performance project informed by cultural and art-making heritages that honor African diasporan, queer and other global identities founded in 2016 with theatre/movement artist Jude Sandy.
His research centers on the Africanist aesthetic and perspective in contemporary dance and performance with special attention to African spirituality as a philosophy of embodiment.
Works and Publications
Recent Dance/Performance Works (2015-Present)
2019, 9Roads, Denizen Arts, Rhode Island College, Providence, RI
2018, JoJo, Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY
2017, Walk the (pink) Elephant, New York Live Arts, New York, NY
2017, (Ci)Maroon, Mawon, Maroon, AS220, Providence, RI
2016, Black Angels, Links Hall, Chicago, IL
2015, The Birth Rite, BLACK SEED, Detroit, MI
2015, Shaking off the Past, Grace Exhibition Space, Brooklyn, NY
2015, the many/the more, pt. 2, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
2015, OPEN PRACTICE, chashama, New York, NY
2015, the many/the more (with Renegade Performance Group), Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
2015, Shaking off the Past, Driskell Center, College Park, MD
2015, Tether and shed, Social Health Performance Club, Brooklyn, NY
Exhibitions, Screenings (2015-Present)
2017, Home is where? “Home Is Where The Heart Is,” Kustera Projects, Brooklyn, NY
2015, Invisible 2.1 (video installation), Common Roots Projects, Martha Graham Studio, NY, NY
Choreography/Movement Direction (2016-Present)
2018, The Rite of Spring, Festival Ballet Providence, Providence, RI
2017, Christmas Carol, Trinity Repertory Company, Providence, RI
2017, Lives of Great Poisoners, Brown University, Providence, RI
2017, “(Ci)Maroon*, Mawon, Maroon,” Luna Loba, AS220 Blackbox, Providence, RI
2017, We are Proud to Present…, Movement Director, Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis, MN
2016, kisi work, Martha Graham Studio Theater, NY, NY
Curation
2015, The Sphinx Returns, Grace Exhibition Space, Brooklyn, NY
2015, Imperial Envy, Social Health Performance Club, ABC No Rio, NY, NY
2014, Oneman: Chrysalis, Grace Exhibition Space, Brooklyn, NY
2014, Black Male Revisted…, Curatorial Advisor, Danspace Project, NY, NY
2013, inAction, Topaz Arts, Queens, NY
2013, Work/Space ’13, Invisible Dog Art Center, Brooklyn, NY
2012, SITE Project, Long Island University/Humanities Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2012, Work/Space #2, Invisible Dog Art Center, Brooklyn, NY
2012, Anita Sto: Everything Begins with and Object in the Real World, Broadway Gallery, NY, NY
2011, Work/Space, Invisible Dog Art Center, Brooklyn, NY
Publications
Hunter, Whitney V. “Sumblime Embodiment: The Phenomenological Aesthetics of a Black Liberational Spirituality.” IDSVA (Dissertation)
Eva Yaa Asantewaa, “Memoirs…,” https://infinitebody.blogspot.com/2017/11/dance-artist-yon-tande-views-that.html. 22, November, 2017.
Dublin School. “Humanities Series.” https://www.dublinschool.org/consolidated-blog/2016/12/10/humanities-yon-tande-december-9-2016 (Speaker/presenter)
Hunter, yon Tande. “Where African Town Begins.”, November 2015
Hunter, yon Tande. "Irfan Yarvu.", October 2015
Hunter, Whitney V. “Beauty/Grief.”, April 2015
Hunter, yon Tande. “SELMA.”, February 2015
Hunter, yon Tande. “Elaborate and Intricate, “Shithead.”, February 2015
Hunter, yon Tande. “The Vault.”, December 2014.
Hunter, yon Tande. “We Need all Kinds of Feminism.”, September 2014
List of Institue for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts (IDSVA) publications can be found here.
Hunter, Whitney V. “Black Male ReVisited: a Performative Text.” https://issuu.com/jaamilolawalekosoko/docs/bmr-book-nov23-hi. 23, November 2013.
Hunter, Whitney V. “Self-Portrait: A Repository of Identity.” Long Island University, New York. 2012 (MFA Thesis)
Panels
Panelist: “The Body of Essence: A Phenomenological and Ontological Path Towards Liberty,” 43rd Annual Conference, Caribbean Studies Association (CSA). Education, Culture and Emancipatory thought in the Caribbean. Havana, Cuba, 4th to 8th of June 2018
Presenter/Performer: “The Body of Essence: Ring Shouts and other Afro-Futurities,” Collegium of African Diasporan Dance, Durham University, 2017
Panelist/Performer: “Emancipating the Past: Unchain the Past”, Moderator: Dr. Michelle Wallace, Driskell Center, Univ. of Maryland, College Park, 2015
Panelist: “Futuring the Presence of Blackness in the Arts”, Moderator: Brook Stephenson, Brooklyn College, 2014.
Moderator: “Black Male Revisted…, Danspace Project, NY, NY, 2014
Organizer/Moderator: “Ritual: Faith and Participation”, chashama, New York, NY, 2015