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.