Joti Singh, Co-Artistic Director and Founder of Duniya Dance and Drum Company, is a dance creator and innovator, sprung from the U.S. American south to parents from northern India. She is the Co- Artistic Director of Duniya Dance and Drum Company. Joti began her dance training in Punjabi circles, carrying…
Fode Sissoko is the grandson of the king of the kora, Soundioulou Cissokho, of Senegal. Sissoko, who carries on that ancestral wisdom in Los Angeles, has been playing the kora instrument, and other Mande instruments for over 40 years. He has toured globally with renowned companies including Ballet Bugarabu and with…
Amelia Butler is an indigenous Māori woman of Ngātiwai, Ngāti Awa and Ngāpuhi descent. She attended Kōhanga Reo (Māori language preschool) at a young age and grew up in Auckland, New Zealand. Amelia studied Māori by correspondence at secondary school and led her school’s kapa haka (traditional Māori performance) group.
Faisal Zedan is an Arabic music teacher and performer from Syria. He has been residing in the bay area since 2005, teaching and performing different genres of music from the Arab world and the Middle East. He plays the traditional drums; Derbakki, Riqq and frame drums.
Nicole Maria is a multi-award-winning dancer based out of Oakland, California. She has been studying, teaching, and performing contemporary and traditional forms of Arabic dance for over a decade. In 2019, she was a featured soloist in the prestigious San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, representing Egyptian Raqs Sharqi. Nicole teaches…
Dr. Shweta Saraswat is a Los Angeles-based Kathak dancer, teacher, and scholar. She is a lifelong disciple of Guru Rachana Upadhyay, who is the founder and director of the Kathak Kala Academy and Indian Performing Art Center in the San Fernando Valley. Shweta holds a Ph.D. in Culture and…
