Dionna Ndlovu is a multidisciplinary artist, arts administrator, non-profit director, teaching artist, arts education consultant and arts advocate whose work is dedicated to fostering community-centered artistic engagement. She supported the development of the Theater Arts and Dance Credentialing program at Cal Poly Humboldt University in Humboldt County, California, where she also taught in the School of Education and Department of Theatre, Dance and Music. In her commitment to arts advocacy, and education, Dionna has served as the Interim Education Manager at YoloArts in Yolo County and as the Arts Now Lead with Create CA, Project Coordinator for the North Coast Arts Integration Project, Turnaround Arts: California, and on the board for California Dance Education Association. Currently, she serves on the Eureka Cultural Arts District Leadership Council and the board of Chicago’s Home for feminist theatre – Artemisia.
Arts & Culture
Dionna is the project director for TAP IN, a grassroots organization focused on preparing and supporting teaching artists. Over the past ten years, she has worked closely with Humboldt County Schools, Humboldt County Office of Education, Black Humboldt, and Eureka NAACP, connecting and centering artists in organizational initiatives and events. As the visionary founder of Black Humboldt, Dionna has curated safe spaces for Black and Brown communities, fostering unity and empowerment through art and culture in the region.
Embodied Practices
Originally from Yonkers, New York, Dionna’s artistic journey began with training under Fred “Rerun” Berry and studying African Dance with Bokandeye African-American Dance Theater. After moving to Delaware, she studied drama performance and dance at Cab Calloway School of the Arts and founded a youth mime ministry in her home church. She expanded her performance training by practicing in Baltimore and D.C. with several West African Dance Companies and physical theatre practitioners including In-Flight Theater (Aerial), Tara Cariaso (Character & Mask), Brian Francoise (Mime & Clown), Kolleen Kintz (Clown) and The Center for Movement Theatre with Dody DiSanto (Clown). Dionna is known for her work as a mime, clown physical theater artist, and Afrocentric dancer, and her most recent performance was seen at a host of Dell’Arte International performances including Disparities directed by Everson Ndlovu. Dionna has directed and collaborated on devised productions such as Double Consciousness at Baltimore Annex Theater, Ellipsis… A Physical Theatre Performance Exploring the Negative Space at Cal Poly Humboldt, and The White Card by Claudia Rankine at Redwood Curtain Theater in Eureka, CA.
Theatre Production
Dionna’s production and design experience began at the helm of mentors Dwight R.B. Cook at the Murphy Fine Arts Center, and Pamela Hobson at Prince Theater in Philadephia. She has also collaborated with professional theaters such as Baltimore Centerstage and The Milwaukee Repertory Theater, in addition to an off-off-Broadway production in NYC.
Her stage management credits include The Roses in June (Plays & Players Theatre in Philadelphia), killers (The Paradise Factory in NYC), Crumbs: A Possibly True Story (Baltimore Theatre Project), The Fantasticks (Goucher College, and Spotlighters Theatre in Baltimore), Everybody Else’s Light at the Fresh Fruit Festival in NYC, White Suit Science, Single Carrot Theater, The Potatoes of August, EMP Collective, Cosí Fan Tutte (Maryland Opera Studio), The Wizard of Oz and Seussical (JCC Gordon Performing Arts Center), Make HERstory at the D.C. Black Theatre Festival, and Afro House’s Ebon Kojo: The Last Tribes. Dionna was the resident stage manager for productions at the Baltimore Annex Theater including, Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, Insurrection: Holding History, Flatland, and The Tempest.
Under the direction of Dan Long at Morgan State University, she designed a host of student performances and event rentals. Her lighting design credits include She Kills Monsters (Cal Poly Humboldt University); Alice in Wonderland (Immaculate Conception Middle School); When the Moon Cries (Urban Foli West African Dance Company); Deletta Gillespie’s Spring II Life Album Concert, and Morgan State Dance Ensemble’s Spring Concerts from 2013 to 2016.
Teaching Artistry
Dionna’s work as a teaching artist included collaborations with several schools and community organizations in Humboldt County including Black Humboldt, Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts, Unchained Talent, Dance & Bmore, and many other community organizations in Baltimore City. She has also served as a guest artist at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center and former Emily P. Bissell Hospital in Delaware, performing at benefit concerts and churches. She continues to teach dance to empower commuities through Hip Hop, Afrobeats and Contemporary dance styles.
A Black woman, first-generation Nigerian American, and first-generation college graduate, Dionna holds a Master of Science in Instructional Design and Technology from Full Sail University and a Bachelor of Arts in Theater Arts from Morgan State University, along with a certificate in Physical Theater from Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre. Her work is deeply driven by a commitment to community-building, arts education, and amplifying marginalized voices, using her superpower of unity to create inclusive and transformative artistic spaces for Black and Brown communities. Through her diverse roles as an educator, artist, and arts leader, Dionna continues to explore the intersection of art and activism while fostering heart-centered engagement in every project she undertakes.
ARTISTIC STATEMENT
“Theatre has nothing to do with buildings or other physical constructions. Theatre – or theatricality – is the capacity, this human property which allows man to observe himself in action, in activity. Man can see himself in the act of seeing, in the act of acting, in the act of feeling, the act of thinking. Feel himself feeling, think himself thinking.” – Augusto Boal
o I believe that indigenous storytelling, ceremonies, and traditions are the foundations of performance.
o I believe theater is for social change and that “community” is a synonym for “theater”.
o I believe that the instructions for a body are simpler than mankind defines.
o I believe that the body is the most powerful tool of theater; it reveals non-verbal communication as the first exchange, the body as plural, and the window to one’s truth.
o I believe that devised theater is a more organic way toward truth.
Dionna Ndlovu 