My superpower is UNITY. I am the visionary of Black Humboldt, a cultural and community non-profit organization that I founded in 2018 in response to a lack of SAFE Black and Brown spaces. It provides a platform for all Black and Brown bodies who share similar needs and interests while existing in Humboldt County. I currently serve on the board of the California Dance Education Association, teach TK-12 dance, and provide coaching and consultation services for artists, schools, and organizations. Although arts education and community organizing are time-consuming and necessary for our society, I still find time for an artful daily practice and art as my activism. I also teach Kemetic Yoga, and Afrocentric-based dance classes and lead embodied movement workshops. As a Black woman (first-generation Nigerian), third culture kid, and first-generation college student in my family, I earned a Master of Science degree in Instructional Design and Technology from Full Sail University, a Bachelor of Arts in Theater Arts from Morgan State University, and a certificate in Physical Theater from Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre.
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 African 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 physical theater is for spiritual healing.
o I believe that devised theater is a more organic way to find truthfulness in the moment.
Dionna Ndlovu 