
2023
Festival Workshops
Workshops, master classes, etc. will be held at various venues, including the National Academy for the Performing Arts and the University of Trinidad and Tobago (Academy for the Performing Arts campus).
Schedule is subject to change.
Workshop Schedule

A k u z u r u
Trinidad & Tobago
A k u z u r u is an avant-garde TransDisciplinary artist whose praxis straddles multiple approaches. Primarily environmental using vast spaces in the natural world whilst connected to the spatial appropriations of building spaces her other worldly forms in her epic performative aktivations and installations inoculate into the viewer deeply indelible emotive experiences . The artist has established a multi-faceted lexicon of performative works with the natural world and metaphysics being central to her process spanning 30 years in her practice . Her iconic Obstructive Constructions and Healing Chambers, are Total Art experiences -intense multi- genre constructions involving a vibrant experimental thrust in her process. Her work has been exhibited world wide at prestigious institutions including PAMM in the
U S A and the Museum Buccheim in Germany. The artist has received several international awards including the Prince Claus Fund Netherlands, the City of Munich Germany and the Commonwealth Foundation UK.
Her project -Earthology- is an epic ongoing global opus. Online site

Amir Denzel Hall
Trinidad & Tobago
Amir Denzel Hall is an artist and writer currently based in Trinidad and Tobago working across performance, still, and moving image. Their work examines how colonialism and enslavement haunt Black, queer and Caribbean experiences of gender, class, time, and spirit. Amir holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from N.Y.U. Their work has appeared in the Chicago Architecture Biennale 2022, Documenta 15, and Life Magazine China.

Ayodamola Tanimowo Okunseinde
Nigeria/USA
Ayodamola Tanimowo Okunseinde is a Nigerian-American artist and time-traveler living and working in NYC. He holds an M.F.A. in Design and Technology, and an M.A. in Anthropology from The New School. He has presented at the 11th Shanghai Biennale, Tribeca Storyscapes, Brooklyn Museum, and M.I.T. Beyond the Cradle. Okunseinde is an Assistant Professor of Interaction and Media Design at Parsons.
​
Photo by Phalone

Bryony Benge-Abbott
Trinidad & Tobago/UK
Bryony Benge-Abbott is an interdisciplinary artist of British-Trinidadian heritage. Her work explores human-nature relationships at the intersection of science and spirituality.
Bringing different cosmologies together through painting and public art, Benge-Abbott searches for expansive understandings of belonging and community in relation to the natural world. Through mediums such as painting, ‘wild drawing’, dance, music, poetry, film and sculpture, she reaches towards multi-dimensional and intersectional perspectives on the more-than-human world.

Kieron Sargeant
Trinidad & Tobago/USA
Hailing from Trinidad and Tobago, Kieron Dwayne Sargeant is an embodiment of
African-Caribbean Diaspora traditions. An interdisciplinary artist, choreographer,
drummer, and astute dance researcher, he currently holds a distinguished position as an Assistant Professor of Dance, Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies at Skidmore College.
Kieron holds an MFA in Dance from Florida State University, an MA in Community Dance from Ohio University, and a BA in Dance from the University of West Indies. Among his notable recognitions are the 2019 FA Ada Belle Winthrop King Art Endowment Award, 2020 UNESCO Dance Fellowship and a Grant Wood Fellow in Interdisciplinary Performance in 2022-2023 from the University of Iowa.
Kieron's contributions to the realm of masterclasses are evident in renowned
institutions and organizations such as Florida State University, Collegium for
African Diaspora Dance (CADD), Woezo Africa Music and Dance Theatre Inc,
The International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD), NYU Steinhardt, Ecole
De Sables, Simon Fraser University, Contemporary Choreographers Collectives (COCO) and New Waves Dance & Performance Institute.

Meredith Lyons
USA
Meredith Lyons is a dancer, educator, choreographer, and administrator that hails from New York. As a dance artist, she has presented work nationally and internationally, and has been a faculty member, guest artist, visiting choreographer, and administrator in private, public, collegiate and K-12 performing arts organizations across the nation. Meredith served with the US Peace Corps as a Dance Professor and Dance Educator Trainer in the Eastern Caribbean country of Dominica, where she wrote the dance curriculum for Dominica Institute for the Arts Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Exam Certification, in addition to teaching and facilitating cross-cultural dance exchange. Previous appointments and guest artist positions include Bates Dance Festival, Bates College, Boston Dance Complex, Colby College, Colorado Mesa University, Connecticut College, Dance Place, Dickinson College, Franklin and Marshall College, Mercyhurst University, Ohio University, Providence College, Springfield College, and
Ursinus College. International choreographic commissions, performances, teaching, and
presentations include Austria, Aruba, Czech-Republic, Dominica, Dominican Republic, England, France, Finland, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Italy, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Spain, St. Lucia,
and Turkey. She has presented dance research on improvisation, collaborative authorship, accessibility, and access in dance education at conferences: International Association of Dance
Medicine and Science in Helsinki, Finland, Dance Studies Association at the University of Malta and Rutgers Mason Gross School of Dance, Society of Dance History Scholars/Congress of
Research and Dance in Athens, Greece, and the National Dance Educators Organization in both Miami and Washington, DC. Currently, Meredith is a Lecturer in Dance at the University of
California Santa Barbara and California Polytechnic University San Luis Obispo and is a representative on the Advocacy Committee of the National Dance Educators Organization. She has served as an Administrative Fellow for Dance Studies Association. Meredith holds an MFA in Dance Choreography from Smith College, a BA in Dance Pedagogy from Mercyhurst University, and is a Jean McNulty Wyatt Scholarship Recipient for her PhD in Dance Studies from Texas Woman's University. Her research focuses on dance curriculums in the Caribbean Lesser Antilles. Meredith continues to travel nationally and internationally as a master teacher
and guest artist.

Sonja Dumas
Trinidad & Tobago
Sonja Dumas is an arts consultant, performer, choreographer, teacher, filmmaker and writer. She is a founder and co-director of COCO Dance Festival, the largest contemporary dance festival in the English-speaking Caribbean, as well as the founder and artistic director of her dance company, Continuum Dance Project.
​
An award-winning filmmaker, Sonja has written, directed and produced several films that speak to the Caribbean experience. Her films include “Julia and Joyce: Two Stories of Two Dance Pioneers”, “Tickle Me Rich”, “Avocado and Zaboca”, and a food preparation show called “Sonja Doesn’t Cook”.
​
Sonja is also the author of the children’s story album, “Once Upon a Caribbean Time”, a collection of new Caribbean folktales for children, and most recently, she founded Zum-Zum Museum, an interactive children’s museum highlighting various aspects of Caribbean heritage.

Tamisha Guy
Trinidad & Tobago/USA
Tamisha Guy, a native of Trinidad and Tobago, began her formal dance training at Ballet Tech, under the direction of Eliot Feld. Later she attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School, and SUNY Purchase College as a double major in dance and arts management. In 2013 Guy graduated with honors from SUNY Purchase College and joined the Martha Graham Dance Company shortly after. In 2016 Guy was selected as one of Dance Magazine' Top 25 to Watch and she also received the 2016 Princess Grace Award. She was featured in the segment “Spotlight on Success” in Dance Informa Magazine as well as the Caribbean Life newspaper, where she discussed her upbringing and the distinguished Princess Grace Award. In 2017, she was named one of the Best Dancer's of the Year by Dance Europe, and in 2021 she received the 2022 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Dance. Guy has been fortunate to teach masterclasses in Hawaii, London, Berlin, Haiti, Colombia, Minneapolis, Arizona, Dallas etc. Tamisha currently dances with A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, and she is a Lecturer in Dance at Barnard College.
​
Photo by Miguel Herrera

Anne Wharton
USA
Anne Wharton is a dance filmmaker, performer, scholar, and educator. Working in front of and
behind the camera, Wharton has collaborated with dance companies both as a dancer,
choreographer, and director. Encouraging artists from a variety of backgrounds to work with movement and film, Wharton specializes in teaching introductory dance film workshops. A PhD candidate in Interdisciplinary Arts at Texas Tech University, Wharton teaches across arts disciplines.
​
Photo by Rob DeVet.

Coming soon...
From Trinidad & Tobago and the USA
More bios coming soon...