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The amazing Darian Parker will share the soulful and intricate dances of Mali, West Africa. Class begins with a warm-up that is designed to improve flexibility, strengthen the core, improve stamina, and get acquainted with West African music. The second part of the class starts with a brief history and context of the dances (that will inform your execution of the movements) and continues with an extensive breakdown of technique. Then, you’ll practice what you’ve learned in repetition.
A native of Winston Salem, NC, Dr. Darian Marcel Parker is a choreographer, author, and entrepreneur. Specializing in Guinean and Malian dance, he has received grant awards from the Jerome Foundation, Harlem Stage Fund for New Work and the New Haven Arts Council. His performance credits include the Hollywood film “Step-Up 3D,” the G’Bassikolo Mexican National Tour, the Fats Waller National Tour, and Dance Africa. Dr. Parker has worked with various dance companies, including Les Ballet de Kouman Kele (Nzingha Camara), Sewee African Dance Company (Mouminatou Camara), Harambee Dance Company (Sandella Malloy), Kouffin Keneke African Dance Company (Aly Tatchol Camara), and Organic Magnetics (Maija Garcia). He has held teaching residencies at such institutions as SUNY Purchase, and has served on the faculties of Harlem School of the Arts, Forces of Nature Dance Theatre’s Youth Arts Academy and Dwana Smallwood Performing Arts Center.
Dr. Parker is the Founder & CEO of Parker Academics, a Manhattan-based test prep and tutoring company that takes a whole-person approach to learning (www.parkeracademics.com. He is also the author of Sartre and No Child Left Behind: An Existential Psychoanalytic Anthropology of Urban Schooling (Rowman & Littlefield Press, 2015) and “The Haze”, which appears in Pedagogies in the Flesh (Palgrave McMillan Press, 2018). He is also an adjunct professor of anthropology in NYU’s Division of Applied Undergraduate Studies. Dr. Parker graduated from Yale University with his PhD, M. Phil and MA in anthropology and African American studies, and from UCLA’s College of Honors with degrees in anthropology and English literature.