BIOGRAPHY

Jenise Akilah Anthony, a native of Trinidad and Tobago, is a dance educator, choreographer and performing artist, well known for her African and Modern fusion dance work. She has travelled internationally performing and building her dance repertoire with vocabulary, which she calls Modern Afro-Caribbean dance. She received most of her training while dancing with Trinidad companies like Les Effort Dancers, Beverly Hinds Dance Theatre, Metamorphosis Dance Company and Caribbean School of Dancing, where she earned distinctions in five Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing Jazz and Modern Dance Examinations.

 

Her choreographic work continued in the Keturah Dance Ministry as choreographer and co-leader and in 2008, she left Trinidad on a full honors scholarship to pursue certification in dance at Coppin State University (CSU) in Baltimore. At CSU, she received the Most Outstanding Dancer and Sophomore of the Year awards. In 2012 she was chosen to perform at the American College Dance Festival Association (ACDFA) adjudication concert and was subsequently selected for the Gala Concert, at the Mid-Atlantic Regional ACDFA.

 

Jenise has performed with Baltimore-based companies like Trajectory Dance, D.I.Praise Dance Ministry and Eternal Praise Dance Ministry. She also held youth development and assistant school director internships at Dance Place in D.C. and Creative Outlet Dance Theatre of Brooklyn. In her final year at CSU, Jenise was founder and Assistant Director of the 1st annual Liturgical Dance Conference. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.S. in Dance in 2012.

 

Ms. Anthony is now pursuing her MFA degree in Dance at Texas Woman’s University, where her focus on developing Afro-Caribbean/Modern vocabulary has intensified. As a Graduate Teaching Assistant for the Department, she has taught Intro to Jazz and online theory courses in World Dance Forms. As she continues her teaching career, she will blend her culture and training in her teaching experience and dance practice to expand the dance curricula in higher education in Trinidad and Tobago.