Tommie-Waheed Evans

About

Tommie-Waheed Evans is a queer Black choreographer and dancer born and raised in Los Angeles, California, amidst racial divides, gang warfare, and earthquakes. He discovered dance accidentally in high school while studying musical theater at Hamilton High School's Academy of Music and Performing Arts, after initially focusing on singing in community and church choirs. His formal training began with Karen McDonald, followed by a fellowship at the Ailey School. He performed nationally and internationally with companies including Lula Washington Dance Theatre, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, and Philadanco. Evans earned an MFA in Choreography from Jacksonville University in 2016. A health diagnosis threatened his dancing career, leading him to choreography, where he has created over 50 original works since 2004, blending urban street dance with contemporary vocabulary, propelled by gospel music and polyrhythmic sounds. His work explores themes of Blackness, spirituality, queerness, and liberation. In 2006, he founded waheedworks, his Philadelphia-based company dedicated to radically collaborative works addressing the human condition. He is currently an assistant professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

Urban contemporary dance blending street styles with bold, raw movements driven by gospel and polyrhythmic sounds, exploring Blackness, spirituality, queerness, and liberation