NAJWA DANCE CORPS
FOUNDED: 1979
NAJWA Dance Corps (NDC) is a professional dance company devoted to the performance, production and preservation of dance styles and techniques reflective of the African American dance heritage and experience. The Company showcases, year-round, the breathtaking diversity of African-influenced dance in a historical context. From the rituals of traditional Africa to the glamorous chorus girls of the swing era, NDC brings joyous, fascinating life to the different dance cultures that have influenced contemporary American dance.
Sheila Walker Wilkins,
Executive Director
Sheila Walker Wilkins is an original founding member and dancer of NAJWA Dance Corps and has since become the company’s Executive Director. In this capacity, Sheila supervises and coordinates administrative support for all artistic activities and manages company personnel, artists, practicum interns and consultants as well as all monetary activities. Walker Wilkins’ duties include grant-writing, financial reporting and are the liaison between the organization and its Board of Directors.
Sheila has provided mentorship and training in the practical skills needed to run a non-profit organization for three practicum students. She has sat on the Dance Panel for the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and on the Dance Panel for Illinois Arts Council, A State Agency. Sheila received her Bachelors of Arts Degree at Bethune Cookman College and a Masters of Business Administration Degree at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
PC: Photo of Andrea Vinson by Rachel Neville Studios
Andrea Najwii Vinson,
Artistic Director
Andrea "Najwii” Vinson, became the Artistic Director of NAJWA Dance Corps in 2013, after serving two years as the Associate Artistic Director. She has danced and performed with NAJWA Dance Corps (NDC) since its inception. While being the Associate Assistant Artistic Director she was mentored and monitored into teaching and choreographing under the direction and watchful eye of Najwa I. Her earlier professional dance experience was with Julian Swain Dance Theater and Muntu Dance Theater. These companies gave her the desire to further pursue traditional jazz dance and African dance styles.
She is developing her own style of dance called "Afro Fusion", which mixes different styles and techniques of African, Jazz and Hip Hop. "Confrontation", "Knowledge Is King" and "Bullet Proof" and “Wake-Up” are choreographic works that depict this style. Najwii, as she is affectionately called has performed in theater productions, "The Regal Theater" and "Don't Get Around Much Anymore", television and film, such as "The Blues Brother", "Brewster Place" and "The Chicago Story". Andrea's other dance credits include: Teaching Artist with the Joffrey Ballet, Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (C.A.P.E), Master Teacher with Chicago Public Schools’ All City Dance Ensemble’, Alvin Ailey Chicago Camp, Lead Artist for After School Matters and the Artistic Director of Urban Credo (Columbia College).
PC: Photo of Brenda Malika Moore by Rachel Neville Studios
Brenda Malika Moore,
Artistic Director of Najwa Junior Corps
From the Southside of Chicago to Senegal, West Africa, Ms. Moore has fashioned a unique brand of mystical, magical dance in motion and considers herself a dance ambassador. She is an electrifying performer, incomparable choreographer, and master teacher. Ms. Moore's first dance teacher was Lucille Ellis, one of the original Katherine Dunham dancers, who provide scholarships for Ms. Moore to study with Katherine Dunham at her school in East St. Louis, IL.
Ms. Moore studied with Katherine Dunham and a host of other Dunham dancers, such as, Lenwood Morris, Archie Savage, Clifton Fierce, Norman Davis, Wilbur Bradley, Tommy Gomez, Glenn Standifer and Eartha Kitt, to name a few, at Katherine Dunham's School in East St. Louis, IL. Ms. Moore was also Artist-In-Residence for the City of Chicago and has served on the Dance Program Advisory Panel for the Illinois Arts Council, Technical Advisory Dance Committee for Walter H. Dyett High School for the Arts, and Alvin Ailey Ambassador for the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University.