MK Abadoo – Dance and Commemorative Justice

MK Abadoo

Idris Talib Solomon Photography

MK Abadoo’s creative work exist at the crux of dance theater, racial justice organizing, and critical education studies. Combining contemporary African dance, classical American modern and postmodern techniques, traditional Ghanaian movement, and social Funk styles, Abadoo draws from the “tradition of black literature and art that unites past and present in unsparing dialog.”

She is currently on faculty in the Department of Dance and Choreography at Virginia Commonwealth University, as an inaugural Visiting Arts Fellow in the Racial Equity, Arts and Culture Core of iCubed, the Institute for Inclusion, Inquiry & Innovation. She was recently named a “Breakout star of 2018,” as a member of Dance Magazine’s annual 25 to Watch list of “rising stars” in the dance field. In 2017 she was honored as a Forty Under 40 awardee by Prince George’s County Social Innovation Fund for her leadership and achievement in the arts, and commissioned by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to create a new work for their Millennium Stage season. As a 2016-2017 U.S. Fulbright Fellow, she recently conducted eight months of creative research at the Noyam African Dance Institute in Dodowa, Ghana, and with the National Dance Company of Ghana.

Prior to this period, she performed for over a decade with internationally renowned dance companies and choreographers including Gesel Mason, Liz Lerman, Urban Bush Women, David Dorfman Dance and the Dance Exchange. As an educator, Ms. Abadoo is sought out for her keen ability to facilitate group learning as unique communities of shared wisdom, and embodied knowledge. She’s worked with students as a guest artist at the University of Maryland, Brown University, James Madison University, East Carolina University, Dickinson College and the University of Virginia. She earned her BFA in Dance Education with a concentration in Modern Dance and and a minor in Strategic Advertising from the University of the Arts. She also minored in African Studies as an international student at theUniversity of Ghana, and holds an MFA in dance from the University of Maryland.