Iyalorisa Dorothy Wilkie in motion Photo © Thomas B. Horton
Dorothy Wilkie is the Artistic Director and Choreographer for Kùlú Mèlé African Dance and Drum Ensemble one of Philadelphia’s oldest and most well regarded dance companies founded in 1969 by Baba Robert Crowder.
Dorothy began to pursue serious study of a wide repertoire of African and African Diasporan dance in 1955, approaching the genre as both an art form and (eventually) as an aspect of her spiritual practice as an orisha devotee and initiate. She gained a dance education primarily through regular attendance at dance and drumming conferences such as Kankouran, active participation in bembés, formal apprenticeships, self-guided study, and attendance at regular classes and workshops. She has pursued intensive study of Nigerian and Ghanaian dance with master drummer Robert Crowder, and with Saudah Bey, and has studied with Jackie Corley, James Marshall, Baba Ishangi, Xiomara Rodrigez (Afro-Cuban), Tenenfig Dioubate, M’Bemba Bangoura and Youssouf Koumbassa (Guinea) and others. She has also pursued formal study in Guinea with Les Ballets Africaine (2000), in Senegal with the National Dance Company of Senegal (2003), and in Cuba. She has performed with such ensembles as Chuck Davis, Nuevo Generacion, and Ilu Aiye. She choreographs Odunde’s Hucklebuck to Hip-Hop productions featuring African American vernacular social dances like the Mambo, Bop, Slop, and the Cha-Cha – dances she excelled in growing up in North Philadelphia. Wilkie also choreographs the bulk of Kulu Mele’s repertoire. She has choreographed for Lantern Theater Company and for African Rhythms at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2007, she was awarded a prestigious Pew Fellowship in the Arts for dance choreography.
For more on Iya Dorothy, visit www.kulumele.org
