MDance

Leah’s choreography, often playful, haunting, and surreal, has been seen at American Dance Festival, Global Women Performing Arts Festival (Korea), Inspired Dance Festival (Australia), Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra, ACDA, and Michigan Museum of Natural History, among others. She won Best Choreography at the 2022 Detroit Dance City Festival, and was a 2020 Maggie Alessee Choreography Award Finalist. Leah was an artist-in-residence at Greywood Arts in Ireland where she also studied Body Weather with Frank van de Ven.

She has taught courses and workshops in and around New York City, as well as at Wayne State University, University of Michigan, and Detroit Opera Theater. Most recently, she choreographed a performance for the Museum of Contemporary Detroit’s Annual Gala and was a guest artist at Wayne State University.

Leah holds an MFA from the University of Michigan. ​

In addition to serving as the Artistic Director for the Evanston Dance Ensemble 2 (ede2), Kara has performed with dance companies and theatres including Charleston City Ballet, The Ruth Page Civic Ballet of Chicago, South Chicago Dance Theatre, New Dances, Pittsburgh Public Theatre and Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre. Her choreography has been presented across the United States and internationally, including with the Dutch National Ballet.

While at the University of Michigan, Kara has deepened her research on the history and narrative representations of Black and African Diasporic people and stories within ballet, connecting the historically White artform to its North African roots as a means of restorative justice. Her work includes the theatricalization of Black folklore. During her graduate studies, she developed the original course “The History of the Black Ballerina” and co-founded the University of Michigan chapter of Ballet & Books, which provides free ballet education and literacy support to predominantly Black and Latiné students in low-income communities.

Tamara Tucker-Ibarisha is an artist and instructor who has a passion for movement, rhythm, and cultural tradition. With over two decades of dedicated study and performance, she has immersed herself in the vibrant traditions of Congolese dance, music, and drumming under the masterful direction of Biza Sompa as a core member of the Bichini Bia Congo Dance Theater Company and the co-founder of the Bala Ba Congo Children’s Company. Her training also includes West and East (Kenyan) African dance styles, which she brings to bear in her creative work as one of the founders and artistic directors for the Rhythm Reclaimed Collective’s Kinkulu, a dance company that explores various styles of the African Diaspora from the foundation of Congolese dance.