A'Keitha Carey
A’Keitha Carey--Global Dance Education Strategist
I am a Bahamian Dance Educator, Performance Artist, Choreographer, and Scholar. I attended Florida International University where I completed my B.A. in Dance and later received an M.F.A. in Dance from Florida State University. I hold a Certificate in Women's Studies at Texas Woman's University and a Dance Certification in K-12 in the state of Florida. I am currently pursuing a Certificate in African and African Diaspora Studies at Florida International University. I have taught Dance and Dance Studies in undergraduate and graduate programs nationally and taught Dance in K-12 in Florida where I served as Department Chair of the Enrichment Program at Indian Ridge Middle School (2017-2018). I am an Adjunct Professor at Miami Dade College Kendall Campus and Barry University and currently a member of Olujimi Dance Theatre in Miami, Florida. I have published widely in peer reviewed journals and books on the dance technique CaribFunk that I developed. CaribFunk is a fusion of Afro‐Caribbean, ballet, modern, and fitness principles and rooted in Africanist and Euro-American aesthetics and expressions.
I research Caribbean spaces, locating movements that are indigenous, contemporary, and fusion based. I also investigate how Caribbean cultural performance (Bahamian Junkanoo, Trinidadian Carnival, and Jamaican Dancehall) can be viewed as praxis. CaribFunk dance technique was developed based on these ideas and philosophical inquiries. I created CaribFunk genre over 20 years ago when I was a young teacher and choreographer living in Miami, Florida. I am classically trained, my first introduction to dance was in the Bahamas where I learned ballet. I always had this circular aquatic rhythm in my body and my vocabulary was an expression of this circular-linearity. I was unaware at the time why I innately moved this way, not realizing that "hey, I am a Caribbean woman" who grew up around soca, calypso, and reggae and this movement and music informed how I express myself kinesthetically. I was not introduced to Haitian, Afro Cuban, and West African dance until I entered college (in Miami, FL), yet I always felt a divine connection to the Yoruba goddess of love and sensuality Ochun as my body sinuously rotated conjuring up the rivers of passion. I thought that fusing these diverse but common elements was choreographically taboo and struggled to remain in one genre. I lost the battle on many occasions--giving in to the power of the hip wine and the virtuosic expression of the (female) body through the pelvis and the inner-outer rotation of the knees. I am intrigued and fascinated with the notion of how the juxtaposition of two cultures (Congolese and European) can unite through the power of the “hip wine,” strength and virtuosic ability.
I never connected the power of the hip wine, strength and virtuosic ability to an actual technique or any historical doctrine--I was just movin' to the riddim'. It wasn’t until I entered graduate school that I started to make connections and ask questions as to why I moved this way, why certain music dictated specific etiquette, and what the social ramifications were when dancing in a particular way and in a specific manner at an event? I finally had language to define and describe my experiences of shaming, the politics of respectability, body politics, fetishization etc. This was particularly a point of interest to me because cultural events such as Junkanoo, Carnival, and the Dancehall experience evokes such a powerful hypnotic eruption in the body that it became clear that I needed to research the source and history. Revelation became proclamation of the true source of my provenance…The Congo! Taking in all of this cultural, historical, social, and political theory, I wanted to develop a technique that addressed identity, culture, and citizenship but also acknowledged and included Caribbean cultural performance not only as praxis but as a way of expressing stories--mine, hers , his, theirs, ours. . .
I am a Bahamian Dance Educator, Performance Artist, Choreographer, and Scholar. I attended Florida International University where I completed my B.A. in Dance and later received an M.F.A. in Dance from Florida State University. I hold a Certificate in Women's Studies at Texas Woman's University and a Dance Certification in K-12 in the state of Florida. I am currently pursuing a Certificate in African and African Diaspora Studies at Florida International University. I have taught Dance and Dance Studies in undergraduate and graduate programs nationally and taught Dance in K-12 in Florida where I served as Department Chair of the Enrichment Program at Indian Ridge Middle School (2017-2018). I am an Adjunct Professor at Miami Dade College Kendall Campus and Barry University and currently a member of Olujimi Dance Theatre in Miami, Florida. I have published widely in peer reviewed journals and books on the dance technique CaribFunk that I developed. CaribFunk is a fusion of Afro‐Caribbean, ballet, modern, and fitness principles and rooted in Africanist and Euro-American aesthetics and expressions.
I research Caribbean spaces, locating movements that are indigenous, contemporary, and fusion based. I also investigate how Caribbean cultural performance (Bahamian Junkanoo, Trinidadian Carnival, and Jamaican Dancehall) can be viewed as praxis. CaribFunk dance technique was developed based on these ideas and philosophical inquiries. I created CaribFunk genre over 20 years ago when I was a young teacher and choreographer living in Miami, Florida. I am classically trained, my first introduction to dance was in the Bahamas where I learned ballet. I always had this circular aquatic rhythm in my body and my vocabulary was an expression of this circular-linearity. I was unaware at the time why I innately moved this way, not realizing that "hey, I am a Caribbean woman" who grew up around soca, calypso, and reggae and this movement and music informed how I express myself kinesthetically. I was not introduced to Haitian, Afro Cuban, and West African dance until I entered college (in Miami, FL), yet I always felt a divine connection to the Yoruba goddess of love and sensuality Ochun as my body sinuously rotated conjuring up the rivers of passion. I thought that fusing these diverse but common elements was choreographically taboo and struggled to remain in one genre. I lost the battle on many occasions--giving in to the power of the hip wine and the virtuosic expression of the (female) body through the pelvis and the inner-outer rotation of the knees. I am intrigued and fascinated with the notion of how the juxtaposition of two cultures (Congolese and European) can unite through the power of the “hip wine,” strength and virtuosic ability.
I never connected the power of the hip wine, strength and virtuosic ability to an actual technique or any historical doctrine--I was just movin' to the riddim'. It wasn’t until I entered graduate school that I started to make connections and ask questions as to why I moved this way, why certain music dictated specific etiquette, and what the social ramifications were when dancing in a particular way and in a specific manner at an event? I finally had language to define and describe my experiences of shaming, the politics of respectability, body politics, fetishization etc. This was particularly a point of interest to me because cultural events such as Junkanoo, Carnival, and the Dancehall experience evokes such a powerful hypnotic eruption in the body that it became clear that I needed to research the source and history. Revelation became proclamation of the true source of my provenance…The Congo! Taking in all of this cultural, historical, social, and political theory, I wanted to develop a technique that addressed identity, culture, and citizenship but also acknowledged and included Caribbean cultural performance not only as praxis but as a way of expressing stories--mine, hers , his, theirs, ours. . .