New Dance Faculty

A lifelong practitioner of West African Dance, Mustapha Braimah has over two decades of international experience and artistic acclaim in his various roles as an artist-scholar from Ghana, West Africa. His artistic practice and making are deeply rooted in contemporary, popular, and traditional forms. He is a choreographer, educator, curator, performer, musician, and administrator, and he will provide primary source understanding of African Diasporic dance and music as well as cultural context in all courses he teaches. Further, he will contribute rigorous dancer development through his technique and repertory courses. Mustapha’s scholarship includes work to make visible the traditional West African Forms that are disappearing. This Fall, he will be teaching Introduction to West African Dance (Dance 112), Dance History (Dance 171GC), and Repertory (Dance 305CR).

Angelica Monteiro is a storyteller, movement artist, and educator from the Brazilian Amazon. Her art comes from the complexity of growing up between the rainforest and the urban landscape while crossing continental borders. She combines movements from the umbrella of street dances, Amazonian traditions, visionary fiction, and poetry to create her embodied storytelling methodology. Angelica is passionate about building bridges instead of borders which is visible through her works such as A Riverside Tale, and Under the Same Roof, both collaborations between Amazonian and US artists. She has an anthropological approach to dance that creates pathways for fierce embodied research, anti-colonial communication, and scientific reasoning in the performing arts world. Please keep an eye out for course offerings from Angelica for next Fall semester. 

Michael Ofori offers a brand new course for MHC's dance department: Dance, Performance and Text (Dance 268). In addition, Michael will be drumming in upcoming West African Dance courses. Michael is on the faculty at MHC in Film Media Theater where he teaches acting and various courses in interdisciplinary arts and African theater and performance. His research and creative interests include actor training, contemporary trends in African theater and performance, transatlantic Black performance aesthetics, directing and experiments in interdisciplinary collaborations.

Ian Berg is a Boston-based tap dancer, performer, and teacher. Ian has been dancing since an early age and has training and performance experience in tap dance, ballet, modern dance, jazz, contact improvisation and a variety of other styles and approaches. Ian is also a musician, composer and arranger. He is an alum of The School at Jacob's Pillow and the Boston Conservatory with a BFA in Contemporary Dance Performance. Ian has served as an adjunct professor at Endicott College and Boston University and a guest lecturer at Tufts University teaching tap dance practice and history. Ian offers Intermediate Tap Dance (Dance 287) at MHC.