Rachel Carrico holds a Ph.D. in Critical Dance Studies from the University of California–Riverside, an M.A. in Performance Studies from NYU, and a teaching certificate from the Limón Institute. Her research explores the aesthetic, political, and social histories of second lining, an improvisational dance form rooted in New Orleans's African diaspora parading traditions. Her scholarship has been published in TDR: The Drama Review, TBS: The Black Scholar, and several edited volumes: Freedom’s Dance: The Second Line in New Orleans (LSU Press: 2017), The Oxford Handbook on Dance and Competition (Oxford UP: 2018), Contemporary Scholars and Artists Respond to the Baby Dolls of New Orleans (University of Mississippi Press: 2018), and The Futures of Dance Studies (University of Wisconsin Press: 2019). Dr. Carrico's research was awarded the Society of Dance History Scholars' Selma Jeanne Cohen Award for excellence in dance scholarship and supported by grants from the UC President’s Dissertation Year Fellowship Program, the UC Center for New Racial Studies, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, and the Center for Gulf South Research at Tulane University.

Raised in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Lacina Coulibaly trained in West African dance and European contemporary dance, dancing with the Ballet National du Burkina Faso, Compagnie Salia Nï Seydou, and Irène Tassambedo, before co-founding Kongo Ba Teria with Souleymane Badolo. Reshaping traditional values to speak to present day concerns, Kongo BaTeria is a leading promoter of contemporary dance in West Africa. From 1996-2000, Compagnie Kongo Ba Téria performed on many African stages in countries such as Senegal, Ivory Coast, Benin, and Cameroon. Since 2000, the company has toured throughout Europe to France, Italy, Denmark, Spain, Belgium, and Germany. Coulibaly and Badolo’s creations have won international awards, including the Pan-African competition SANGA. Coulibaly’s recent work includes a solo, which he has presented at Cornell, NYU and Stonybrook University, among other venues, and guest appearances with internationally known Faso Dance Theatre. Coulibaly is a featured artist in the documentary Movement (R)evolution Africa, which documents the emergent experimental African dance scene. His recent work includes an ongoing, multi-sited research collaboration with Emily Coates, leading to the creation of a work-in-progress duet titled “Ici Ou Ailleurs.” He has taught at the University of Florida and Brown University, and is currently on faculty at Yale.

https://theaterstudies.yale.edu/people/lacina-coulibaly

Lacina Coulibaly’s residency is a partnership between UF College of the Arts and New York Live Arts, supported in part by the College of the Arts Creative B Summer Program in partnership with the Office of the Provost.

(New Orleans, LA) Jarrell Hamilton is a mother, artistic director, choreographer, writer, creative altruist, entertainer, educator, and Founder of TBean Productions. Hamilton holds a Master’s in Fine Arts degree in Interdisciplinary Studies (Choreography and African American Studies from Tulane University with a specific focus in Afro-diasporic spiritual traditions) and a Bachelor in Fine Arts in Dance Performance from Southern Methodist University/ Meadows School of the Arts. Hamilton continued her performance and choreographic research at the American Dance Festival, Asé Cultural Arts Center: Institute for Cultural Education, Evolve Diaspora (Cuba), Jacob’s Pillow Improv and Jazz traditions, Links Hall Residency (Chicago,IL), Movement of the People (NYC), and Urban Bush Women’s Choreographic Institute (Pilot) and Summer Leadership Institute for Undoing Racism. 

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Hamilton is a seven-time Big Easy Classical Arts Award nominee, 2018 Best Ensemble (Ain’t Misbehavin’), 2016 Best Modern Presentation, and 2013 Winner for Best Contemporary Choreographer. She is an honoree of the United States President’s Committee and Humanities Coming Up Taller Award, American College Dance Association for her titled choreographic work EPISODES, and Tulane’s School of Liberal Art’s Fellowship Award. 

Hamilton’s life work is to support creatives, women, mothers and the youth to create abundance, creativity, and an elevated sense of self, cultivated from within.

https://www.jarrellhamilton.com/about

Jarrell Hamilton’s residency is sponsored by the ongoing ‘Disaster & the Body’ research project funded by the UF Office of Research, Center for Humanities in the Public Sphere, the Center for Arts, Migration, and Entrepreneurship, and the College of the Arts Creative B Summer Program in partnership with the Office of the Provost.