AMINAIZM/ Emotions Danced
About Choreographer:
AMINA HECKSTALL
Amina Olushola Heckstall, is a dancer with over twenty-eight years of dance training, performance, and choreography experience. Local companies, since her beginnings at the age of three, have sought after Amina as a dancer and choreographer.
Amina Heckstall is not an unfamiliar name in the East Coast Dance Community. Ms. Heckstall is also known for being an African American dancer who can embody the essence of the ancestors of Africa within her movements and choreography. Due to her many years of training in all forms of dance (with a focus on the cultural arts of the West African Diaspora) she has been able to cross cultural boundaries through her choreography and work within the community as well as with youth in various environments around the world.
Amina Heckstall is a Young Master, called, "Ballet International African" by some of Guinea's local company directors in 2005; asked to teach a class in traditional West African djembe dance while in Senegal for the first time on Babacar & Cheick M'Baye's "Going Home" Trip in 1999 and again in 2001, awarded The Sam and May Rudin Foundation Community Service Fellowship in Arts Education in 2001; A four time recipient of The Citizens For New York's Building Blocks and New Neighbors Grant, consecutively - there's is no doubt that she has found her path and persevered.
Amina has been a freelance dance instructor and a guest artist with the all-Guinean "Tokounou All-Abilities Dance Company" (a company with able bodied and disabled African dancers and drummers) with whom she has done a six-week residency in Florida teaching dance to at-risk/ foster care children and performing June, July, and August 2002. In September of 2002 she went with Sidiki Conde (Director of Tokounou), Nikki Heckstall, and Bintu Camara (Of Les Percussions De Guinee) to Italy to perform in Rome and Grosseto for a organization of artists with disabilities, festival called, "La Farfala" (The Butterfly).
In October of 2002, Amina performed for the first time with the internationally known, all Guinea, African company Les Mervielle De Guinea African Ballet. She continues to perform with them when available, most recently in Boulder, Colorado August 2006.
In June of 2004, Amina did a 7-day concert production with M'Bemba Bangoura's, "G'Bassikolo Dancers And Drummers" in Toronto, Canada for Dance Dimensions.
In January/ February 2005 Amina traveled to Guinea with Master drummer and lead musician for Merveille De Guinea, Fode Bangoura, to study with The Ballet of Matam, and other local African Ballets in Conakry, Guinea West Africa.
During July 14th to 16th, 2005 Amina produced the first Annual African Dance and Drum Conference in Brooklyn, NY called, "Africa Meets African America Cultural Arts Festival". This has now become her dance company’s annual event.
July & August 2002, 2003, 2005, and 2006 film screenings for The African Film Festival featured performances by Les Mervielle De Guinee in Harlem and Brooklyn venues (guest artist, Amina Heckstall) and Ballet International Africans (at The Queens Museum of Art) throughout Queens, New York.
In 2007, Amina Heckstall's Contemporary dance company, AMINAIZM/ Emotions Danced debuted, "Remember Me, Africa" at New Dance Group Theater, (NYC) and have gone on to perform at several choreographer showcases since then, such as Dance Theater Workshop/ Movement Research, GreenSpace Theater, The Afrikan Poetry Theatre, and The Abrons Arts Center creating a buzz in the dance industry about the group.
Amina can most recently be seen dancing in Afro-Punk, European/ Nigerian artist, Wunmi's new video, "Crossover" from her album, "A.L.A. - African Living Abroad" and in footage from DanzAfrica Puerto Rico for which she was recently selected to perform in March 2009.
In her free time, Amina teaches children Jazz dance, African dance, song, drum, and folklore in various after school programs, dance schools, and community centers thorughout New York City.
Amina Heckstall is not an unfamiliar name in the East Coast Dance Community. Ms. Heckstall is also known for being an African American dancer who can embody the essence of the ancestors of Africa within her movements and choreography. Due to her many years of training in all forms of dance (with a focus on the cultural arts of the West African Diaspora) she has been able to cross cultural boundaries through her choreography and work within the community as well as with youth in various environments around the world.
Amina Heckstall is a Young Master, called, "Ballet International African" by some of Guinea's local company directors in 2005; asked to teach a class in traditional West African djembe dance while in Senegal for the first time on Babacar & Cheick M'Baye's "Going Home" Trip in 1999 and again in 2001, awarded The Sam and May Rudin Foundation Community Service Fellowship in Arts Education in 2001; A four time recipient of The Citizens For New York's Building Blocks and New Neighbors Grant, consecutively - there's is no doubt that she has found her path and persevered.
Amina has been a freelance dance instructor and a guest artist with the all-Guinean "Tokounou All-Abilities Dance Company" (a company with able bodied and disabled African dancers and drummers) with whom she has done a six-week residency in Florida teaching dance to at-risk/ foster care children and performing June, July, and August 2002. In September of 2002 she went with Sidiki Conde (Director of Tokounou), Nikki Heckstall, and Bintu Camara (Of Les Percussions De Guinee) to Italy to perform in Rome and Grosseto for a organization of artists with disabilities, festival called, "La Farfala" (The Butterfly).
In October of 2002, Amina performed for the first time with the internationally known, all Guinea, African company Les Mervielle De Guinea African Ballet. She continues to perform with them when available, most recently in Boulder, Colorado August 2006.
In June of 2004, Amina did a 7-day concert production with M'Bemba Bangoura's, "G'Bassikolo Dancers And Drummers" in Toronto, Canada for Dance Dimensions.
In January/ February 2005 Amina traveled to Guinea with Master drummer and lead musician for Merveille De Guinea, Fode Bangoura, to study with The Ballet of Matam, and other local African Ballets in Conakry, Guinea West Africa.
During July 14th to 16th, 2005 Amina produced the first Annual African Dance and Drum Conference in Brooklyn, NY called, "Africa Meets African America Cultural Arts Festival". This has now become her dance company’s annual event.
July & August 2002, 2003, 2005, and 2006 film screenings for The African Film Festival featured performances by Les Mervielle De Guinee in Harlem and Brooklyn venues (guest artist, Amina Heckstall) and Ballet International Africans (at The Queens Museum of Art) throughout Queens, New York.
In 2007, Amina Heckstall's Contemporary dance company, AMINAIZM/ Emotions Danced debuted, "Remember Me, Africa" at New Dance Group Theater, (NYC) and have gone on to perform at several choreographer showcases since then, such as Dance Theater Workshop/ Movement Research, GreenSpace Theater, The Afrikan Poetry Theatre, and The Abrons Arts Center creating a buzz in the dance industry about the group.
Amina can most recently be seen dancing in Afro-Punk, European/ Nigerian artist, Wunmi's new video, "Crossover" from her album, "A.L.A. - African Living Abroad" and in footage from DanzAfrica Puerto Rico for which she was recently selected to perform in March 2009.
In her free time, Amina teaches children Jazz dance, African dance, song, drum, and folklore in various after school programs, dance schools, and community centers thorughout New York City.
