ESTHER BAKER
bakertarpagadance@gmail.com
University of California Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA
M.F.A. in Choreography, Department of World Arts and Cultures June 2007
M.A. in Dance, Department of World Arts and Cultures June 2002
Philadelphia School of Massage and Bodywork Philadelphia, PA
Licensed Massage Therapist in PA June 2022
Bowdoin College Brunswick, Maine
B.A. Magna Cum Laude in Anthropology and French May 1997
University of Gaston Berger at Saint Louis 1996-7 Saint Louis, Senegal
Wolof, Geography, Dance
GRANTS and HONORS
● Write, edit, organize, and implement grants for artistic projects
Movement Research GPS to Latvia ($3000) 2022
New York Foundation for the Arts Emergency Grant to Dakar, Senegal ($3000) 2022
Mid Atlantic Arts USAI Grant ($17000) 2022
National Performance Network Audience Engagement Fund ($5000) 2021
National Performance Network Storytelling Fund ($5000) 2021
USArtists International Grant ($10,000) 2020
Philadelphia Foundation On The Table Community Neighborhood Grant ($1500) 2020
MAP Fund Grant ($25,000) 2019-20
Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Pew Fellowship (Nominee) 2019
Carnegie Mellon University Research Grant ($3000) 2019
NY Foundation for the Arts Emergency Fund Grant ($1250) 2019
National Dance Project Touring Award ($35,000) 2016-17
Iowa Arts Council Grant ($10,000) 2017
US State Department Cultural Envoy to Burkina Faso ($7000) 2016
University of the Arts Faculty Research Grant ($5000) 2016
Puffin Foundation Grant ($1500) 2015
Knight Foundation Dance USA Scholarship (to attend annual conference) 2015
Grant Wood Fellow Interdisciplinary Artists Residency at University of Iowa 2013-14
Headlands Center for the Arts Residency (8 weeks) 2013
New York Live Arts Suitcase Fund ($21,000) 2012
Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award ($5000) 2012
US State Department Cultural Envoy to Guinea ($8000) April 2007
US State Department Cultural Envoy to South Africa & Botswana ($13,000) 2006
Jacob K. Javits Fellowship for MFA at UCLA ($60,000) 2004-2008
CHOREOGRAPHY/PERFORMANCE
● Direct, co-direct, choreograph, perform, and organize all levels of multiple artistic residencies, touring, and production elements for company and collective including site-responsive and community projects
● Organize, administrator, fundraiser for national and international projects with five to fifty-five artists
Propelled Animals
Co-Founder of Interdisciplinary Arts and Social Justice Collective with members in Philadelphia, Chicago, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and NYC 2014-present
Cannonball Philly Fringe Festival, Philadelphia, PA September 2024
Njafane Festival, Dakar, Senegal May 2024
La Ville En Mouv’ment, Dakar, Senegal June 2022 June 2023 May 2024
Painted Bride, Philadelphia, PA April 2024
Palmerin Festival, Palmerin, Senegal June 2023
Philadelphia Contemporary Trade School- The Phila Thing June 2022
Lenape Sippu Earth Day Festival, Philadelphia April 2022
Kelly Strayhorn Theatre Switch Signal, Pittsburgh 2021
The Walder Foundation Chicago Takes 10 Pivot Arts Festival Installation 2021
High Concept Labs Artists in Residence 2020-2022
Detroit Philly Trade School virtual The Real Freedom Project 2020
Artist Talk with Propelled Animals via Kelly Strayhorn Theatre streaming 2020
Virtually BAAD Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance 2020
Chicago Architecture Biennale 2019
Lynden Sculpture Gardens Call and Response Series We Are The River/Art Yard 2019
BAAD FunHouse, 2018
Grinnell College 2018
The Englert Theater, Iowa City 2017
Baker & Tarpaga Dance Project, USA & Burkina Faso
Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of transnational performance project 2005-2019
Guess Who’s Coming for Dinner Chicago Architecture Biennale Chicago, Ill 2019
TreeWaterLand The Estro Festival, NY, NY 2018, NJ SPARC Festival Rutgers University, Pieter Performance Space, Los Angeles 2018
Whiteness Revisited BaadAss Women’s Festival, Bronx, In-Out Dance Festival Bobo Dioulosso,
Burkina Faso, Bali Spirit Festival Ubud, Bali, LabBodies Light Festival Baltimore, MD 2017
Beautiful Struggle Kelly Strayhorn Theatre Pittsburgh, PA, Denison University Granville, OH, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH, City of Columbus Black History Month Columbus, OH 2016
● Design syllabi and curriculum, teach classes in site-responsive art, choreography, dance, yoga, interdisciplinary collaboration, performance art, professional seminars, and social and climate justice and the arts, anti-racism practices decolonizing embedded in all curricula
Temple University, Boyer College of Music and Dance and School of Public Health Adjunct Faculty 2018-present
Carnegie Mellon University School of Art Visiting Artist 2018
Princeton University, Department of Dance Visiting Artist 2018
University of the Arts, Dance Department Faculty 2014-17
The University of Iowa, Grant Wood Fellow in Interdisciplinary Arts 2013-14
The Ohio State University Department of Dance Faculty 2009-13
VISUAL ART EXHIBITS
● Collaborate with visual artists to create photography, installations, and films
Dubuque Museum of Art, Dubuque IA Biennial 2015
Jed Williams Gallery, Philadelphia PA Queen Village (group exhibition) 2015
University of Iowa Gallery, Iowa City IA Sabotage (group exhibition) 2014
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco CA Dancing With Fear (group exhibition) 2014
CURATING
Be here now Pieter Space, Los Angeles CA 2018
Love Letter 2 Dance Lab, Tijuana Mexico 2016
Racism is a Sickness Art Church of West Philly, Philadelphia PA 2015
A love Letter 1 911 Television, Tijuana Mexico 2016
Border Border Border Conjure Dazzle Vox Populi Gallery, Philadelphia PA 2015
Ten Tiny Performances Black Thought Festival at Trumpet Blossom, Iowa City IA 2014
PERFORMANCE
Dancing Fear Collaboration with Guillermo Gomez-Pena and Saul G. Lopez Galeria de la Raza San Francisco, CA 2014
Whitewashed w/ James Graham SOMArts 100 Performance for the Hole San Francisco, CA 2014
Perform Chinatown Performed durational installation/action performance with Hind Benali and Allison Wyper Los Angeles, CA 2013
Performance Studies International June 2013 Performed new solo “Hijab Uncovered” with Julie Alpert as part of SOMArts Performance Redux
La Pocha Nostra Guillermo Gomez-Pena April 2013 San Francisco, CA World premiere of “Corpo Inserructo: The Robo Proletariat” at the Performance Art Institute
Interdisciplinary Collaboration with Nicole Bauguss June 2012 Raleigh, N. Carolina Performance Installation Mixed Media, University of North Carolina
SOMArts 100 Performances Third Strike Festival December 2011 San Francisco, CA Performance with Guillermo Gomez-Pena and Gdog Galindo on Bay Area Public Television
David Rousseve/REALITY Company, 2004-2010 National Tour organized by MAPP Los Angeles, CA E-Moves Festival at Harlem Stage, New York, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, University of Maryland, Montclair State University, New Jersey, Yerba Buena, San Francisco, UCLA Live, Los Angeles, Columbia College, Chicago, Jacobs Pillow, Mass., Danspace Project, NYC
DAFRA West African Dance and Drum Group, perform traditional dance and song Los Angeles, CA New Delhi Festival of Sacred Music, Hanoi International High School Vietnam, Los Angeles World Festival of Sacred Music, Santa Ana Festival, Santa Clarita Festival, Skirball Cultural Center, Ford Amphitheatre World Fun Series, LA’s Best Assembly Program, Santa Monica Festival, Santa Barbara Green Festival, Private Hollywood Industry Events 2007-present
Victoria Marks Company, NOW Festival 2005 Los Angeles, CA
Marianne Kim, Highways Performance Space 2005 Yvonne Rainer and Simone Forti, Getty Museum 2004 Dialogue De Corps International Dance Festival 2004 Kakat’Art Dance Theater Company 2002
Kaay Fecc Contemporary Dance Festival 2002
Off The Hip, Founding Member of Improvisational Performance Collective 2000-2004
Contact Improvisation Festival, Highways Performance 2001
Deborah Slater Dance Theater, Modern dance company based at Studio 210, “Passing San Francisco, CA
National Center for Korean Traditional Dance 1998-9
INTERNATIONAL/COMMUNITY TEACHING
Njafane Festival and La Ville En Mouv’ment Dakar, Senegal
Choreograph a site responsive project with 10 dancers and gave workshops to 40 dancers from around Senegal May 2024
Friends Select School, Philadelphia, PA
Choreograph dances and teach dance to middle school students 2019-2020
Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, Philadelphia, PA
Outdoor Environmental Educator June 2018-2020
Philadelphia Dance Academy, Philadelphia, PA
Choreograph and teach to youth age 8-16- West African Dance, Site Specific Dance, and Choreography 101
Jan 2017-present
Earthdance, Plainfield MA
Teach interdisciplinary collaboration and environmental dance workshops at Moving Arts Lab June 2014-present
Ouagadougou Dance and Drum Study Abroad Program, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Co-direct workshop for students from USA, Uganda, Brazil, Japan, Taiwan, Niger, and Burkina Faso. Students train with African traditional and contemporary choreographers, musicians, visual artists and engage in intercultural collaboration. 2010-15
Ingravitas Escencia Dance Company, Tijuana Mexico
One week of workshops and informal performance at LabSpace. July 2016
La Pocha Nostra/Guillermo Gomez Pena, Tijuana Mexico and San Francisco CA
Associate Facilitator for Radical Performance Pedagogy 2014-16
SOCIAL JUSTICE WORK AND TRAINING
Healing Our Bias: Restorative Justice Practices and Dialogue, Philadelphia, PA
Co-designing and co-facilitating multi-series anti-racism workshops September 2018-2019
Co-Organizer Anti-Racism Meredith School Group, Philadelphia, PA
Co-facilitate monthly group at Meredith Elementary School 2016-2019
People's Institute for Survival and Beyond, New York, NY
Undoing Racism and Community Organizing workshop participant 2015-2016
Undoing racism and community organizing workshop co-organizer, Philadelphia, PA
Co-organized community workshop for Philadelphia Dance for Justice group with the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond 2016
ADDITIONAL SKILLS
● Fluent French speaker and well versed in written communication
● Spanish and Wolof basic comprehension
● Microsoft Word, google docs, sites
● Social Media: Instagram, Facebook, Marco Polo