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Dance in DC: Akosua Amoakua @ Nubian Hueman
Premieres Friday, December 18 at 7pm ET
Join Afrobeats dancer Akosua Amoakua for an energetic performance at Nubian Hueman, a fashion apparel, accessories, art, and beauty store in Anacostia. This online event will premiere free of charge on Friday, December 18 at 7pm ET on this page.
This event is part of our Mars Arts DC: Virtual—Dance in DC. Throughout these six short films, we celebrate the dynamic creativity of the local dance scene alongside the entrepreneurial spirit of local businesses. Curated and co-directed by dancer/choreographer C. Lorenzo Evans III—who also serves as Washington Performing Arts’s Chief Operating Officer and Director of Finance—each Dance in DC film pairs a dance artist with a signature DC business. Award-winning Chilean-born local filmmaker and music-video director, Francisco Campos-Lopez, filmed and co-directed the pairings on location. Each production features a site-specific work, along with conversations between dancers and business owners who speak about their community in these critical times.
About the Artist
Born and raised in Washington, DC, Akosua Amoakua is influenced by Ghanaian culture, the lessons learned from an upbringing in traditional Senegalese ballet, and a hint of life in the Caribbean. Her undergraduate career at Howard University is a melting pot of exercise science and an introduction to the world of modern dance. This led her to found ASA! Enterprises LLC in 2011—an umbrella company covering one of the first international African dance fitness programs, a line of sport and dance apparel, a group fitness certification, ASA! Kelenya performing company, the SBJ West African Dance and Mentorship program, and the ASA! Body Personal Training Studio. She is known for propelling the culture of Afrobeat dance through its origins, and her expertise in both traditional and contemporary West African dance styles has birthed a technique that combines the old with the new. Amoakua also serves as co-founder and costume designer for FUZE Carnival, a troupe based in Antigua that seeks to highlight the connections between African and Caribbean culture.
About the Business
Nubian Hueman features fashion apparel, accessories, art, and beauty brands that reflect the African Diaspora. Founder Anika Hobbs curated a space where artists from six different continents, representing more than 400 distinct brands, could create and sell on an international platform. With a mantra of “bridging cultures, building futures…creatively,” it aspires to flourish into a multifaceted brand that provides a retail conduit to a target market of African-oriented fashionistas and art enthusiasts alike. Nubian Hueman not only believes in its mission to influence physical appearance, but also its ability to improve quality of lives.
Mars Arts DC is a partnership of Mars, Incorporated and Washington Performing Arts, with support from Jacqueline Badger Mars.
Mars Arts DC: Virtual—Dance in DC is made possible in part through the support of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Events DC, a Small Business Recovery Microgrant from the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development administered by the Latino Economic Development Center, and the HMF Beaudoin Family Foundation.
In addition, WPA thanks the Royal Norwegian Embassy, ChasenBoscolo, Encompass Supply/Rudy Burwell and Mona Mohib, and Washington Gas for their support of WPA’s innovative virtual community programming in 2020.
