Mame Diarra Speis
Mame Diarra Speis (co-artistic director/performer; she/her), is a mother and movement improviser intrigued with play, risk, rigor, and experimentation. She is currently a performer and the Co-Artistic Director of Urban Bush Women. Speis has had the pleasure of working with Gesel Mason, the Dance Exchange, jumatatu poe, Deborah Hay (as part of Some Sweet Day curated by Ralph Lemon at the Museum of Modern Art), Baba Israel, Marjani Forte-Saunders, and Liz Lerman. She recently performed as a guest artist with MBDance in the Motherboard Suite with artist Saul Williams, under the direction of Bill T. Jones. Speis was the recipient of the Alvin Ailey New Directions Choreography Lab and was awarded a “Bessie” for Outstanding Performer in 2017. Her work has been featured at the Kennedy Center, Long Island University, the Joyce SoHo, Hollins University, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Danspace Project, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Dixon Place, BRIC, Dance Place, and the Kelly Strayhorn Theater. She has developed a movement and teaching practice that explores pelvic mobility as the root of powerful locomotion and as a point of connection to the stories, experiences, and lineages that reside in each of us. Speis has been a guest artist and teacher throughout the United States, South America, Senegal, and Europe. She has also taught at Princeton University as a Lecturer in Dance. Speis has been fortunate to continue building a strong relationship with her alma mater, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), in various capacities, and was the commencement speaker for the VCUarts graduating class of 2020–21. Her recent projects include Walking with Trane, co-choreographed with Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, and her collaboration with Chanon Judson-Johnson on Hair & Other Stories and Haint Blu.