Amansu Eason

Amansu Eason began performing at age 4 with the Morning Bishop Theatre Playhouse, and at age 10, began studying ballet, jazz, tap, and modern at the Emerson School for the Visual and Performing Arts in his hometown of Gary, Indiana. During the same time he also began extensive training in West African folklore and dance with the Alyo Children’s Dance Company in Chicago, Illinois.

Fast forward to 2003: as a dance minor at Bowling Green State University and a major of Africana Studies, he was introduced to the Katherine Dunham Technique by Dr. Halifu Osumare. Though his father was a professor at BGSU, he accredits the Dunham Technique for giving him an academic voice and confidence to be a scholar. He has been studying Dunham Technique at the annual Dunham Seminar in St. Louis since 2008, and has been training for Certification since 2009.

Throughout his career, he has performed with Ben Harper, opened for artists such as Omarion, Marcus Houston, Mary, Mary, Arrested Development, and presented a solo for the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. He has performed on stages and in spaces all over the U.S. as well as in Canada, Mexico, and Brazil and has taught dance throughout Northwest Indiana, Ohio and the Chicago area for the past 13 years.

This fall 2013, Amansu will join the faculty of Dance at Columbia College in Chicago. He is currently a part of the artistic staff of both the South Shore Dance Alliance in Griffith, IN) and Deeply Rooted Productions in Chicago, IL. He has been a principal dancer with the Muntu African Dance Theatre of Chicago for past eight years, where he has also choreographed an award winning tribute to Michael Jackson for the company. Amansu recently returned from Ga’aton, Israel, where he gave a dance workshop series at the direct request of the Ga’ aton Kibbutz dance commune.