Contact Penny
PG Institute
80 Tennyson
Detroit, MI 48203
Website: www.pennygodboldo.com
313.717.0521
PenGodBold@aol.com
Penny Godboldo
Currently Ms Godboldo heads Curriculum Development in Dunham Arts with Hayti Heritage Center in Durham, North Carolina ‧ and is Director of the Annual Katherine Dunham Virtual Birthday Celebration on June 22 each year.
She teaches at:
Cumbe: Center for African and Diaspora Dance in Brooklyn, N.Y. since 2012,
now offered online since 2020
Penny also teaches several Dunham Technique Workshops & Intensives each year. Please contact Penny for more information.
Penny Godboldo was Associate Professor of the Dance Performance and Education programs at Marygrove College in Detroit for 35 years and former Chair of Dance, a position she held for 18 years. Godboldo was certified to teach by Katherine Dunham in 1993, and served as Demonstrator for Ms. Dunham during master classes until her death in 2006. Godboldo also performed in her works in St. Louis and Buffalo, N.Y.
Godboldo has taught Dunham Technique in Japan, Benin, West Africa and Israel.. One of her proudest accomplishments is that in 1997 she was a guest teacher in the CHAF Conference, La Danse Haitienne: Histoire et Traditions in Port au Prince.
Professor Godboldo has conducted research in Cuba, Brasil, Benin and Haiti where she researched and studied traditional and popular dances.
Receiving her first training in Dunham Technique from the late Clifford Fears (a former Dunham company member), she has trained with other former members: Talley Beatty, Madame Lavinia Williams-Yarborough, Tommy Gomez, Pearl Reynolds, and Vanoye Aikens, among others.
Receiving her license in 2004, Minister Godboldo has been Artistic Director of the Hartford Memorial Baptist Church Liturgical Dance Ministry since 1993. (Charles C. Adams, Pastor).
She has presented papers at Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and Boston University. She has taught tens of thousands of school children over the past four decades throughout the state of Michigan. She has taught youth at:
Living Arts Center and COMPÁS - Center of Music & Performing Arts Southwest, as well at MiAA (Michigan Arts Access)
For 27 years she was co- designer/ Director of the SHEP (Sacred Heart Enrichment Program) a summer mentoring program for adolescent girls.
Ms. Godboldo is Artistic Director of the P.G Institute and Co-Director of the Detroit Legacy Project, an organization that promotes the legacy of Madame Katherine Dunham, and others who have greatly influenced the art and culture of Detroit and our world.
Godboldo is a 2018 recipient of the Kresge Artist Fellow award.