New Dance Faculty

Born in Havana, Cuba, Neri holds an MFA in dance with a minor in film from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and is a PhD candidate at the University of West Indies. She also studied at Instituto Superior de Artes and Escuela Nacional de Instructores de Artes in, Havana. Neri is the founder and artistic director of IFE-ILE Afro-Cuban Dance Company, based in Miami, which repertoire combines traditional and contemporary fusion dance works. The company founded in 1996 has performed worldwide in tours, commercials and films, and also produces the IFE-ILE Afro-Cuban Dance Festival every summer in Miami, FL, since its creation in 1998. The festival contains an academic conference component that attracts local and international participants and renowned scholars among them the late Dr. Katherine Dunham in 2004. During her career, spanning over twenty years, Neri has worked on numerous international tours, movies, television and theatrical productions with renowned artists. She choreographed Estefan’s Grammy award-winning video "No me Dejes de Querer" and actor Andy Garcia’s directorial debut movie "The Lost City." Currently, Neri is completing a doctorate in Cultural Studies at the University of West Indies. Her research focuses on dance and migration, cultural appropriation, multimedia performances and hybridization in popular culture. In Fall 24, Neri will be teaching Afro-Cuban technique at Amherst and UMass, creating a repertory project at UMass, and teaching a dance history course at Amherst College. UMass: Dance 191C Afro -Cuban technique and Dance 391R Afro-Cuban repertoire. AC course numbers, TBD.  

A lifelong practitioner of West African Dance, Mustapha Braimah has over two decades of international experience and artistic acclaim in his various roles as an artist-scholar from Ghana, West Africa. His artistic practice and making are deeply rooted in contemporary, popular, and traditional forms. He is a choreographer, educator, curator, performer, musician, and administrator, and he will provide primary source understanding of African Diasporic dance and music as well as cultural context in all courses he teaches. Further, he will contribute rigorous dancer development through his technique and repertory courses. Mustapha’s scholarship includes work to make visible the traditional West African Forms that are disappearing. This Fall, he will be teaching Introduction to West African Dance (Dance 112), Dance History (Dance 171GC), and Repertory (Dance 305CR).

Angelica Monteiro is a storyteller, movement artist, and educator from the Brazilian Amazon. Her art comes from the complexity of growing up between the rainforest and the urban landscape while crossing continental borders. She combines movements from the umbrella of street dances, Amazonian traditions, visionary fiction, and poetry to create her embodied storytelling methodology. Angelica is passionate about building bridges instead of borders which is visible through her works such as A Riverside Tale, and Under the Same Roof, both collaborations between Amazonian and US artists. She has an anthropological approach to dance that creates pathways for fierce embodied research, anti-colonial communication, and scientific reasoning in the performing arts world. Please keep an eye out for course offerings from Angelica for next Fall semester. 

Michael Ofori offers a brand new course for MHC's dance department: Dance, Performance and Text (Dance 268). In addition, Michael will be drumming in upcoming West African Dance courses. Michael is on the faculty at MHC in Film Media Theater where he teaches acting and various courses in interdisciplinary arts and African theater and performance. His research and creative interests include actor training, contemporary trends in African theater and performance, transatlantic Black performance aesthetics, directing and experiments in interdisciplinary collaborations.

Ian Berg is a Boston-based tap dancer, performer, and teacher. Ian has been dancing since an early age and has training and performance experience in tap dance, ballet, modern dance, jazz, contact improvisation and a variety of other styles and approaches. Ian is also a musician, composer and arranger. He is an alum of The School at Jacob's Pillow and the Boston Conservatory with a BFA in Contemporary Dance Performance. Ian has served as an adjunct professor at Endicott College and Boston University and a guest lecturer at Tufts University teaching tap dance practice and history. Ian offers Intermediate Tap Dance (Dance 287) at MHC.