Meet the collective
Lafotographeuse (née Amanda Adams-Louis)
In 2005, Lafotographeuse (née Amanda Adams-Louis) found her artistic joy on the dance floor to a post-disco soundtrack while attending a party called Soul in the Hole. Lafotographeuse is a Brooklyn based photographer, educator, curriculum/program designer, cultural producer, house music aficionado, club kid and street dance scholar. She earned her BFA in Photography from Pratt Institute and is a Studio Art alumna of the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. Born in the U.S. and raised in Europe, Africa and the Caribbean, Lafotographeuse’s oeuvre is informed by her experiences living, learning and creating between multiple continents and cultures during her formative years. Her creative practice exists at the nexus of art, education and archive. Her bodies of work celebrate dance forms developed from movement vocabularies, music and performance traditions defined by Black, LGBTQIA, and Latinx communities in New York City. Lafotographeuse collaborates with dance artists to create images, exhibitions, workshops and panels that highlight Black pleasure, play, leisure, and joy in motion. Her imagery, research and production work is dedicated to illuminating the legacies of indigenous NYC dance subcultures developed to the sounds of the Disco, Funk, House, Hip-Hop, R&B, Philly Soul, and other musical genres from the African diaspora.
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FOUNDER & PRINCIPAL
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ADIVSOR
Educated at Pratt Institute’s School of Art and Design, Brian Polite has performed as a poet, MC, vocalist, beatboxer, and dancer. From 1996 to 2005 he performed and recorded with the spoken word group Second2Last. In 2004 he was plucked from NYC’s underground club scene and put on stage by Adia Tamar Whitaker. Since then his talents have led him to collaborations with various companies and choreographers, like Camille A. Brown and Nita Liem. He has facilitated dance workshops at Pratt Institute (Brooklyn, NY), at Sara Lawrence College, and at Oberlin College (Oberlin, OH); presented lecture demonstrations on House Dance; and participated as a panelist at the 2013 EMP Pop Conference at NYU, at the Dance/NYC 2018 Symposium, and Nightlife and Community Care: Collective Sociality on the Dance Floor presented by Shandaken Projects (Governor’s Island, NY 2019). Brian is currently a member of the Ase Dance Theatre Collective, co-founder of Afro Mosaic Soul Dance Collective, co-founder emeritus/current advisor to Kut the Rug Institute, and one third of the dance trio The Rhythm Conclave.
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ADIVSOR
James “Cricket” Colter has had over 25 years experience in the street dance scene. His dance style has its base in hip-hop, House, and Bboy. He’s one of the founders of the “House Head Session,” one of the longest running house dance practice sessions in NYC. Cricket’s performing and teaching have taken him to every major city in the USA, Asia, and Europe. He is a founding member of Rennie Harris Puremovement and a dance ambassador for the US State Department during the Obama administration. Cricket has taken part in the SDK Street Dance festival, Summer Dance Forever, and choreographed at the Apollo Theater. He’s performed as a featured dancer in the film “Step Up 2”, and for performing artist, Boys II Men, KRS-1, Will Smith, Fall Out Boy, and Chris Brown. Currently he is a dance professor at Cal Arts.
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ADVISOR/COLLABORATOR
Dr. Imani Kai Johnson is an interdisciplinary scholar, specializing in the African diaspora, global popular culture, and Hip Hop. She was born and raised in Northern California, but comes to UC Riverside from her adopted home in Brooklyn New York. She has attended UC Berkeley (BA), New York University (MA), and the University of Southern California (Ph.D.) where she received her doctorate in American Studies & Ethnicity. Dr. Johnson’s work explores African diasporic ritual cultures, popular cultures, representations of race, and negotiations of racial, gender, and national differences.
Dr. Johnson’s book on the ritual circle in international Hip Hop dance communities is titled Dark Matter in Breaking Cyphers: the Life of Africanist Aesthetics in Global Hip Hop (Oxford University Press, 2022). This work examines the political, cultural, and spiritual nature of Hip Hop dance through a close examination of the ritual practice of cyphering—collaborative and competitive dance circles. Dr. Johnson has also chaired four Show & Prove Hip Hop Studies conferences, and will continue to collaborate with others to expand on it at UCR and beyond.
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ADVISOR/COLLABORATOR
Mugen was born in Staten Island, New York. During high school, he was introduced to Flexn through a fellow dancer by the name of Vibez (formerly of Visible Threat). After a year of dancing, he teamed up with Full Surface, learning under the ranks of Flexn OG’s and Veterans such as Jason (aka Earthquake), Sheik, Lex and others. Mugen has been an advocate of Flexn and its creative force not only as a style of Street Dance but also as a form of black art and its resilience. Flexn has informed Mugen’s creative process overall and is reflected through his body of work, whether it be writing, music or film.
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COLLABORATOR
Noelle Salaun was born and raised in New York City. She graduated from CUNY Hunter College with a BFA in painting. Before that, Salaun was Amanda Adams-Louis’s very first Sketching with Street Dancers student. An artist in her own right, she has taken her expertise of art education in addition her personal experience as a first generation woman to lead programs and teach at prestigious institutions such as the Noguchi Museum, El Museo Del Barrio, Studio Institute and more. Salaun’s work has been exhibited at the LGBTQ+ Center, Thomas Hunter Project Space, the Leubsdorf Gallery, and Immigrant Social Services’ Storefront.
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COLLABORATOR/ADVISOR
Born Keenen Victor Thomas, Kinen was raised in the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York. Kinen’s foundations as a Street Dancer start in Lite Feet, and later progressed into the study of Animation. His focus is in body control, footwork, stop motion, & mechanical movement.
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Production Coordinator
Ahmed Tabbakh has graduated from Hunter College with a BA in History and is a PhD student at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. He has assisted in the curation of exhibitions at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum and at Mat Blak gallery. Tabbakh’s historical work focuses on cultural, material, and social histories, and his historiographical thinking has informed his practice both as a professional and academic. Tabbakh has assisted with the development, planning, and facilitation of KTRi’s Sketching with Street Dancers Program at Harvard GSE, the Guggenheim, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Governors Island. He has previously been a fellow at the Mellon Foundation at Hunter College and is currently an active Beinecke Scholar and Provost Diversity Fellow at Columbia.