Biography

Saleana Pettaway, M.Ed is an independent artist educator, choreographer, performer and now entrepreneur. Her new venture, Umfundalai X, LLC combines her love for Contemporary African Dance and its benefits in health & wellness into a digital App Community called, "The Umfundalai Xperience". She is recognized in the international dance community for being the 3rd appointed Master Teacher of the Umfundalai Dance Technique by renowned African Dance scholar, author & progenitor, Dr. Kariamu Welsh. Saleana's masterclasses and lect-dems are noted in publications and national conferences/festivals such as ACDA (American College Dance Association) and the National High School Festival for her hard-hitting training practices and active pursuit to empower dancers to embody the historical, social-cultural and aesthetic traditions of African-based dance forms. She holds a BFA ('95) and M.Ed ('07) from Temple University and with over 30yrs of professional training and 18 seasons as a senior company member of “Kariamu & Company: Traditions”, Saleana has had the privilege of working with iconic artists and diasporan legends including Prof Nii Yartey (National Dance Company of Ghana), Dr. Chuck Davis (African-American Dance Ensemble) and even in her early roots in jazz, ballet and modern at the New Freedom Theater and Philadanco with legends Jawole Willa Jo Zollar (Urban Bush Women) and Deborah Chase (Alvin Ailey).

Currently, she is working on her project to embrace African dance as a means for transformative health and restoration by designing workshops and masterclasses to serve many artistic groups and business organizations with the simple mission of building positive community space, inspiring creativity and honoring the traditions of African-based dance forms as a life-practice. Learn more about the connections with Umfundalai and Health & Wellness at (www.UmfundalaiXperience.com).