Colette Eloi

Dr. Colette Marie Eloi, PhD, is awed by the way dance is a universal language. Dr. Eloi is a distinguished dancer, choreographer, scholar, and cultural practitioner whose life's work is deeply rooted in the rich dance traditions of Africa, gaining her understanding of dance from the Oakland/San Francisco Bay Area, and fieldwork on the continent and in the diaspora. She is also co-authoring a forthcoming chapter on dancing religions with Dr. Yvonne Daniel, to appear in the Anniversary Edition of The History of the African Diaspora Chapter on Dancing Religions. Dr. Eloi is a celebrated artist and a master Haitian folkloric instructor, an award-winning choreographer, folkloric singer, and a prolific researcher of African-rooted cosmologies and epistemologies. Her reach is local, national, and international. Dr. Eloi is the founder and Artistic Director of ELWAH Dance & Research, an organization established in 2005 to preserve, elevate, and present African-rooted dance traditions. Inspired by the extraordinary dancers and dance teachers from the Bay Area trailblazers such as Nontzizi Cayou (Wajumbe), Deborah Vaughn (Dimensions Dance Theater), and Blanche Brown (Groupe Petit La Croix), ELWAH integrates culturally rich performance, oral tradition storytelling, academic research, and educational programming to connect with diverse audiences around the world. In 2005, for ELWAH’s inaugural work, Dr. Eloi had the rare honor of co-choreographing A Living Birthday Card (2006) with the legendary Ms. Ruth Beckford, Oakland Queen Mother of Dance. This historic piece celebrated the 97th birthday of the iconic Katherine Dunham and brought together a global assembly of Dunham dancers—97 in total—on a single stage in a powerful tribute to one of the most profound figures in dance history. Most recently, she was awarded the Kenneth Rainin Foundation Grant for New Work in Oakland.