Tanya Wideman-Davis
Tanya Wideman-Davis is the Co-Artistic Director of Wideman/Davis Dance and is on faculty as Associate Professor at The University of South Carolina in the Theatre and Dance Department and African American Studies. With an extensive career as a dancer, choreographer, and teacher, Tanya completed her Master of Fine Arts from Hollins University/ADF (2012). She continues to perform, research, choreograph, teach, and collaborate.
Tanya’s academic and choreographic research, as well as her speaking, examine race, gender, femininity, identity, and location. This research grounds her choreographic method and performances and challenges the traditional methodologies and ideologies of classical ballet. Research projects include Dance Theater of Harlem: Radical Black Female Bodies (2014-2018), Female Relationships: The Gender Gap in Dance (2012), The queering of a life of dance and HIV/AIDS (2011). Tanya’s MFA Thesis work, REVEAL, premiered at the American Dance Festival in Durham, NC in 2012. She has presented research at colleges and conferences such as Dance USA, the University of Wisconsin – Peck School of the Arts, Arizona State University, Society of Dance History Scholars conference at Barnard College, Southeastern Women’s Studies Association and Goucher College. Tanya has danced with many world-renown companies, including Dance Theatre of Harlem (1993-1998 and as Principal Dancer 2000-2002), The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago (1990-2000), Complexions Contemporary Ballet (1998-2001), Dance Galaxy: Fugate/Bahiri Ballet NY (2000-2001), Alonzo King Lines Ballet (2002-2004), and Spectrum Dance Theater (2004-2005). She has served as Guest Artist for Cleveland San Jose Ballet (1998), Donald Byrd: The Group (2000), Spectrum Dance Theater (2006), Ballet Memphis (2006), and Quorum Ballet of Portugal (2008-2009). She has taught as a guest artist at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Allen University, Mississippi School of the Arts, University of Wisconsin Peck School of the Arts, Milwaukee Ballet, University of Iowa, Steps on Broadway, Goucher College, National Ballet Dominicana (Dominican Republic), Center of Creative Arts, Spectrum Dance Theater, Auburn University, Arizona State University, and Alabama Dance Festival.
Tanya has received critical acclaim as a performer. She has been noted by New York Dance Fax as “distinctive for the power of her secure pointe work and her personality.” She received international acclaim and was honored as “Best Female Dancer of 2001-2002” by Dance Europe magazine. Tanya trained with many of the premier schools in the country including: The Academy of Movement and Music, The Ruth Page Center for the Arts, The Joffrey Ballet School, The Pacific Northwest Ballet School, The Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, Chicago City Ballet and The Dance Theatre of Harlem.