ABOUT

Dr. Lindsay Gary (PhD, MFA, MA, MPA), also known as Ushindi Niwetu, is a professor-scholar (of history, Africology/African American Studies, and dance) conceptual diasporArtist, Afrocentric entrepreneur, and cultural curator whose mission is to educate, connect, and empower the African Diaspora, with culture, spirituality, ancestry, history, and research being central themes in her work.

She is the Founder and Artistic and Executive Director of Dance Afrikana LLC, a professional dance company whose mission is to create a world where people of the African Diaspora are empowered and connected through the African dance tradition. Dr. Gary has worked to situate Houston as a major center for African and Diasporic dance producing programming such as Houston Black Dance Collective, Houston Black Dance Festival, Kuumba: A Celebration of Afro-Dance, Afrikana Dance Festival, African Diaspora Dance Intensive, and Dance Afrikana, Dance Podcast. Dance Afrikana is the recipient of numerous awards from the Houston Arts Alliance and Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs including the City’s Initiative Grant (2019), two Cares Act Grants (2020), the Support for Organizations Grant (2021), and the Festival Grant (2023).

A dance scholar, she is a Scholar-in-Residence for  Rice University’s CERCL Program, leading a research project entitled “Black Dance in Texas” at the African American History Research Center Gregory Campus (formerly The Gregory School). Her MFA thesis “Re/membering Bamboula | Embodying Home,” a multimedia exploration of (d)ancestors, utilized text, genealogies, geographies, archives, and embodied re-enactment to trace and uncover one of Louisiana's oldest African dances, the Bamboula. She is also a dance writer for Dance Source Houston and Broad Street Review (Philadelphia).

As a choreographer, she has been commissioned by various arts and cultural organizations. These include “In Veneration: Richard Brock,” a site-specific piece commissioned by Arts District Houston, and “Yemaya and the Flood” which was commissioned by Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. Other notable choreographic works include “Who Yo’ People?”, a dance piece which explores the rich dance traditions of Louisiana, from Bamboula to Zydeco, and Sam Houston State University’s production of the musical “Once on This Island.”

She is licensed in Umfundalai, a contemporary African dance technique that comprises its movement vocabulary from dance traditions throughout the Diaspora, and was awarded the 2021 Texas Folklife Residency Apprenticeship for the study of Zydeco dance. She obtained her MFA in Dance from University of the Arts and has a dance minor from the University of Houston. She has traveled throughout Africa and the African Diaspora studying Senegalese Sabar, Horton, Puerto Rican Bomba, Afro-Brazilian, Afro-Cuban, Afro-Caribbean, traditional South African, and Congolese dance. Additionally, she’s danced with various musical artists including T-Rock Again (Trinidad), Korede Bello (Nigeria), and Solange Knowles (United States).

She has received numerous awards and recognition for her work as a dance artist including becoming a Fresh Arts Space Taking Artist in Residence conducting a project entitled Dancing Home: (to) Houston and becoming a Dance Source Houston Artist in Residence which culminated in an evening-length production of her original choreography and poetry on film entitled “Eleggua.” Additionally, she graduated from the Artist INC program for artist-entrepreneurs, and developed a partnership with Young Audiences of Houston wherein she has worked as both a choreographer and playwright to bring cultural and historical educational performances to Houston’s youth, including the most recent iteration, “Historic Black Women of Texas.”