Abdel R. Salaam is the Executive Artistic Director/Co-Founder of Forces of Nature Dance Theatre founded in 1981. Born in Harlem, New York, Abdel is a critically acclaimed choreographer and HAS served as a dancer, teacher, and/or performing artist in five continents throughout his 52-year career in the dance world. He has received numerous awards and fellowships for excellence in dance including the National Endowment for the Arts, the New England Foundation on the Arts, Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York Foundation for the Arts, the New York State Council for Arts, yhe National Council for Arts and Culture, and Herbert H. Lehman College. He and his company received the 2013 Audelco Award for Dance Company of the Year. He has served as a choreographer and/or director for the New York Shakespeare Festival, the Billie Holiday Theater, the Apollo Theater, the Winter Solstice at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the New York Musical Theater Festival, BAM, Black Dance USA, and the Tennessee Performing Arts Festival. Mr. Salaam has served on the faculties of the American Dance Festival in the United States and Seoul, Korea, Herbert H. Lehman College, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, the Restoration Youth Arts Academy, and the Harlem Children’s Zone. Mr. Salaam is the creator of the Kwanzaa Regeneration Night Celebration in Harlem. He is the Artistic Director of Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Dance Africa founded by the late Chuck Davis in 1977. He received a 2017 “Bessie” award for Outstanding Production of The Healings Sevens and the 2019 American Dance Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in Dance. During the COVID 19 pandemic between 2019 and 2022, Abdel has produced and directed three dance films for the Apollo Theater and BAM and this year has been recently nominated for a 2022 “Bessie” award for Musical Composition.
For a complete career overview visit his website at: forcesofnature.org
Footprints Choreographer