Percussionist, musician, and former musical director for the African American Dance Ensemble, Khalid Saleem has lived, worked, and studied in the Ivory Coast and worked and studied with Rose Marie Guiraud, Babatunde Olatunji of Nigeria, Ladji Camara of Guinea, Titos Sampa of Zaire, Les Ballet Africains, and the National Dance Company of Guinea. Khalid has been on faculty in the Dance Department at The College at Brockport, State University of New York, since 1994. Khalid was very active during The College at Brockport’s annual diversity conference and was invited to present African percussion workshops in Salvador, Brazil, in November 2008.
Khalid’s latest International cultural exchange travels took him to Haiti in January 2011, traveling with SUNY Oswego’s Psychology Department as a consultant, teacher, and musician. He performed at the August 2011 National Black Theater Festival in Winston-Salem, NC, Sankofa, and the African Dance and Drum Ensemble at The College at Brockport. He is the recipient of the Greater Rochester Cultural Arts recognition award, November 2011. Khalid also participated in Konkoran’s 2011 annual conference in Washington, DC, where Chuck Davis and Melvin Deale were honored. He has been on the ADF faculty since 1985.
Photo by Ben McKeown