Alexis Araminta Reneé

Dancer, 2021-2023

Alexis Araminta Reneé, affectionately referred to as Aloka, is a multiethnic Black and Brown identified visual artist, scholar, performer, choreographer and conjure woman bridging the divides between community healer, concert dance, theater, and film. Alexis creates interdisciplinary work that centers ritual, healing and social justice as  transformative liberation practices. She has studied, performed, and presented work throughout the Caribbean, Europe, and the United States, and is the artistic director of Masala Soul Project, a multicultural dance and theater company dedicated to telling the untold stories of marginalized communities. In response to the 2020 Global Uprising, she co-founded Get Dis War Dance, a collaborative project and call to action that frames Black Diaspora dancing traditions as resistance strategies. Alexis is a 2014 American College Dance Association Choreography Award winner, a 2017 Ruby Artist Grant Recipient, a Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation Observership Fellow, a Street Dance Activism facilitator, and a founding member of Chesapeake Conjure Society. This is Alexis’ first season with Ananya Dance Theatre and she is humbled to be a student of Yorchhā and deeply honored to hold these complex ancestral stories with love.

Photo by Laichee Yang