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Amara, a Black woman with dark hair, stands in front of tall grasses blowing in the wind and smiles gently. She wears an indigo shawl and dangling wooden earrings.

Photo by Jean Melesaine.

Artists

Amara Tabor-Smith

She // Her // Hers
They // Them // Theirs

Choreographer and Performance Maker

Oakland, California

Amara Tabor-Smith is an Oakland-based choreographer and performance maker who describes her work as Afrofuturist Conjure Art. Tabor-Smith's creative process as a dance maker is rooted in collaboration, spiritual ritual and questions of identity and belonging. Her movement vocabulary is inspired by improvisation, Butoh, and African Diaspora dance traditions. She is the Artistic Director of Deep Waters Dance Theater, which she founded in 2006 with the goal of inspiring dialogue. The ensemble focuses on social and environmental justice issues, race, gender, cultural identity and spirituality. Her work has been presented in venues throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, nationally and internationally. Tabor-Smith is an artist-in-residence at Stanford University, 2020 recipient of the Hewlett 50 grant with East Side Arts Alliance, 2019 Dance/USA Fellow, 2018 United States Artists Fellow, and a 2018 recipient of KQED’s “Bay Brilliant” award. She was honored on the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts 100 list.

Donor -This USA Fellowship was generously supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The Rainin Arts Fellowship is supported by the Kenneth Rainin Foundation.

This artist page was last updated on: 09.05.2024

Dance
In a dark room, a group of Black women look up and each their right arms up to the sky. They are bathed on dark peach and blue light.

House/Full of Blackwomen: passing/through/the great middle by Amara Tabor-Smith, 2018. Site specific dance and performance. Performed at Eastside Arts Alliance in Oakland.

Photo by Robbie Sweeny.

A performer covered in hundreds of strips of dark blue fabric dances on the sidewalk beside a purple sports car.

House/Full of Blackwomen: Now You See Me (Fly) by Amara Tabor-Smith, 2016. Site specific dance and performance. Performed in the streets of Downtown Oakland.

Photo by Robbie Sweeny.

A group of women in costumes of straw hats and dresses covered in layers of fabrics gather in the street, their faces obscured.

House/Full of Blackwomen: Black Women Dreaming (the closing ritual) by Amara Tabor-Smith, 2019. Site specific dance and performance. Performed in the streets of Downtown Oakland .

Photo by Robbie Sweeny.