Amara
Tabor-Smith

Amara Tabor-Smith is a dancer, choreographer, and the artistic director of Deep Waters Dance Theater.  Tabor-Smith’s work, as described by the artist, is Afro Futurist Conjure Art. Her dance making practice utilizes Yoruba spiritual ritual to address issues of social and environmental justice, race, gender identity, and belonging. House/Full of Blackwomen, her current project is a multi site-specific dance theater work that addresses the displacement, well-being, and sex-trafficking of black women and girls in Oakland.

Tabor-Smith is a recipient of the 2016 Creative Work Fund grant, the 2017 MAP Fund grant, and the 2017 Kenneth Rainin Foundation grant, and a co-recipient of the 2016 Creative Capital Grant with longtime collaborator, Ellen Sebastian Chang. In 2017, she received the UBW Choreographic Center Fellowship. Her work has been performed in Brazil, the Republic of the Congo, New York, and throughout the San Francisco Bay Area where her company is based. Additionally, Tabor-Smith has performed in the works of Ed Mock, Joanna Haigood, Ana Deveare Smith, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, and she is a former member of Urban Bush Women. She received an MFA in Dance from Hollins University. Tabor-Smith is an Artist in Residence at Stanford University and faculty at UC Berkeley.

Portrait photo by Bethanie Hines.