Darian M. Parker is a choreographer, performer and teacher, specializing in West African dance forms from Guinea, Mali and the Casamance region of Senegal. His work has received support from the Jerome Foundation, Harlem Stage Fund for New Work, and the New Haven Arts Council. His performance credits include Step-Up 3D, the G’Bassikolo Mexican Tour and the Fats Waller US tour. He has also performed with artists such as Meshell N’Degeocello, Jason Moran and Maija Garcia, and has been a member of Kouman Kele African Dance Company, Kouffin Keneke African Dance Company, Sewee African Dance Company, and Harambee Dance Company (Assistant Artistic Director). He has completed teaching residencies at SUNY Purchase, among many other institutions, and he currently serves on the faculty of Cumbe Center for African and Diaspora Dance in Brooklyn, NY. Recently, he joined the guest faculty of the Eugene Lang Dance Program at The New School for Social Research. He is also an adjunct professor of West African dance at Sarah Lawrence College. Among his many teachers are Nzingha Camara, Aly Tatchol Camara, Sandella Malloy, Esther Grant-Walker, Mouminatou Camara, Ismael Kouyate, Marie Basse-Wiles and Ibrahim Doumbia.

Dr. Parker’s devotion to teaching extends beyond dance. He is an adjunct professor in NYU’s Division of Applied Undergraduate Studies, where he teaches courses in anthropology, and supervises an eclectic mix of senior research projects and internships (e.g. creative writing, real estate, marketing and management). He is the author of Sartre and No Child Left Behind: An Existential Psychoanalytic Anthropology of Urban Schooling (Rowman & Littlefield Press, 2015), and “The Haze”, which appears in Pedagogies in the Flesh (Palgrave MacMillan, 2018). Dr. Parker is also the Founder and CEO of Parker Academics, a Manhattan-based test prep and tutoring company that takes a whole-person approach to learning (www.parkeracademics.com). He is an active member of the Yale Alumni Association, where he interviews prospective undergraduate admits, and sits on the board of Y-Apply, an organization that identifies talented public school students and gives them the resources to apply to top tier colleges and universities. Dr. Parker also holds memberships in the Amateur Astronomers Association and the American Anthropological Association.

PhD, Anthropology and African American Studies, M.Phil, Anthropology, and MA, African American Studies, Yale University
BA, English Literature and BA, Anthropology, UCLA

COURSES TAUGHT:
Trio of Contemporary Dance Practices
West African Dance Practices