Dr Kofi Anthonio
About
Personal Profile
Kofi Anthonio is a practitioner with over two decades of international experience and high artistic acclaim to his roles as an artist-scholar born and raised in Ghana, West Africa. He is a choreographer, educator, administrator, curator and performer. He holds an MFA degree in Dance Education from the University of Ghana and currently a PhD holder at the Institute of African Studies, Legon. He is a recipient of Andrew Mellon Foundation Research Grant. This grant aided him to complete his PhD successfully at the Institute of African Studies, Legon. Anthonio’s art practice is deeply rooted in contemporary, popular, and traditional African dance forms. He attended the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in 2011 with a scholarship from the United States Embassy (Accra) to study their programme structure, workshops to help strengthen the School of Performing Arts Department of Dance Studies University of Ghana Curriculum.
In addition to his teaching, Anthonio serve as a choreographer in one of the renowned theatre production houses in Ghana called Roverman Production and maintains a lifelong affiliation with the Noyam Dance Institute and National Dance Company of Ghana where he has had his professional training. His research examines dance from an ethnographic perspective and also looks at indigenous knowledge embedded in music and dance practices of the Anlo-Ewe in Ghana. He delves deeper into sub-Saharan traditional African dance and Diasporic forms. Choreographically, he explores indigenous performance traditions, staged folkloric spectacles, and emergent contemporary forms rooted in sub-Saharan African, resulting in original works that challenge the notion of identity, humanism, and coloniality.
Education
2018 – 2021
-Andrew Mellon Foundation Grant for my PhD
- PhD in African Studies University of Ghana Legon
2009 — 2011
-(M.F.A) Master of Fine Arts Degree – Dance in Education
- University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana
2004 — 2008
-(B.F.A.) Dance Studies with Theatre (First Class honors)
- Dance (Choreography Major)
- University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana
Research Interest
- Indigenous Knowledge System embedded in Music and Dance
- Videography (Video Tutorial) as a tool in teaching Ghanaian Traditional Dances
- Performance Studies and its Geo-cultural Implications
- Dance and profilmic interactions
- Dance Theatre and contemporary Ghanaian dance.
Publications
PUBLICATIONS, CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS AND INVITED LECTURES
Lifetime summary (count) according to the following categories:
Refereed Journal Articles…………………………………………………1
Anthology………………………………………………………………….1
Presentations at Conferences………………….………………………….4
Academic and Professional Performances/installations…………………50
I. Articles in Refereed Journals
- Resario, R. & Anthonio, K.(2018). Hiplife and the Re-emergence of the Ghanaian Musical Dance Drama: Okyeame Kwame’s Versatile Show in Perspective. Journal of Performing Arts, 5(3),45-53.
Anthology
- Kuwor,S.K. & Anthonio, K. (2023). Indigenous Knowledge Embedded in Aŋlɔ-Eʋe Music and Dance Traditions.
II. Conference and Seminar Presentations (presenter name in bold)
- Anthonio, K. (2023). Embodied Devices: Exploring Rhetoric Within Selected Anlo-Ewe Indigenous Dance Forms as Socially Affective, 47th International Conference for Traditional Music (47th ICTM) held in Ghana, Cedi Conference Centre University of Ghana Legon, July 2023
- Anthonio, K. (2023). Contextual Transmission of Tradition: Hogbetsotso Festival in Anlo Basic Schools, Department of Dance Studies School of Performing Arts International Symposium, Accra, Ghana,June 2023.
- Kuwor, S.K. & Anthonio, K. (2021). ‘Imported Knowledge in Indigenous Structures: The Challenge of Ghanaian Youth Education’, Department of Dance Studies Seminar series, School of Performing Arts, Accra, Ghana, March 2012.
Atsugah, S.A & Anthonio, K. (2019). Gender, Dance, Embodiment: Tracing the Influence of The Female Body in Dance Transmission at The School Of Performing Art, Department of Dance Studies Seminar series, School of Performing Arts, Accra, Ghana.
III. Selected Artistic Works
- Associate Artistic Director / Choreographer for the BAM FESTIVAL 2023 (USA Brooklyn Academic of Music and Dance Festival). I led and performed with the National Dance Company of Ghana during this project that took place in May 2023. (https://youtu.be/5cMHhuoO2QU )
- Co-choreographed Dance piece (‘Joy Experience’ at the Action Chapel International, 2020)
(https://youtu.be/JDnYHDETotQ )
- Choreographed Dance piece (Greater Works Dance Performance “Armor of God”, 2019)
- Choreographed Dance pieces (Asem Yi Di Ka (2016), Kaatso (2017), “Nsruma” Ghana at 60 Independence Day cultural performance (2016https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1u7iyQGNiA )
- Aya: I co-choreographed this historical piece of the migration of the Ewe of Ghana from Benin to the Volta Region at the National Theater of Ghana – September 2018.
- World Food Day Celebration Ghana: I was commissioned by the UN-FAO to choreograph a dance piece to commemorate World Food Day in Ghana 2018
- Link to other notable performances I choreographed: