Esther M. Baker-Tarpaga, choreographer, dancer and filmmaker, has a
B.A. from Bowdoin College in French and Anthropology and an M.A. in
Dance and M.F.A. in Choreography from UCLA’s World Arts and Cultures
Dept. She is co-founder and co-director of Baker & Tarpaga Dance
Project, which has performed and taught classes in the USA, Botswana,
Australia, Malaysia, Japan, Senegal and South Korea.
BT Dance Project
is a transnational company that intertwines West African dance and
postmodern dance with live music to create physically powerful dance
theatre. Recent works in 2008 include Los Angeles premieres of Dar Es
Salaam at the Alex Theatre, Sira Kan/On the Road at the REDCAT NOW
Festival and VSA N4th Wild Dance West Festival in New Mexico, and
Disorder Inside Order at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre. In 2007
Esther was invited as a cultural Envoy to teach contemporary dance and
to choreograph a new piece for Djoliba National Ballet in Conakry,
Guinea. Her solo “Abre D’Adaptation” choreographed for Burkinabe dancer
Wilfried Souly won best choreography for the Los Angeles Emerging Above
Ground Festival in April 2007. In 2006 she was invited as a Cultural
Envoy through the U.S. State Department to teach and perform in South
Africa (Heart of the Arts), Botswana (Maitisong Festival), and Burkina
Faso (Dialogue De Corps). She has worked with Senegal-based artists
such as Compagnie Kakat’Art, Compagnie 1ere Temps, and hip hop artist
Keyti of Dakar All Stars. Her dance films have screened at numerous
festivals and she co-produced United Nations of Hip Hop, which screened
at AFI International and NYC Pan African Film Festival. Esther has
performed in the work of Deborah Slater Dance Theater, Victoria Marks
and is currently dancing in David Rousseve/REALITY new work Saudade,
which performed in 2009 at Jacobs Pillow, Yerba Buena San Francisco,
University of Maryland Clarice Smith, Montclair State University, and
Columbia College Chicago. She implemented and led UCLA’s first summer
study abroad program in Senegal at Germaine Acogny’s Ecole de Sables
and is the recipient of a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, a Durfee, and
UCIRA grant. In Los Angeles she has performed at REDCAT, Highways,
Electric Lodge, The Alex Theater, The Bootleg Theatre, Glorya Kaufman
Hall UCLA, The Fowler Museum, The Skirball Cultural Center, and The
Getty Museum.
She has recently taught courses and choreographed work
with students at Marlborough High School, Rio Hondo College, Cypress
College, and the HeArt Project artist in residence. She joins the
faculty as an assistant professor at The Ohio State University
Department Dance in September 2009.
