COMPANY
DANCERS:

Natalie Alexander**
Sarah Anthony
Charmaine Headley
BaKari E. Lindsay
Junia Mason
Shelly-Ann McLeod**
Julia Morris
Debbie Nicholls
Natasha Phanor
Marlene Richardson
Teisha Smith

MUSICIANS:
Richard "Popcorn" Cumberbatch
Kwanza Msingwana
Anthony Curwin Baptiste
N'dere Nimon Headley-Lindsay

VOCAL ENSEMBLE:
Kathryn Wellington
Roger Gibbs
Susan Grogan

**Apprentice

REHEARSAL DIRECTOR
Almond E.H. Small

TECHNICAL/LIGHTING DESIGNER:

MANDATE
COBA, Collective of Black Artists is dedicated to creating and presenting the finest traditions in dance and music that celebrate and reflect an Africanist aesthetic.

MISSION
Our mission is to preserve the cultural traditions of Africa and the African Diaspora through education, research and public performance.

The Collective presents Traditional West African dance, music and folklore; Caribbean Indigenous Folk dance, music and rituals in their purest forms possible for a theatrical stage. While also creating contemporary works developed from an Africanist movement aesthetic that reflects social and global African realities.

 COMPANY HISTORY

Acclaimed a company that “makes you sit up and take notice for all the right reasons" (Deirdre Kelly, Globe & Mail), COBA has carved a niche for itself as a performance collective that both educates and entertains.

COBA was founded in 1993 by Junia Mason, Charmaine Headley, BaKari E. Lindsay (formerly Eddison B. Lindsay) and Mosa Neshama (formerly Kim McNeilly) – four Black dancers fired with the raw passion to fill a void on Toronto’s arts scene: a platform for dance creations that reflected their physical and social realities.

From the beginning, the quartet championed arts education, working extensively with teachers in Ontario and New York state to launch, in 1994 NIA - Education in Action COBA’s first school touring program with an African History theme.

That same year DanceWorks presented COBA’s first main stage performance at Festival in the Square, where COBA premiered Portrait, a female trio set to the music of Nina Simone that takes a stark look at race, colour and the human condition, along with a suite of West African dances entitled Jambalaya.

Whether it was the “pulsating live drumming” (NOW Magazine) or the powerful social message in Portrait, COBA had made its mark. The performance propelled the Collective to audience recognition and onto its artistic journey to the present.

Under the leadership of artistic co-founders BaKari E. Lindsay and Charmaine Headley for the past 14 years, the creation and production of works that reflect Africanist perspectives of movement and social themes has been a driving force for the Collective. Storytelling, music and drama are interwoven with dance in order to share life wisdom with audiences and future generations.

 COBA has also commissioned works from several world-renowned Africanist artists including: American West African dance pioneer Linda Faye Johnson, percussion virtuoso Baba Olatunji, Haitian dancer / choreographer Jeanguy Saintus, Senegalese Griot Alassane Sarr, Sis Robin Hibbert (New York) and internationally acclaimed South African soloist Vincent Mantsoe.

COBA: Fulfilling our vision as Black professionals; educating and uplifting through the emotional and spiritual power of our performances and workshops; drawing strength from our ancestors to create a rich tapestry of work in the present for the future.