VIDEO: Obediah Wright: Achieving Balance Through Dance

Choreographer, dancer, actor, producer and Bed-Stuy resident Obediah Wright has achieved world-renowned status as a master in his class.

Mr. Wright – affectionately referred to as “Baba,” which means “father” in Swahili – has taught movement and dance to some of the top entertainers in the business, including Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Isao Tomita, Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross, Janet Jackson and Erykah Badu.

He received his training from the Bernice Johnson Dance Studio, LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts, Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre of Harlem and the Julliard School.

For the past 20 years, this New York native has been traveling all over the world teaching dance to people of all ages, experience levels and backgrounds. One of his favorite projects is a commercial he co-directed and choreographed in South Africa, for which he integrated South African tap dancers with African-American tappers and 25 Zulu dancers.

Most recently, he has settled back in the United States, and in 2009, he launched his own company, the Balance Dance Theatre as a part of the Balance Dance Academy. His company regularly performs for a number of dignitaries and heads of state, most of whom already are well familiar with his work from his years of performing.

Bed-Stuy Patch recently caught up with the busy choreographer, who was teaching a summer intensive workshop out of BAX Studios in Park Slope. On this particularly day, he was teaching a ballet class. But his classes are not traditional—his style of choreography combines all of the styles including modern, West African and jazz.

His classes are highly disciplined and are rooted in cultural awareness: “I want my students to experience the same sort of rigorous training that would be expected of them in an elite, private academy. But I don’t want them to have to travel to Manhattan to get it,” said Wright. “They should be able to stay right here in Brooklyn and know what it feels like to receive the best training and still be proud of who they are.”

His unique and effective style of teaching often combines students of various ages and experience levels into one class: It’s not uncommon to see adults dancing with children and professionals dancing with beginners.

He insists that there’s a lot the experienced dancer can learn from the movement of a small child and, conversely, children will often rise to the occasion when disciplined early to push beyond their own expectations.

But most of all, “Baba” wants his children, his students, his community to achieve balance: “My whole philosophy around Balance Dance Theatre is that everything has a yin and a yang… So it’s really about me coming into people’s lives to make them a more well-rounded individual, a more well-rounded artist, [so they can] then take that and pollinate the community, and so on and so on…”

For more information on Obediah Wright, visit his website. To learn more about the Balance Dance Theatre and classes around Brooklyn, contact Sabrina Harris at sabrinawharris1@aol.com. The fall intensive session begins on September 21, 2011.

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