Aysha Upchurch is...
The Dancing Diplomat

Biography

Aysha Upchurch, the Dancing Diplomat, identifies as a seed planter, soil agitator, and curious and passionate artist.  Professionally, this translates to her working as a dancer, choreographer, instructor and education consultant who is committed to social inclusion, artistry development, and transformative education.   

Youth advocacy and Hip Hop culture runs throughout her work as an artist and educator.  While based out of Washington, DC, she founded and directed the award-winning dance ensemble, Life, Rhythm, Move Project.  In 2007, she was commissioned by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing arts to create Am I On?, evening-length Hip Hop work that explored the space between youth and adult voices, standardized testing, and school shootings.  The work exemplified her commitment to use Hip Hop dance to entertain, educate, and empower. Aysha and her company went on to win two Metro DC Dance Awards for the innovative work that used youth interviews as part of the score.  Her work also led to a performance at the White House and her selection as a US State Department Cultural Envoy in Dance in Bolivia, Honduras and Guatemala.

Aysha holds an M.A. in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University, and blending this with her training and Advanced Youth Development, she designs and facilitates conflict resolution workshops for youth.  Additionally, she served as the Associate Director of COOL Schools at VSA Massachusetts for three years, working at the intersection of arts integration and special education.  She developed and facilitated coaching and professional development protocols and programs to train arts and general education teachers to design and implement more equitable and inclusive teaching and learning environments.

Aysha is a sought-after presenter, facilitator, and artist.  She has spoken at national conferences about artfully designing classrooms centered around equity and cultural relevance, the importance of movement in education, and embracing Hip Hop as a powerful literacy and cultural lens present in classrooms.  She has been on faculty at George Mason University, Howard Community College, Harvard University, and Salem State University – the latter being only the second college to allow dance majors to concentrate in Hip Hop. Never able or willing to parse her identity as educator and artist, she still presents her own work on the stage and is a current CATALYST artist-in-residence at the Dance Complex and is a guest choreographer at Salem State University and Middlebury College.  As a soloist and choreographer, her work weaves together history, narrative and movement to create pieces that share stories of celebration, survival, and liberation.

In 2015, Aysha received her Ed.M from the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), and remained connected with community for two years as a Teaching Fellow, Project Zero Classroom faculty member, and the inaugural Artist-in-Residence with the Arts in Education program, exploring the pedagogical implications of cross-disciplinary artistic collaboration, community dance cyphers, and Hip Hop pedagogy.  In the fall of 2018, Aysha joined the faculty at HGSE, continuing her efforts to elevate and advocate for Hop Hop education and movement in the classroom and teaches the first courses offered by the school in those two areas.  Additionally, this fall at HGSE, Aysha will launch HipHopEX - a collaborative lab for high school and graduate student to experience, explore, and experiment with Hop Hop arts in education.