From Howard to Havana: Global Dialogue Through Dance and Performance

By Chad Eric Smith, Director of Marketing and Communications, Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts

Featured Image: Adjunct Lecturer Angela Ingram with Fernando Sáenz, founder and Executive Director of MAL PASO Dance Company in Cuba.

During a recent visit to Cuba, Angela Ingram, Adjunct Lecturer in the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts, experienced firsthand how movement, music, and theater function as shared cultural language across borders.

While in Havana, Ingram taught Samba to two Cuban dance instructors, creating an impromptu exchange rooted in rhythm, history, and embodied storytelling. She also connected with Fernando Sáenz, founder and Executive Director of Mal Paso Dance Company, the only Cuban dance company currently performing the work of Martha Graham. Mal Paso is scheduled to appear at The Joyce Theater in New York this February, marking a significant moment of international recognition for Cuban contemporary dance.

 

In addition to dance-based exchanges, Ingram observed and participated in a masterclass acting workshop at Persefone Theater led by American actress Caroline Clay. The session focused on how Shakespeare’s text can be translated into physical expression, reinforcing the shared foundations between theatrical language and the body.

For Ingram, the experience affirmed both the spiritual and cultural dimensions of artistic practice.

Dance is the language I use to speak with God. From the streets of Havana to the halls of Howard, my time in Cuba reinforced the idea that art is a living and breathing testament to the survival of the soul. The deep rhythmic historical ties between African diasporic culture, as translated through Salsa in Cuba and the Blues in Black American culture, reveal that art is a global conversation that transcends borders. It is freedom personified.

That global conversation directly informs how she teaches at Howard.

I teach not just a refined technique, but to help students find the bridge between their personal heritage and their artistic future.

Her experience in Cuba reflects the College’s broader commitment to culturally grounded, research-informed, and globally engaged artistic practice. Through encounters with Cuban dancers, international choreographers, and theater practitioners, Ingram’s work demonstrates how artistic exchange becomes both a pedagogical tool and a living archive of the African diaspora’s creative legacy.

At the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts, faculty engagement beyond campus is not an abstraction. It is an extension of the classroom. Whether through movement, performance, or cultural dialogue, these encounters shape how students understand their craft not only as technique, but as lineage, language, and responsibility.