Uwazi Zamani

Multidisciplinary Performance Artist · Choreographer · Sound Designer

I work across movement, live sound, and poetry to explore Black interior life and the conditions that shape how we inhabit the world.

Uwazi Zamani (he/him; they/them/theirs) is a Black queer multidisciplinary performance artist, choreographer, sound designer, sonic dramaturg, and scholar from Houston, Texas, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Their practice brings contemporary choreography into conversation with improvisation, live sonic composition, performance, and archival research. Across stage works and collaborative processes, Zamani considers how movement and sound can carry memory while creating space for the human condition to be encountered in its full complexity.

As a performer, Uwazi danced with Urban Souls Dance Company under the artistic direction of Harrison Guy, Leon Contemporary Arts, and Houston Met Dance Company. They are a longtime artistic collaborator and sound designer with COCA in St. Louis and waheedworks in Philadelphia. Their sound design and collaborative practice also include work with Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Philadanco, Martha Graham Dance Company, St. Louis Dance Theater, and ArtPhilly. Uwazi has served as a guest artist and visiting professor at Ursinus College, Swarthmore College, and Arizona State University.

Uwazi was named a 2024 Ann and Weston Hicks Choreography Fellow at Jacob’s Pillow and a 2025–26 New York Public Library Jerome Robbins Dance Research Fellow. They received the Edrie Ferdun Emerging Scholar Award in Dance from Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance and are currently conducting research for a performance project as a fellow at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. They hold a BFA in Dance Performance and a BA in African and African Diaspora Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, as well as an MFA in Dance from the University of the Arts. Uwazi is currently a PhD candidate in Dance at Temple University.