ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Since moving to the Boston area in 1993, Nailah has taught at dance studios throughout the area and shared her work at major dance conventions throughout the country. Nailah has performed with the dance companies of Patrick LeCroix and Cle Douglas, as well as starting her first collaboration project, 4 Women and Friends.

In 1998, Nailah founded RootUprising while completing her Masters Degree in Interdisciplinary studies at Lesley University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Randall-Bellinger’s Master’s thesis, Dancing Beloved, which used dance as text, and text as dance became the foundation of the company.

Nailah Randall-Bellinger’s Full Bio.

DANCER

Jenny Oliver is a trauma informed, culturally responsive kinetic storyteller working at the intersection of dance, education, and collective collaboration to elevate issues affecting Black and Indigenous people. As a culturally Black person of Cape Verdean and Native American heritage she believes it's important to address the erasure of Native people and the ongoing systemic injustices towards Black people. These beliefs are the core values that have grounded her in Roots Uprising since 2005. She is inspired by the ability of dance to catalyze meaningful, effective change while illuminating the stories of marginalized people. As a professor of dance at Tufts University, Emerson College and Mount Holyoke College she brings a holistic approach to embodied learning in the classroom through courses in Modern and Haitian Folkloric Dance. When not teaching or performing she is creating dances under Modern Connections, a project-based collective established in 2014.

DANCER

Imani Deal was born and raised in the Greater Boston Area. She has danced with RootsUprising since 2020 under the direction of Nailah Randall-Bellinger. Deal is a graduate of Montclair State University, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance and a minor in Business. During her training at MSU, she had the privilege of dancing in works by Camille A. Brown, Earl Mosley, and Charles Weidman. Since graduation, Deal has danced in local projects by Jenny Oliver and Rachel Linsky. Deal’s goal is to open an Arts Center that gives back to the inner city through the arts while also expanding her dance career through traveling around the world.

DANCER

Jeryl Palana Pilapil-Brown, is a Filipino- American choreographer, dancer and educator in Boston. She has been dancing with RootsUprising since 2013. Since graduating from Dean College with her B.A. as a dancer major, she has traveled throughout the states and abroad to Canada, London, Barcelona and Japan to immerse herself in various dance styles; the main ones being contemporary, floorwork, street styles and heels. Jeryl now dedicates her time teaching and sharing with students of all ages throughout New England and is honored to be associate director of the Cambridge Youth Dance Program of Deborah Mason Performing Arts Center. She aims to bring diverse groups of people together through her choreographic works and organizing annual events like “The Hip Hop Exchange” dance festival.

DANCER

Toni S. Singleton has been a member of RootsUprising since 1998. A Eutaw, Alabama native, she was inspired by her mother, Inez, a “Creative Dancer” who formed and led the local High School dance group the Carverettes. She had her 1st formal dance classes (Horton, Graham, Limon,Luigi, Ballet, Modern Jazz and Theater Dance) as a student at the University of Alabama where she declared a Minor in Dance. Prior to completion she was invited to intensify study of Modern, and Modern Jazz with Dianne Maroney's Orchesis dancers and the Tiger Marching Band at Grambling State University, where she obtained her bachelor’s of Science in Nursing. Toni was invited to Boston to apprentice with the Danny Sloan Company. She has performed with Cle Douglas Backyard Dancers. Patrick LaCroix Dance Assemble, Idir Pasir, Fatou N’Diaye, 4 Women and Friends and facilitated liturgical dance locally and abroad. She has portrayed the role of “Mary” in the National Center for African American Artists production of Langston Hughes “Black Nativity'' and improvised movement for “BlackOut Boston” spoken word collective. When not dancing, Toni continues to serve the community as a registered nurse.

DANCER

Patricka James is a Black New Orleans native, dance artis, who is also a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, and Registered Dance Movement Therapist. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Performing Arts in Dance with a minor in Psychology and a Master’s dual degree in Clinical Mental Counseling and Dance Movement Therapy. James has trained in various American Dance Festival intensives and danced in works by Blakeley McGuire, Shen-Wei, Cunningham, and more recently Jenny Oliver’s dance collective. As a culturally affirming movement artist, Patricka is able to learn and engage in performance and storytelling, as well as utilizing dance/expressive movement for processing and healing clients in therapy. James has been dancing with RootsUprising since 2020.

DANCER

Jossie  Coleman has been a faculty member at Boston University since 1998. She teaches several dance styles, including cardio jazz funk, hip hop, afro fusion, beginner jazz, contemporary jazz repertory and heels dance class.  Her own professional training includes course work at Boston Conservatory and the Alvin Ailey Summer Intensive program.  

Jossie’s love for dance, music and theater began at the age of 6 while attending the Elma Lewis School of Performing Arts.  In 1992, Jossie founded and developed a dance program for the children at the St. Joseph’s School of Roxbury where she taught tap, ballet, jazz, afro caribbean and hip hop.  She volunteers at her church teaching liturgical dance to the youth in the dance ministry program. She was a performing member  in companies such as Anu Hip Hop dance team, Rhythm Reggae Dance Company, Ebony Inspiration, The Patric La Croix Folklore Dance Company and one of the original members of Root Uprising Modern Dance Company.  

Jossie has danced and choreographed for various recording artist, including Warner Brothers and worked with several Hip Hop and Pop artist including MC Lyte , Queen Latifah, Marky Mark and New Kids on The Block; she has choreographed for jazz and hip hop music videos and film.  Jossie has taught at many schools and universities including Harvard University and Mount Holyoke College.  Passionate about fitness, she is a former certified AAFA aerobics and fitness trainer.  For 27 years, Jossie was the Dance Department Head and teacher at Creative Arts at Park in Brookline.  Her Motto is “The feet May Learn The Steps, But Only The Spirit Can Dance.”

APPRENTICE/REHEARSAL ASSISTANT for the Who We Say We Are 2023 Project

Lizzie Clackson became interested in dance at a young age and continued to expand their movement quality in ballet, modern, jazz and contemporary genres at the CSW. In 2022, Lizzie graduated from Boston University, with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a minor in Sociology. They hope to bring socio-cultural stories and ideas to life through art, highlighting what often remains in the background.

DANCER

Nadia Issa (they/them/theirs) is a 2022 graduate of the Harvard Divinity School, with a specific focus on the African and African American Religious Studies Area of Focus. At HDS, they continue their work on Spiritual Reparations in Regla de Ocha-Ifá, Candomblé, and other Black Caribbean Diasporic spiritual-religious traditions, and continuing research on Black Cuban Womxn Akpwón/Apwanlás. Nadia spent over three years in Cuba and México pursuing fieldwork and dance study for both research projects that take form as Auto-Ethnographies and dance choreographies expanding reparation politics and politics of being an Akpwón in Cuba and its diaspora. Nadia is a Company Dancer with Jean Appolon Expressions. Nadia recognizes that dance is an embodied tool of ritual and revolution in their research and training. Through dance and ethnographic research, Nadia has been able to navigate and communicate spirit, Blackness, queerness, environmental and religious racism, and sacred landscapes.