is a dance educator, choreographer, ethnographer, embodied historian, author and associate professor of practice at the University of Southern California’s Glorya Kaufman International School of Dance. He specializes in pedagogical practices that prove cultural and historical context in what he calls the morphology of Afro-kinetic memory.

A highly sought after instructor, Durden teaches practical and theoretical classes in the U.S. and abroad and is an expert in locking, house, hip- hop, authentic jazz, and party dances from 1900 to the present. He is a member of Mop Top Crew, the pioneering NYC Hip Hop dance group, and alumnus of Rennie Harris Puremovement, the Philadelphia-based hip-hop theater company. Before joining the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance faculty, Durden taught for seven years at Drexel University. He held appointments at the Yale School of Drama, Wesleyan University, and Bennington College. He has published articles in Jazz Dance: A History of the Roots and Branches, Rooted Jazz Dance: Africanist Aesthetics and Equity in the Twenty-First Century, and the The SAGE Encyclopedia of African Cultural Heritage in North America. He is currently writing an article for the Oxford Handbook of Hip-Hop Dance. His groundbreaking documentary, Everything Remains Raw: A Historical Perspective on Hip Hop Dance, was invited by the U.S. Embassy in Vladivostok, Russia as a work in progress to screen at their 2013 film festival. 

In 2010, Durden founded INTANGIBLE ROOTS , an organization dedicated to the education and preservation of Afro-Diasporic social dance formations.

THE TEAM

  • Emmalee Hallinan, Video Editor/Research

    Emmalee Hallinan is a performer, choreographer, dance educator, and lifelong learner. Since the age of VHS Disney Sing-Along tapes, Emmalee has been building her understanding of the world through movement. She completed her B.F.A. in Dance/Business Administration at Slippery Rock University and graduated in 2017 with accolades. She has pursued professional development as an intern and student at the American Dance Festival, the Bates Dance Festival, the Paul Taylor winter intensive, and the Limón summer intensive. Her skills as a pedagogue developed at the Grier School in Tyrone, PA, where she served as faculty for three years – facilitating spaces of diverse movers from all over the United States, and all around the world, in a multitude of dance forms and movement investigations.

     Most recently, she is building her thesis in pursuit of her M.F.A. in dance/choreography at the University of Iowa (Spring, 2023). As a graduate candidate, she has been awarded the Iowa Arts Fellowship, the M.F.A. Summer Fellowship, and a grant from the Division of Performing arts. Her work concerns itself with negotiating rote patterns of moving that inform sensibilities of identity. Consequently, her engagement with students pointedly questions contextual frameworks and histories of race/class/gender. Through the embrace of textual analysis and embodied investigations, she works to honor marginalized lineages, empower individuals, and foster/future inclusive communities along the way. Samples of her work can be accessed through her website:

    http://www.emmaleehallinandance.com/

  • Liezel Marie, Administration/Research

    Liezel Marie aka LaydeeLiz, an Professor, educator, choreographer, Director, visionary, & Los Angeles native with a B.S in Kinesiology Dance and M.A in Education Curriculum & Instruction. Represented with Go2Talent, She taught Hip Hop Dance, Modern, Dance Appreciation & Choreography at Cal State Northridge, Glendale Community College, LACHSA, Interlochen Performing Art & Las Vegas local schools. Had the honor of choreographing for dance competitions and conventions such as World of Dance, Hip Hop Internationals, Club Jete, Choreographers Carnival, Soul de Soul, Dance Excellence, Step of Hope and Maxt Out. She was a Raw Artist Hollywood Of the Year nominee, dancer for the SuperBowl, dancer for Universal Studios Hollywood & Disney. Choreographer and instructor on Carnival Cruise Lines, choreographer and directed for Kidz Roc, Los Angeles WNBA Sparks and SparKids, Los Angeles Clippers, Harlem Globetrotters, and Nike. She worked with artists such as Latin Grammy Award Winner Chocoquibtown, American Idol singer Chris GoLightly, broadway star Matt Zarley, Lanita Smith, Loren Smith, Alexa Friedman, Danity Kane & Jessica Sanchez . Her greatest goal & passion is to teach, build empathy, grow and learn from other lived experiences, educate, inspire dancers, inspire non-dancers and artists all over the world to keep loving dance and more. To find out more visit: www.LiezelMarie.com

    “Through empathy, education & empowerment, we believe that creating a safe space and providing a meaningful experience to artists, educators and their families to be our top priority for our financial services. We understand that talking about Money can be intimidating. It’s always been a “taboo” to talk about personal finances, however in order to do better, we have to be better by going to the right specialists. When you are not feeling well, you go to the doctor to diagnosis to find out what they can do help. When you want to build wealth, you go to a wealth building strategist to diagnosis to find out what they can do to help. ” – Liezel Marie & Jonathan Lorico If you are interested in these services please click here.

  • Saffatt Al-Mansoor, Video Editor

    Saffatt is an aspiring dance educator with a goal of inspiring the spaces he occupies to dig deeper into the roots of the music that inspired the movement that they do and the communities that created it. He has been a part of the hip hop and desi hip hop communities for over 15 years now starting in the middle east before moving to Canada and currently residing in the Bay Area, California. In his day job, he is an electrical engineer for a networking company working to connect different parts of the world together. He is currently the choreographer for a hip hop artist called Bohemia who is known as the creator of the genre of music known as “Desi Hip Hop” or South Asian Hip Hop. He has worked with several other South Asian artists in North America including Fateh, Amar Sandhu and Adnan Sami. At Intangible Roots, Saffatt works on curating and editing multimedia content to best portray the vision of the school.

    Check out more of his work and upcoming community classes at: www.sachoreography.com

  • Ardyn Flynt, Editor

    Arden self-identifies as a "corporeal conversationalist." She received her B.F.A. in dance from USC where she trained concurrently in ballet and house, resulting in a keen interest in the synthesis of dance forms traditionally positioned as binaries of one another. She teaches globally utilizing two movement systems – William Forsythe’s Improv Technologies and d. Sabela Grimes’ “Funkmental MediKinetics.” Arden has dance professionally for choreographers Amy O'Neal, Juliano Nunes, Ayodel Casel, Ebony Williams, and Azure Barton among others. Arden is the in-house choreographer and dance captain for the musical artist Sean VanDerWilt, and she recently performed at ROLLING STONE’s 2022 Creator Issue Event. She regularly works with choreographer Ebony Williams in both dance and creative positions such as DOJA CAT’s Coachella 2022 (assistant choreographer), WARNER BROS/UNIGRAM "Collision" Residency (associate choreographer, dancer), KID CUDI 2022 Tour Skeleton Crew (associate choreographer). She was recently the associate choreographer for artist MILLI at HITC Festival 2022.

  • Elizabeth Rodriguez, Administration/Personal Assistant

    Elizabeth “EastLos” Rodriguez is an educator, professional dancer, choreographer, and teaching artist based in Los Angeles. Having worked with inner-city non-profits since age 10, and thus being awarded the 2012 Kohl’s Regional Volunteer of the Year Award, Elizabeth has always been committed to the empowerment of the youth and using the performing arts to build personal and artistic goals. After taking free Hip Hop classes from a local non-profit, Elizabeth diverted all her efforts to dance education which lead to the opportunity to study and perform with Open House, Versa-Style Next Generation, Physical Poets, and Inner-City Arts Repertory Dance CO.

    Elizabeth brings 10+ years of teaching and performing experience and has been instrumental in designing and administrating course syllabi for multiple programs, coaching new teaching artists and mentoring young artists into becoming tomorrow’s professionals and continues to fuel her passion for dance education, injury prevention, and the preservation and education of Hip Hop dance and culture. Elizabeth received her B.F.A in Dance and B. A in Spanish from the University of California, Los Angeles.

  • Danielle Lydia Sheather, Development

    Canadian born dancer, choreographer, artist, and educator. Her professional training includes the Paul Taylor Winter Intensive, Limón Spring Studies Program, Horton Pedagogy Workshop, Centre National de la Danse, Off Jazz Stage D'été, and One Body One Career Countertechnique Intensive. She has performed both nationally and internationally from commercial to concert dance on both television and stage including national commercials. Danielle's choreography has been showcased at Baryshnikov Arts Center (NYC), WAXworks at Triskelion Arts (NYC), WHITE WAVE DUMBO Dance Festival at the Gelsey Kirkland ArtsCenter (NYC), Stevie Eller Dance Theater (Tucson, AZ), McGinnis Theater (Greenville, NC), SoloDuo Festival at Dixon Place in NYC, the Eileen and Allen Anes Theatre (Cedar City, UT), and Le Regard du Cygne (Paris, France). She is currently serving as Assistant Professor at Southern Utah University where she developed the curriculum for the progressive jazz dance track in order to represent a more equitable education. She is the recipient of three Curriculum Innovation Grants and the Distinguished Scholarly and Creative Activity Award. She has previously served as Clinical Assistant Professor at the University at Buffalo, and Guest Artist and Instructor at East Carolina University. Danielle received her MFA from the University of Arizona as a University Fellow and graduated from the University at Buffalo Honors College with a BFA in Dance and BA in Psychology.

    To read more visit: www.daniellelydiasheather.com