Tamara "Fákémi" Williams

Tamara Williams is a native of Augusta, GA. She earned her BFA in Dance from Florida State University and her MFA in Dance from Hollins University in collaboration with The American Dance Festival, The Forsythe Company, and Frankfurt University (Germany). Her choreography has been performed nationally and internationally in Belgrade, Serbia; Basel, Switzerland; Trinidad & Tobago; Salvador, Brazil; Kingston, Jamaica; and in Puebla, Mexico.

Williams was a 2012 recipient of the Artist Residency Fellowship at the Dance & Performance Institute in Trinidad, a 2013 recipient of the Harlem Stage/Aaron Davis Hall Fund for New Work grant, and a 2014 and 2016 Community Arts Fund Grantee by the Brooklyn Arts Council. She was the 2014 Lecturer/Emerging Artist-in-Residence at Penn State University- Altoona. Williams was a 2015 and 2017 Turkey Land Grove Foundation recipient where she participated in two seven-day dance writing residencies in Martha's Vineyard. She was a 2015 Fall Space Grant recipient, awarded by the Brooklyn Arts Exchange. She has received several UNCC mini diversity grant awards, and two Chancellor’s Diversity Challenge Fund awards. Williams has received three Faculty Research Grants which have supported her in depth study and investigation of Ring Shout Dance Traditions and Òrìṣà dances in the low country, Nigeria and Benin. Williams was commissioned by the Kaatsbaan International Dance Center to create a new work for Moving Spirits, Inc. in 2018; the new work premiered during her Kaatsbaan UpStream Residency in the Hudson Valley, NY. Williams has received several Culture Blocks grants from the Mecklenburg County Arts & Science Council; the funding supports Moving Spirits' ongoing free African diaspora dance workshops throughout the Charlotte community. She is a College of Arts + Architecture faculty recipient of the 2019-2020 Board of Governors Teaching Award. Williams was commissioned to create a new work for Juneteenth in 2020 by The National Center for Choreography (NCCAkron) through an invitation by Cara Hagan. In 2021, Williams became an Arts and Science Council Emerging Creative Fellowship recipient to continue her research in Ring Shout traditions. In 2021 and 2022, Williams was awarded Cultural Visions Grants from the Arts and Science Council to support the LAVAGEM FESTIVAL! in Charlotte celebrating African diaspora and Indigenous communities, through Black Brazilian arts, history and culture. In 2022, Williams was presented the Jan Van Dyke Legacy Award by the North Carolina Dance Festival.

Williams has taught master classes in New York City, San Diego, San Antonio, Atlanta, Tallahassee, Charlotte, Altoona, Trinidad, Mexico, Brazil, and Jamaica. She offers free master classes to the general public through Moving Spirits, Inc. She has worked as a Program Director for the Arts and Literacy Program in Brooklyn and is dedicated to continuous work in underserved communities. Williams is an Associate Professor of Dance at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. 

Photo by David P. France

Full Land Acknowledgement

It's important to note that several Indigenous nations in the southeastern U.S. region are not regionally or nationally recognized and not included. 

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