A native of Brooklyn New York, Kevin's love for dance goes back to the early days of break dancing and reggae dancehall competitions across the city. In 1994, his love for the rhythm and dance led to him to create the Francis Lewis Nu Gamma Psi Step Squad alongside two of his lifetime friends Sakina Kaleak and Tara Spivey. After graduating from high school, Kevin attended Hampton University, where he briefly became a member of the Majestic Dance Troupe, while also choreographing the step routine for Harkenss Hall’s championship team of the 1996 Annual Freshman Stepshow. After leaving Hampton University, Mr. McEwen relocated to the DC Metropolitan area.
His time in DC gave him exposure to the KanKouran West African Dance Company in 2001. After meeting KanKouran’s Artistic Director, Assane Konte, Kevin was invited to their weekly community classes, where he learned many of the various techniques from KanKouran’s Senior Company Members. After two years of apprenticeship, Kevin became a full time member of the Senior Company. Kevin's decade long dance career with KanKouran gave him a foundation in West African dance (with a focus on dance techniques from Senegal and Mali), which has proved invaluable as he broadened his dance repertoire by studying under dance masters to include Afro Cuban, Haitian Folkloric, and various Modern/Contemporary dance techniques.
When Kevin isn't dancing, he spends his time as an apprentice percussionist under the tutelage of Griot Percussionist Medoune Yacine Gueye, learning the techniques of the D'jembe, D'jun D'jun, Sabar and Kutiro drums.
Kevin has taught West African Dance classes for the Dance Institute of Washington, John Hansen French Immersion School, TC Williams High School, American University, Iona College, New York University and the Ngoma Center for Dance. Kevin's previous dance collaborations include dance projects with Haiti Danse Company-Jacmel, The Edeyo Foundation, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, Fara Lambe, and the Howard University Dance Department. Kevin is also the creator of the Re-Definition of Manhood (ROM) Project, which gives guidance to young African American men through mentorship, performing arts development and rights of passage indoctrination. His work with the ROM Project provided him a foundation to provide mentorship to four young boys from the Southside of Chicago in the groundbreaking documentary, “Walk All Night: A Drum Beat Journey,” which documents the sojourn of these young men back to Senegal, West Africa to study the musical and cultural traditions of the Griot caste of musicians.
His choreography work entitled "Nagnou Fecc - The Men MUST Dance" is his artistic protest to the increased and rampant assault on the black male identity. " We are at a place and time where we are literally being hunted down and assassinate by those who THINK they control us, however it is my belief that these strategic emasculating activities are happening to us as a whole only because we ALLOW them to happen."
Kevin is currently the West African dance instructor for the Gloria Eve Performing Arts Foundation, located in Hempstead, New York. He’s choreographed multiple pieces in the schools 15th anniversary show, which reenacted the Disney production of “Alladin” in 2016. This year, he’s choreographing for the musical “the Wiz,” which will be Goria Eve’s 16th annual show. Kevin’s ongoing work with Gloria Eve will focus on increasing the community’s awareness of African dance culture and ethnography.
As a lecturer in African cultural dance ethnography, Kevin has presented his research at several conferences, including the Season of Dance in Barbados and the African Theater Associations Annual International Conference in Abjua, Nigeria.
Mr. McEwen is also a graduate of New York University’s Steinhardt School of Education, where he obtained a Master’s Degree in Dance Education, with a focus Dancing in the Professions. This will help in his immediate goal of teaching and lecturing at the collegiate level. His long-term goal is to obtain a Doctoral degree in Education which will benefit his mission of addressing the lack of diversity in higher education. Kevin is currently teaching as an adjunct lecturer at Queensborough Community College in Bayside New York.
Supervisors: Deborah Demast, Pat Cohen, Ronald K. Brown, and Emily Berry
Phone: 7038684114
His time in DC gave him exposure to the KanKouran West African Dance Company in 2001. After meeting KanKouran’s Artistic Director, Assane Konte, Kevin was invited to their weekly community classes, where he learned many of the various techniques from KanKouran’s Senior Company Members. After two years of apprenticeship, Kevin became a full time member of the Senior Company. Kevin's decade long dance career with KanKouran gave him a foundation in West African dance (with a focus on dance techniques from Senegal and Mali), which has proved invaluable as he broadened his dance repertoire by studying under dance masters to include Afro Cuban, Haitian Folkloric, and various Modern/Contemporary dance techniques.
When Kevin isn't dancing, he spends his time as an apprentice percussionist under the tutelage of Griot Percussionist Medoune Yacine Gueye, learning the techniques of the D'jembe, D'jun D'jun, Sabar and Kutiro drums.
Kevin has taught West African Dance classes for the Dance Institute of Washington, John Hansen French Immersion School, TC Williams High School, American University, Iona College, New York University and the Ngoma Center for Dance. Kevin's previous dance collaborations include dance projects with Haiti Danse Company-Jacmel, The Edeyo Foundation, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, Fara Lambe, and the Howard University Dance Department. Kevin is also the creator of the Re-Definition of Manhood (ROM) Project, which gives guidance to young African American men through mentorship, performing arts development and rights of passage indoctrination. His work with the ROM Project provided him a foundation to provide mentorship to four young boys from the Southside of Chicago in the groundbreaking documentary, “Walk All Night: A Drum Beat Journey,” which documents the sojourn of these young men back to Senegal, West Africa to study the musical and cultural traditions of the Griot caste of musicians.
His choreography work entitled "Nagnou Fecc - The Men MUST Dance" is his artistic protest to the increased and rampant assault on the black male identity. " We are at a place and time where we are literally being hunted down and assassinate by those who THINK they control us, however it is my belief that these strategic emasculating activities are happening to us as a whole only because we ALLOW them to happen."
Kevin is currently the West African dance instructor for the Gloria Eve Performing Arts Foundation, located in Hempstead, New York. He’s choreographed multiple pieces in the schools 15th anniversary show, which reenacted the Disney production of “Alladin” in 2016. This year, he’s choreographing for the musical “the Wiz,” which will be Goria Eve’s 16th annual show. Kevin’s ongoing work with Gloria Eve will focus on increasing the community’s awareness of African dance culture and ethnography.
As a lecturer in African cultural dance ethnography, Kevin has presented his research at several conferences, including the Season of Dance in Barbados and the African Theater Associations Annual International Conference in Abjua, Nigeria.
Mr. McEwen is also a graduate of New York University’s Steinhardt School of Education, where he obtained a Master’s Degree in Dance Education, with a focus Dancing in the Professions. This will help in his immediate goal of teaching and lecturing at the collegiate level. His long-term goal is to obtain a Doctoral degree in Education which will benefit his mission of addressing the lack of diversity in higher education. Kevin is currently teaching as an adjunct lecturer at Queensborough Community College in Bayside New York.
Supervisors: Deborah Demast, Pat Cohen, Ronald K. Brown, and Emily Berry
Phone: 7038684114
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As an educator, it is our goal and our rite to educate and uplift those who have been dehumanized through systemic oppression.
Conference Presentations
The approach used in researching and presenting this topic is a combination of participant observation, archival study, and interviews of the project’s participants. Participant observation comes from student who participated in the show and the performers who were allowed to collaborate in the show’s production. Archival study is from the producer/director’s experience and interviews as well as from the students and performers who were observed through the project’s experience.
There is a consistent level of success with this project that must be documented. Documenting the existing practice using formal research methodology will allow other educators to use the process to create sustainable programming in their local community. This research qualifies the creative process of the event to show how the creative approach can be applied at the collegiate and community levels of programming activity.
Session attendees will learn about the creative workflow behind the event, which can be used to create programming in their own local community. We will go through each year of the creative process, showing the gradual growth of the show annually, as well as the partnerships created behind the event, which leads to a successful event year after year.
The current curriculum at Queensborough Community College does not allow for a deep level of study of dance forms from the African Diaspora. Students are offered one class (African and Caribbean Dance Technique) in their first semester in the program.
In 2019, the enrolled student population at QCC was 31.7% Hispanic or LatinX, 24.2% Asian, 23.4% Black or African American, 11.4% White, 2.04% Two or More Races, 1.1% American Indian or Alaska Native, and 0.62% Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islanders. This includes both full-time and part-time students as well as first and second years students.
Kwanzaa Celebration offers an opportunity for the QCC Dance Majors (who align along the same ethnic diversity lines as the rest of the college) to participate in a semester long dance intensive within the African Diaspora genre of dance.
The first component of the presentation uses a semi-structured interview process of three different dancers from three different countries in the Caribbean. Each dancer has a career in the performing arts that combines over fifty years of experience as performing artists. Their interviews will focus on the importance of understanding your dance lineage, how this information has helped them in their careers and how important this information is within the context of Caribbean cultural dance.
The second part of the presentation will be an inclusive exercise for participants in the room to understand their own dance lineage through a creative exercise using poster paper and markers. This part of the discussion will allow the participants to gain a deeper understanding of the importance of dance lineage by creating their own artistic interpretation of their own dance lineage.
Ethnographic dance researcher Joan D. Frosch states that “Context, then, is the defining component of ethnographic research.” Understanding ones dance lineage provides the initial foundation of cultural context needed to be successful at the fusion of Caribbean dances.
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As a choreographers, one of our missions should be to educate and uplift those who have been dehumanized through systemic oppression. One medium used to educate the oppressed is dance. Traditional African dance forms provides a foundation for creative inquiry that allows for the development of choreography focused on social change.
This presentation will focus on the creation of a piece entitled “NAGNOU FECC – The Men Must Dance.” Nagnou Fecc is the Wolof words for "Men Dance". This choreography served as an artistic protest to the increased and rampant assault on the African American male identity.
Dr. John Henrik Clark states that "The role of history is to tell a people where they have been, what they've been, where they are and what they are, but most importantly, the role of history (properly learned) tells a people where they still must go and what they still must be."
Nagnou Fecc was also a "call-to-arms" for all men willing to put in the work, which stands as a moment in time where differences are put aside all those things that society, religion and ignorance has used to separate men of the African Diaspora.
As an educator, it is our goal and our rite to educate and uplift those who have been dehumanized through systemic oppression.
The approach used in researching and presenting this topic is a combination of participant observation, archival study, and interviews of the project’s participants. Participant observation comes from student who participated in the show and the performers who were allowed to collaborate in the show’s production. Archival study is from the producer/director’s experience and interviews as well as from the students and performers who were observed through the project’s experience.
There is a consistent level of success with this project that must be documented. Documenting the existing practice using formal research methodology will allow other educators to use the process to create sustainable programming in their local community. This research qualifies the creative process of the event to show how the creative approach can be applied at the collegiate and community levels of programming activity.
Session attendees will learn about the creative workflow behind the event, which can be used to create programming in their own local community. We will go through each year of the creative process, showing the gradual growth of the show annually, as well as the partnerships created behind the event, which leads to a successful event year after year.
The current curriculum at Queensborough Community College does not allow for a deep level of study of dance forms from the African Diaspora. Students are offered one class (African and Caribbean Dance Technique) in their first semester in the program.
In 2019, the enrolled student population at QCC was 31.7% Hispanic or LatinX, 24.2% Asian, 23.4% Black or African American, 11.4% White, 2.04% Two or More Races, 1.1% American Indian or Alaska Native, and 0.62% Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islanders. This includes both full-time and part-time students as well as first and second years students.
Kwanzaa Celebration offers an opportunity for the QCC Dance Majors (who align along the same ethnic diversity lines as the rest of the college) to participate in a semester long dance intensive within the African Diaspora genre of dance.
The first component of the presentation uses a semi-structured interview process of three different dancers from three different countries in the Caribbean. Each dancer has a career in the performing arts that combines over fifty years of experience as performing artists. Their interviews will focus on the importance of understanding your dance lineage, how this information has helped them in their careers and how important this information is within the context of Caribbean cultural dance.
The second part of the presentation will be an inclusive exercise for participants in the room to understand their own dance lineage through a creative exercise using poster paper and markers. This part of the discussion will allow the participants to gain a deeper understanding of the importance of dance lineage by creating their own artistic interpretation of their own dance lineage.
Ethnographic dance researcher Joan D. Frosch states that “Context, then, is the defining component of ethnographic research.” Understanding ones dance lineage provides the initial foundation of cultural context needed to be successful at the fusion of Caribbean dances.
As a choreographers, one of our missions should be to educate and uplift those who have been dehumanized through systemic oppression. One medium used to educate the oppressed is dance. Traditional African dance forms provides a foundation for creative inquiry that allows for the development of choreography focused on social change.
This presentation will focus on the creation of a piece entitled “NAGNOU FECC – The Men Must Dance.” Nagnou Fecc is the Wolof words for "Men Dance". This choreography served as an artistic protest to the increased and rampant assault on the African American male identity.
Dr. John Henrik Clark states that "The role of history is to tell a people where they have been, what they've been, where they are and what they are, but most importantly, the role of history (properly learned) tells a people where they still must go and what they still must be."
Nagnou Fecc was also a "call-to-arms" for all men willing to put in the work, which stands as a moment in time where differences are put aside all those things that society, religion and ignorance has used to separate men of the African Diaspora.