Faculty Bio - Kevin McEwen
Kevin McEwen (he/him/his)
Title: Adjunct Lecturer
Email: [email protected]
Teaching African and Afro-Caribbean Dance, Music Video Dance, Repertory, Dance Workshop and Introduction to the Art of Dance and choreographing the annual Kwanzaa celebration.
A native of Brooklyn New York, Kevin McEwen’s work is focused within traditional West African dance techniques. His choreographic work highlights topics of social justice, cultural appropriation and ancestral memory, using dance as a creative form of expression. As a lecturer in traditional African dance ethnography, McEwen has presented his research at several conferences, including the Season of Dance in Barbados and the African Theater Associations Annual International Conference in Nigeria. McEwen’s tireless dedication to supporting young people created a foundation for him to start his own dance company, the Kofago Dance Ensemble, where he provides training and performance opportunities to young aspiring performing artists.
McEwen is a graduate of New York University’s Steinhardt School of Education, where he obtained a master’s degree in Dance Education, with a focus on teaching in higher education. McEwen is currently a Lecturer of Dance at Queensborough Community College, where he teaches African and Afro Caribbean Dance, Dance Workshop, Dance Video Choreography and Production, Dance Repertoire and Dance History. His role as a Professor at QCC allowed Kevin the opportunity to choreograph, produce and direct the school’s first Kwanzaa Celebration, which was a full-length theatrical presentation celebrating the history of Kwanzaa through music and dance. McEwen is also an accompanist and lecturer with his alma mater, New York University’s Steinhardt School of Education’s Dance Education program. At NYU, McEwen has the dual responsibility of an accompanist for West African and Caribbean Dance classes and teaching the graduate level West African Dance classes for graduate majors in the Dance Education’s African Diaspora graduate track. His long-term goal is to obtain a Doctoral degree in Education Leadership which will benefit his mission of advocating and institutionalizing Caribbean folkloric and traditional African culture at the collegiate level of education.