Dance, Film, Writing/Poetry
Artistically known as “KHILA,” Aquilah Ohemeng is a multidisciplinary choreographer whose work is layered in movement, filmmaking, and writing. She uses an experiential and multicultural lens rooted in the African Diaspora and its movement aesthetics, Black Studies, Womanist theology, and social justice to investigate historical narratives, contemporary culture, identity, and modes of resistance. Her various choreographic works have been selected, featured, and/or commissioned within exhibitions ranging from Colby College’s Museum of Art in conjunction with the Zanele Muholi: Sonymama Namayama, Hail the Dark Lioness exhibition to Spelman College’s Forty Years of Black Feminist Fire celebration, UCLA’s 2022 International New Wight Biennial, among others. Ohemeng’s latest projects, The Flowers that Grew from Our Tears and PASS US NOT: Holy Ghosted, have received acclaim. In addition to having taught dance technique and theory at prominent institutions such as Syracuse University (formerly as adjunct faculty), Spelman College, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and UCLA, she has mentored and worked with Philadelphia, Metro-Atlanta, and Boston youth. Ohemeng received her formal dance education from Spelman College, where she earned a B.A. degree in Dance Performance & Choreography, and an MFA degree in Choreographic Inquiry from UCLA.