2019 Princess Grace Award Honoraria
Choreography
Nominated by: Lula Washington Dance Theatre
Additional Grants from the Princess Grace Foundation
2026 Princess Grace Artist Fellowship
2021 Special Project Grant
Tommie-Waheed Evans is a choreographer who transforms movement into a vessel for memory, resilience, and radical possibility. A queer Black artist from Los Angeles, he draws from a terrain shaped by racial division, gang violence, and natural disaster, channeling these imprints into choreographic worlds that pulse with urgency, spirituality, and depth. His work interrogates Blackness, queerness, and liberation, crafting performances that blur the boundaries between personal and collective histories.
A 2021 Guggenheim Fellow, Evans trained with Karen McDonald before earning a fellowship at The Ailey School and later an MFA in Choreography from Jacksonville University. As a performer, he toured internationally with Lula Washington Dance Theatre, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, and PHILADANCO!, experiences that deepened his connection to the lineage of Black dance while expanding his choreographic vision. Since transitioning into choreography, he has created over 50 original works, each exploring distinct themes, structures, and emotional landscapes.
Evans founded waheedworks as a vehicle for his artistic research, merging urban street dance with contemporary movement, propelled by gospel music and polyrhythmic textures. Under his direction, the company was presented at Jacob’s Pillow, The Joyce Theater, USC Visions and Voices, SummerStage NYC, The Painted Bride Arts Center, and Philadelphia Dance Projects, among others. His choreographic commissions span renowned companies including BalletX, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, PHILADANCO!, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Verb Ballets, Ballet Memphis, and Louisville Ballet, as well as numerous universities and conservatories.
His work extends beyond performance, engaging deeply with research and cultural storytelling. Evans has been recognized as a Resident Fellow at the Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU, a recipient of the Princess Grace Honoraria Award in Choreography, and a Howard Gilman Foundation Fellow. He has received the New Music Project Grant, the Joffrey Ballet Winning Works Award, and the Dance Research Fellowship at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. His contributions to the field have also been honored with the inaugural Joanie Award from PHILADANCO! and the Charles Augins Inspirational Artist Award from the International Association of Blacks in Dance.
His recent projects reflect his continued exploration of dance as both a form of resistance and a means of spiritual excavation. SERMON is an immersive meditation on Black queer spirituality, blending gospel, movement, and ritual to create a sanctuary-like performance space. HOME/An Untitled Portrait examines race, marginalization, and belonging in America through the lens of human rights and radical performance. These works embody his commitment to expanding the language of dance while centering the voices and histories of Black and queer communities.
Currently, as one of three choreographers-in-residence at PHILADANCO!, Evans continues to shape the future of Black dance. His choreography invites audiences to witness, feel, and engage—stepping into an ever-evolving conversation where movement becomes a living archive, a provocation, and a call to action.
Photos: German Ayala Vazquez