Tamara Williams
Tamara Williams, associate professor of dance and director of undergraduate studies, earned her B.F.A. in Dance at Florida State University and M.F.A. in Dance at Hollins University in collaboration with American Dance Festival and Frankfurt University. She is a certified GYROTONIC(R) Trainer, Reiki Practitioner, and capoeirista. Williams is a choreographer, scholar, and artivist whose choreography has been performed nationally and internationally including Serbia, Switzerland, Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica, Mexico, Cuba, Benin, and Brazil. In 2011, Williams created Moving Spirits, Inc., a contemporary arts organization dedicated to performing, researching, documenting, cultivating, and producing arts of the African Diaspora.
Williams’ publications include her book “Giving Life to Movement: The Silvestre Dance Technique,” which analyzes African-Brazilian dance histories and cultures and was published by McFarland Press in 2021. Williams’ research on African American Ring Shout traditions has been disseminated at several colleges and universities in the United States and Brazil. Her scholarship on Shouting traditions include her article, “Reviving Culture Through Ring Shout,” published in the scholarly journal The Dancer-Citizen, and a chapter in the monograph “Fire Under My Feet: Historical Perspectives on Dance in the African Diaspora.” A book which she has co-authored and edited, “The African Diaspora and Civic Responsibility,” will be published by McFarland & Co. in 2026. This latter text investigates how African American, African-Brazilian, Haitian, and Latinx artists and scholars address civic responsibility and social justice issues through the arts.
Williams holds multiple awards, including the College of Arts + Architecture faculty recipient of the 2019-2020 Board of Governors Teaching Award. Three Faculty Research Grants to further her studies of African American Ring Shout traditions in the Carolina’s low country and West Africa. Williams was commissioned to create a new work in 2020 by The National Center for Choreography (NCCAkron). In 2022, she was presented the Jan Van Dyke Legacy Award by the North Carolina Dance Festival. Williams is the co-creator of the Benin Movement Research and Cultural Exchange Program in Cotonou, Benin (2023/2025).
In 2024, she launched the bi-annual International African Diaspora Dance Traditions Conference in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, gathering scholars and artists from across the globe. In fall 2024, Williams was awarded the International Education Faculty Award from UNC Charlotte. In 2025, she was awarded the Harvey B. Gantt Center’s Black Carolina Artist Residency and awarded a Creative Renewal Fellowship from the Arts & Science Council. Williams is also an esteemed 2026 Dance USA Fellow and Gambrell Research Fellow.
Williams has taught at Bates Dance Festival and the Boston Conservatory’s Summer Program. She serves on the Executive Board of Dance/USA Board of Trustees and is a National Dance Project (NDP) Advisor.
Williams has researched and developed various community programs focusing on underserved people in New York City and Charlotte. The programs provide opportunities and access for communities to learn and practice dances of the African diaspora.