Growing up in Coney Island in Brooklyn, the opportunities for Enya-Kalia Jordan, BYR ’20, to receive affordable formal dance instruction were few and far between after the neighborhood dance school closed. So, she danced at church, community centers, on step teams—any free programs her mom could find.
Today, she’s dedicated her career to making sure kids from underserved communities and marginalized groups are given opportunities to express themselves through movement.
Photo by Photo credit: Ryan S. Brandenberg, CLA ’14
I realized that if I’m strategic about it, a career in dance is more than just dancing. It’s being a producer, a researcher and a creative visionary.”
Jordan majored in dance as an undergrad at SUNY Buffalo State and began researching master of fine arts dance degrees. On the suggestion of her advisor Joy Guarino, BYR ’86, she applied to Temple’s Boyer College of Music and Dance.
On the audition stage at Temple, Jordan experienced something new: a sense of belonging.
“I’m a plus-sized Black dancer, and often felt like there was no space for me,” she said. “At my Temple audition, I felt like I actually fit. There was West African, modern and freestyle dancing, and I was like, I’ve found my people.”
In her two-and-a-half years at Temple, Jordan hustled nonstop. Temple awarded Jordan a number of scholarships, including the Vice Provost Scholarship and the Sarah Hilsendager Dance Education Scholarship.
She dove deep into the arts community, jumping at opportunities like working alongside Kimmika Williams-Witherspoon, associate professor of theater studies and playwriting, on Safe to Brave, a play inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement. Williams-Witherspoon’s collaborative leadership style and mentorship had a powerful effect on Jordan.
“Temple helped break my boundaries of what I thought dance could be,” she said.
The pinnacle of Jordan’s Temple experiences was her master’s thesis, a three-part performance titled, Pissed: An Ode to the Black Woman Warrior. The piece, which addressed the stereotype of the angry Black woman, featured dancers of all different skin tones and body shapes, and included rhythmic dance, singing, spoken word poetry and drumming.
“Overlapping oppression does make you angry! So I wanted to look at, how do you move about the world with this anger but still participate in joy?” Jordan said. “It was the biggest project that I’d done at that point.”
College: Boyer College of Music and Dance
Degree: MFA, dance, 2020
Industry: Dance
Hometown: Brooklyn, New York
Since graduating from Temple, Jordan has been busy creating change across different dimensions of dance. She’s conducted ethnographic research around the globe, continued to perform and teach dance in New York City, and in 2020, began pursuing her PhD at Texas Woman’s University. Her dissertation will advocate for the same emphasis on African Diasporic dance as Western European dance.
Since August 2022, her day job is working as the manager of dance development and diversity under the Radio City Rockettes, housed by Madison Square Garden Entertainment. In this role, she connects the famed institution with community organizations and kids from underserved communities. “It combines my two passions of creating equitable spaces and dance in one,” she said.
And Bashi Arts, named after Jordan’s late father, is the arts organization she runs with fellow Owl Rachel Repinz, BYR ’21. It’s geared toward supporting up-and-coming artists who represent a variety of marginalized groups. Bashi Arts is the practical application of the work Jordan has always done to push for more equitable spaces in dance.
“I’m just trying to give some kids a shot, that’s really the driver for me,” she says. “I just want to give children—even college-age students—the opportunities in dance. Everyone who wants to can and should dance.”
