Biography
Marjani Forté-Saunders (LMU Dance ‘04), who started as a dancer performer and pivoted to choreography, thinks of her approach to dance and dance education like a ministry: a way of sharing her humanity and her relationship to what might be regarded as nature or the divine. For Forté-Saunders, teaching is a continuation of that unique way of thinking about the craft of dance and an opportunity to share the tools she has gathered along her journey.
A Pasadena native who has also lived in Harlem, Forté-Saunders brings a wide range of experiences and accolades with her to LMU Dance, including her debut as a choreographer for New York Metropolitan Opera’s “El Niño”; three Bessie awards; and the prestigious Dance Magazine Harkness Award, among many others. For Forté-Saunders, being named a 2023 United Artists Fellow is one of the highlights, saying of the award, “It’s just such a beautiful bounty of artists. And somehow this fellowship has done a really good job at holding the specialness of the award while drawing our attention to the fact that our country is stocked full of critical, creative, critical thinkers and artists who are making moves in their field, making powerful impacts and elevating people’s consciousness.”
A Pasadena native who has also lived in Harlem, Forté-Saunders brings a wide range of experiences and accolades with her to LMU Dance, including her debut as a choreographer for New York Metropolitan Opera’s “El Niño”; three Bessie awards; and the prestigious Dance Magazine Harkness Award, among many others. For Forté-Saunders, being named a 2023 United Artists Fellow is one of the highlights, saying of the award, “It’s just such a beautiful bounty of artists. And somehow this fellowship has done a really good job at holding the specialness of the award while drawing our attention to the fact that our country is stocked full of critical, creative, critical thinkers and artists who are making moves in their field, making powerful impacts and elevating people’s consciousness.”
