TéMaTé Institute for Black Dance and Culture is a social justice organization engaging in the vital work of cultivating dancers and culture keepers to create networks of people, places, and histories toward cultural equity.

Mission: To embody a more culturally just and equitable world by celebrating the contributions of the African diaspora.

Vision: To ignite a critical mass of partners and cultural stewards that preserve, progress, and pass afro-rooted traditions.

Our Land Statement: TeMaTe Institute for Black Dance and Culture exists as a dance justice and cultural equity organization. Our name is inspired by the Temate dance of the Yacouba and Whêbe people in what we now call the Ivory Coast, a joyful dance inspired by the land and our relationship with it. We acknowledge that we are gathering on lands that are contemporarily the indigenous homelands of the Anishinaabe people and have historically been the homelands of the Huron, Wendat, Kickapoo, and others. We honor the past, present, and future stewardship of these lands and stand in solidarity with native people/indigenous people, and honor Detroit as the largest majority Black city in the United States with a long history of African Diasporic contributions to dance and culture of Detroit and beyond.  

  • Accessibility

  • Ancestral Reconnection

  • Authentic connection to self

  • Intergenerational exchange

  • Self-expression

  • Community

  • Stewardship

  • Celebration

  • Personal and collective liberation

  • Aligning our mind, body, and spirit

  • Accountability to self, community, and to the lineage

  • Uplift and honor the interdependence between rhythm and movement (drummer and dancer)

  • There is space for everyBODY

  • Celebrating our potential

  • We express gratitude and appreciation for our teachers.

  • We acknowledge the lineage and what came before.

  • We strive to maintain the practice and not perfection.

  • We actively and critically examine how we talk about dance.

  • We respect all dance practices.

  • We contribute to the growth of the Detroit dance community.

  • We take care of and have patience with our bodies.

  • We preserve the culture of Classical African Dance.

 

As stewards of a rich tradition, and keepers of bodily histories we must engage in the generational transfer of knowledge across the Black Atlantic. Challenging how classical black dance is situated in the larger dance ecosystem we aim to shift how people practice and talk about the gifts from the African continent in the continuum of dance and culture.