Biography
Dr. Ayo Walker is an Associate Professor of Dance Studies, a Performance Studies scholar-practitioner, choreographer, educator, and cultural theorist whose work centers Black social dance, African diasporic movement, embodied cultural knowledge, and the Black dancing body as both text and archive. Her research, choreography, and pedagogy are rooted in physical orature—the embodiment, preservation, transformation, and transmission of cultural knowledge through the body—and in her developing framework of African Diasporic Blood Memories. She is the creator of Caricatureography, a research-to-performance methodology that translates literary characters’ narratives into anthropomorphic embodied annotations, positioning choreography as a mode of reading, writing, and righting Black histories. Her Toni Morrison series includes The Breedloves’ Pas de Duke, inspired by The Bluest Eye; Jadine’s Son, inspired by Tar Baby; and Sula, recently developed and premiered at PUSHfest 2026. Through Ayo & Company, her creative work interrogates stereotypical representations of the Black body politic while drawing from Black social, vernacular, street, and Africanist movement lineages. Her decolonialist pedagogy recognizes students as co-creators, interpreters, and producers of knowledge. She also serves on the core faculty of Rennie Harris University and as Resident Scholar, Editor, Researcher, and Consultant with the Rennie Harris American Street Dance Archive. Dr. Walker received a B.A. in Drama with an Emphasis in Performance from San Diego State University, an M.A. in Dance in Higher Education and Professions from NYU Steinhardt, and a Ph.D. in Performance Studies with a Designated Emphasis in African American and African Studies from the University of California, Davis.
Instructional Areas
Black Social Dance, Hip-Hop/Street Dance, Jazz Vernacular Dance, African Diasporic Dance, Contemporary Dance, Choreography and Composition, Dance Studies, Performance Studies, African American Theatre and Performance, Cultural Dance History, and Critical Dance Pedagogy.
Creative Practice and Research Interests
Performance Studies, Black Performance Studies, Critical Dance Studies, Black Social Dance, African Diasporic Movement and Physical Orature, Embodied Cultural Knowledge, African Diasporic Blood Memories, Caricatureography, Dance and Literary Studies, Cultural Dance Literacy, Decolonizing Dance Pedagogy, Critical Race Theory in Dance, Choreography, and Performance.
Degrees
B.A., Drama San Diego State University 2000
M.A., Dance in Higher Education and Professions New York University 2009
Ph.D., Performance Studies University of California, Davis 2016