rahila coates
who knows

Rahila Naomi Stadem Coats is a queer, mixed black and white dancer, choreographer, administrator, and space maker. Her exploration as a movement artist, movement facilitator, and administrator ranges from working with people from all backgrounds and assisting them to mold a performance that shares their story, or composing work in collaboration with artists from different mediums and cultures, instigating kinesthetic and verbal conversation. Rahila's research of collaboration has brought her to communities of space making and dance making at Gustavus Adolphus College- St. Peter, University of Minnesota- Twin Cities, University of Ghana-Legon, and Hebrew University’s Dance Jerusalem-Palestine. Her work has also been awarded to perform at the 2021 ACDA North-Central Conference. She has performed new works and repertoire by Abigail Sena Atugah, Kofi Anthonio, Judith Brin Ingber, Karen Charles, Marciano Dos Silva Santos, Carl Flink, Kevin Iega Jeff, Michel Kouakou, Ohad Naharin, Andrea Miller, Robert Moses, Jeffrey Peterson, Uri Sands Chris Schlicting and Tali Wertheim- Agranionik within and outside the large US dance community. Her works have been shown through the support of Twenty Percent Productions, 2018 Jerusalem Jazz Festival, University of Minnesota- Twin Cities, Gustavus Adolphus College and University of Ghana- Legon. Additionally, her improvisational works have involved herself in collaborations with theater and visual artists such as Nathan Eckstein at MN Fringe Festival and Caroline Kent and Tori Casagranda at Company and Projects.  She focuses on communication as a way to understand the community, and prioritizes platforming artists through administration, engagement, and movement. Currently she works in administration with Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, teaches movement at Red Clay Dance Company and Academy, and is the 2021 New Works Artist at Synapse Arts in Chicago, IL. She sees people and movement as a way to color space, and practices addressing space as the location to where we heal.