Plaza Olorun choreography
photo gallery
Photos by Yuri Kasinsky


Colleen Brennan (dancer, singer)

Colleen's dance foundation is rooted firmly in the modern and traditional African-diasporic techniques of Cuba, Brazil, and Haiti. Her avid love for dance movement motivates her continual study with renowned masters throughout the S.F. Bay Area, New York, and Cuba. Her performance highlights include such accomplished dance companies as Akat Dance, Sambadat, Mara Reggae, and Alayo Dance Company. In addition to dancing, Colleen is a cultural anthropologist specializing in dance ethnography and African-Caribbean religious studies. She has received numerous grants for fieldwork and presented her research at conferences throughout California.
wendyEllen Cochran (singer)

wendyEllen began performing with Obakoso as both a singer and dancer when the company was born back in 1996. The National Endowment awarded her a Folkloric study grant in 1995 to travel to Cuba and study with Los Munequitos de Matanzas and the Conjunto Folklorico National.  She holds both a Bachelors and Master's Degree in Modern Dance and during her 35 year career has become an expert World Dance Educator and performer. Spanning the globe with her dance travels; she has performed and taught West African, Caribbean, Mediterranean, North African, and Polynesian Dance forms. Both a college professor and K-12 dance educator, wendyEllen tours a student company worlDancers which is sponsored by the Mervyn's Foundation, Safeway and currently the City of San Leandro. In addition to performing with Obakoso, wendyEllen is singing with Afro-Puerto-Rican and Afro-Brazilian groups.
Tyrone R. Collins (dancer)

Tyrone has been performing on the stage for seventeen years.  His performances include numerous musical numbers such as Ain’t Misbehavin’, Sophisticated Ladies, Guys and Dolls and Don’t Get Around Much Anymore.  He has performed at the Black Repertory Theater, Malonga Casqualord Center, Palace of Fine Arts, and The James More Theater.  In addition to dance trainings of various techniques  such as West African, Haitian, and Afro-Cuban, Tyrone was a member of the African Dance Troupe Decontee, performing traditional Liberian Dances throughout the United States.
Heather Easley-Kasinsky (dancer)

Heather’s passion for African based dance developed while living in Japan and studying alongside the Brazilian expatriate community outside of Tokyo.  Her love of the religious and artistic expressions of the African Diaspora led her on subsequent trips to Haiti, Brazil, and Cuba to study Dahomey and Yoruba derived religion and folklore.  Over her past decade in the San Francisco Bay Area, Heather has performed with Group Petit La Croix Haitian Dance Ensemble as well as the Brazilian ensemble Oxumare.  Heather continues to research, sing, dance, and perform to honor the memory of her grandmother, Fred.
Chris Fisher (drummer)

Chris began his study of African percussive musical traditions with Ghanian master drummer C.K. Ladzepko.  Introduced to Afro-Cuban drum and dance by José Francisco Barroso, he quickly immersed himself in the complex rhythms of the bata.  Chris has pursued his studies of Afro-Cuban song and drum with such masters as Juan de Dios and Miguel Bernal of Raices Profundas, and Carlos Aldama of the Conjunto Folklorico Nacioanl.
Tito Garcia (drummer)

Ernesto "Tito" Garcia was born in Managua, Nicaragua and has been playing music in the San Francisco Bay Area for over two decades. He is a practicing optometrist, working with the Latino population in S.F.’s Mission District for the last 21 years. In addition to playing bata drums, Tito has had his 13-piece Latin-Mambo-Salsa orquesta “La Internacional” for the last 15 years and is the father of four fabulous children.
Saba-Sabina Gebreab (dancer)

“I believe in the transcendental entity called dance, in the ubiquity of rhythm, and in the stealthy night in which the corn grows.”
Heike Goering (dancer, singer)

Heike is the founder and director of Mission Fusion, which is a fusion of dance performances of different cultures and styles. She is a tenured teacher of 7 years at Jefferson High School and she has also worked as a teacher in Nicaragua and Germany. Her title is department head of the Physical Education and Dance Department at JHS. She earned her Masters Degree in Education in 1990 at the University of Potsdam, former East Germany. She is also an instructor for Brazilian dance at Skyline College.
Christiane Hayashi (singer)

Christiane began singing to her parents' tapes of Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, Roberta Flack and Tina Turner.  As a teenager she started performing folk music and jazz.  In 1995 she formed the rock band "Good Enough for Government Work," made up of employees of the City of San Francisco.  She discovered Cuban music in 1996 when she looked for conga drumming classes and found an Afro-Cuban class taught by Guillermo Céspedes.  Since then she has continued Afro-Cuban song studies with Michael Spiro, Lázaro Pedroso, Lázaro Galarraga, Regino Jimenez and Teresita Pérez.  She has also studied salsa with Edgardo Cambón and David Belov.  Christiane continues to perform jazz, rock, latin and Afro-Cuban music.  Recent projects include singing with the rock band "DAWG", the salsa band "Buena Onda", and with the house band "RCA" at the Las Velas discoteque in Chiapas, Mexico.  In addition, she is looking forward to her next project as a singer with an all-female mariachi band.
Akua Jackson (dancer)

Akua is from Detroit, Michigan and has been on the path of using cultural work as a means to, and expression of, cultural solidarity and resistance against oppression for over 10 years.  Being involved in cultural collectives and dance companies like the African-American Arts and Cultural Center, Fogo Na Ropa, and now Obakoso Drum & Dance has helped her to feel, understand, draw strength, and clarity of purpose from the movement and the spirit that is present, interwoven throughout the dance forms of the African Diaspora.
Ariel Luckey (dancer)

Born and raised in Oakland, California, Ariel Luckey began his movement in West African dance and drumming in elementary school, studying with Ghanaian drummer Pope Flyne and master dancer Akua Angel. As his style developed, he integrated hip hop and break dancing, performing at talent shows and local B-boy battles. While teachers and directors encouraged him to pursue formal ballet and modern training, Ariel chose to continue dancing within folkloric traditions. He expanded his exploration traveling to Cuba and Brasil to study Yoruba and Afro-Cuban spiritual tradition, music and dance. In Cuba he performed with hip hop artists Obsession, Anonimo Consejo and EPG&B, continuing to sharpen his physical and lyrical choreography. In the Bay Area he has studied with Susana Arenas Pedroso, Jose Cheo Rojas and Jose Francisco Barroso. As a poet, emcee, dancer and actor, Ariel incorporates ritual and rhythm into his performance work, dancing in the crossroads of politics and prayer. He released his first CD Soul City Sky Lights in 2005 and is currently working on a new hip hop theatre piece entitled Free Land. Ariel brings his deep love for dance and passion for people to his movement with Obakoso.
Michelle Martin (dancer, singer)

Michelle Martin began her training in ballet and modern dance with the Oakland Office of Parks and Recreation (OPR) Department.  She completed her high school education at Skyline High School of Performing Arts and went on as a specialist in dance and visual arts with OPR Department for thirteen years. As she pursued a major in Dance/Performing Arts, she was given the opportunity to study in St. Louis, Missouri with Ms. Katherine Dunham and several other masters of the original Dunham Dance Company.  Her studies have taken her to the Alvin Ailey School of Dance, as well as independent study with Jean Leon Destine and Richard Gonzales, in New York City. Ms. Martin has traveled throughout Nigeria, Cuba, and Haiti to study dance and music through religious ceremony. She has conducted classes at several San Francisco/Bay Area institutions including Lines Contemporary Ballet, CitiCenter Dance, Rhythm & Motion, Alice Arts Center and currently at Dance Mission and Mill College.  Ms. Martin has been an Artist-in-Residence with the S.F. Unified School District since 1989 and is working with the School of the Arts High School in the Theater Department.Ms. Martin’s resume includes extensive workshops, master classes, performances and choreography.  She has worked with Bantaba and Diamano Coura West African Dance Companies, toured Nigeria with Wajumbe Cultural Ensemble, and was the Assistant Artistic Director, choreographer, principal dancer and singer for the nationally acclaimed group Petit la Croix with Blanche Brown. 
Alan Potosnak (drummer)

Alan began his musical studies at the ripe age of five. He studied classical piano for 8 years, alto saxophone for 3 years, and moved onto 13 years of self-study in guitar. At UC Berkeley, Alan was a founding member of the experimental music trio Stream, were he explored polyrhythm, polytonality, and improvisation within the context of drums, bass, and guitar. Alan began serious percussion studies under the Ghanian master drummer C.K. Ladzekpo, devoting 5 years almost exclusively to polyrhythm and the dance-drumming of the Ewe people. In 1992, Alan was exposed to the Afro-Cuban Bata and soon after learned song and structure with David Shilgi. In addition to much self study, Alan has learned from many Bay Area masters such as Carlos Aldama, David Frazier, Chris Walker, and Michael Spiro. His ability and knowledge deepened as he accompanied Bay Area master José Francisco Barroso with classes and as a principal percussionist for Obakoso beginning in 1996. Alan has played Bata with various Cuban masters such as Miguel Bernal of Raices Profundas, Regino Jimenez, Jesus Alfonso of Los Munequitos de Mantanzas.  In addition to Afro-Cuban bata drumming, Alan studied Nigerian Bata with the Ayankoso troup from Oyo, Nigeria.
Samad Raheem (dancer)

Samad is the youngest dancer in Obakoso and views every elder member of the company as a talented dancer whom he can learn from, and respectably, provide insight of his own. Through many opportunities to teach contemporary dances of Cuba, Samad has indeed contributed a meaningful stance as a performer to many San Francisco Bay Area youth. Samad’s background in performance art began at age five while a drummer at the Alice Arts Center. Soon after, he indulged in Jazz studies as a tenor saxophonist. Performance was key in every aspect of his musical repertoire and his identifiable talent as a musician awarded him the 2004 California Art Scholar. Currently, Samad enjoys dance tremendously and explores the infinite coursework of this art. Recently, in returning to Cuba, Samad studied the contemporary and folkloric dances under instruction of the late Harold William.  In recognition, Samad sends his condolences to all of Harold’s family as he continues as a dancer of Obakoso and under the guidance of Barroso: an extraordinary soloist dancer and choreographer.
Lance A. Scott (dancer)

A Bay Area native, Lance Scott divides his time between dance and art making, and is continually exploring the deeper connection between the two.  His dance journey began in the early eighties as an art and religious studies student at SF State University. There he studied Afro Caribbean movement and folklore and later performed with Blanche Brown and Wilfred Marks. Under the guidance of choreographers Djola Branner and Michelle Martin, he became a principal dancer, as well as set design and prop maker for Flesh and Spirit-a Afro- Haitian dance company. In 1986 while taking a Haitian class at Third Wave Dance studio, he heard the Bata drums in the room next door and believed it was the most beautiful music he’d ever heard. Now, almost 20 years later, he still feels that way.  In 1996, while earning his Masters degree in painting at the SF Art Institute, Lance began his studies with Jose Francisco Barroso and performed with Obakoso in the first and second season. It’s with great joy and gratitude that Lance continues this collaboration with Jose and the community of artists who share a love of this life force tradition.
Sherri Taylor (dancer)

Sherri Taylor is eternally grateful to her parents for her early introduction to the love of music and dance. Initially a hip-hop dancer studying with Allan Frias of Mind Over Matter, it was only a matter of time before she was led to an exploration of dance within the African Diaspora. A graduate of Stanford University, Sherri has been blessed to train and dance with innovative and knowledgeable instructors who encouraged both passion and technique such as Susan Cashion of  Los Decanos, Lalo Izquierdo of Perú Negro, Rhonda Stagnaro-Lowof Mara Reggae, and Michelle Martin of Group Petit-La Croix. She began studying Afro-Cuban dance with Susana Arenas and has performed with the Arenas Dance Company. Sherri has studied Afro-Cuban folkloric dance for 5 years and continues to be amazed by the spiritual depth, musicality, physical agility and transcendent beauty that is Afro-Cuban dance. It feels like home. For Sherri, dancing is a spiritual practice and a means of connecting with her ancestral history; she is truly grateful to be part of the Obakoso family.
Takeo Wong (dancer)

Takeo is a proud native of Oakland, California that as a child accompanied his mother daily to the pioneering multicultural dance studio ‘Everybody’s Creative Art Center’.  Over many years of exposure Takeo developed an appreciation for a wide range of music and dance from Africa and the Diaspora. Takeo took his first classes in Afro-Cuban folkloric dance with Manuel Suarez of Guantanamo, Cuba in the summer of 2001.  With these early classes Takeo felt the strong spiritual energy in the movements of the Orishas and he was hooked. In fall 2001 Takeo began studying with master Jose Francisco Barroso.  Through Barroso’s guidance Takeo learned more about the Orisha tradition, in addition to evolving his dance technique and building a community within other dancers, musicians, and singers. Takeo is honored to be working with Barroso and the other members of Obákosó.