YESUTOR KOTOKA
Yesutor Kotoka is a traditionally trained and internationally acclaimed dancer, singer, choreographer, teacher and actress raised in a family of traditional dancers and musicians from the Volta region of Ghana. Yesutor, born into the Ewe ethnic group, started dancing and singing at 8 years old at the Center For National Culture, Accra Ghana with a group called Folkloric Selamta. She became the principal dancer and Assistance Director there. In 1995 Yesutor joined the Ghana Dance Ensemble. In 1998,Yesutor was invited by Syracuse University to come to the U.S. to teach dance and music. She has travelled the world and all over the United States teaching traditional dance and music, and performing. She is the first and only female African dancer from Africa based in Syracuse. Yesutor serves as an international Faculty for New York Institute Of Dance And Education and Syracuse School Of Dance. She worked as a Dance And Music Director, Community Relations Coordinator, and cultural council leader for Imagine Syracuse ,working with refugee children from all over the world and children in the USA and the community. She has also worked with Baba Chuck Davis(African-American Dance Professor, Founder And Director Of Dance Africa) And she also worked as the director of African Dance And Music Spirituality Ministry. She worked teaching as a guest artist at college at Brockport New York teaching dance, and also Oswego State University, dance theater of Syracuse, Denver University Colorado, Escuela Bilingual, Lafayette Co. Currently working at Alicia Sanchez Elementary.