Esther M. Baker-Tarpaga is an assistant professor at the Ohio State University Department of dance. She is co-founder and co-director of Baker & Tarpaga Dance Project, which has performed and taught classes in the USA, Botswana, Australia, Malaysia, Japan, Senegal and South Korea. BT Dance Project is a transnational company that intertwines West African dance and postmodern dance with live music to create physically powerful dance theatre. Recent works include Los Angeles premieres of Dar Es Salaam at the Alex Theatre, Sira Kan/On the Road at the REDCAT NOW Festival and VSA N4th Wild Dance West Festival in New Mexico, and Disorder Inside Order at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre. In 2007 Esther was invited as a cultural Envoy to teach contemporary dance and to choreograph a new piece for Djoliba National Ballet in Conakry, Guinea. Her solo “Arbre D’Adaptation” choreographed for Burkinabe dancer Wilfried Souly won best choreography for the Los Angeles Emerging Above Ground Festival in April 2007. In 2006 she was invited as a Cultural Envoy through the U.S. State Department to teach and perform in South Africa (Heart of the Arts), Botswana (Maitisong Festival), and Burkina Faso (Dialogue De Corps). She has worked with Senegal-based artists such as Compagnie Kakat’Art, Compagnie 1ere Temps, and hip hop artist Keyti of Dakar All Stars. Her dance films have screened at numerous festivals and she co-produced United Nations of Hip Hop, which screened at AFI International and NYC Pan African Film Festival. Esther is currently touring with David Rousseve/REALITY new work Saudade. She implemented and led UCLA’s first summer study abroad program in Senegal at Germaine Acogny’s Ecole de Sables and is the recipient of a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, a Durfee, and UCIRA grant. In the summer of 2009 she co-founded the first dance and drum study abroad program in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. She has a BA from Bowdoin College in French and Anthropology and an MA in Dance and MFA in Choreography from UCLA’s World Arts and Cultures Dept.

education

MA in Dance, MFA in Choreography
UCLA

BA in French and Anthropology
Bowdoin College