Latanya d. Tigner, a longtime member and administrator of Oakland’s esteemed Dimensions Dance Theater, Inc., holds a B.A. in Physical Education/Dance, a Master’s in Arts Administration, and is certified in the Yanvalu Level 2 of Talawa Technique™, the first American to do so. Her time with Dimensions includes studying Guinea, Senegalese, South African, Cuban, Haitian, modern, and jazz dance, as well as performing multidisciplinary contemporary works anchored in African diasporic dance and the African American experience.
Latanya’s research-based choreographic work has afforded her the opportunity to serve as co-artistic director of the renowned San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival from 2018-2021, as well as led to the creation of Dancing Cy(i)phers in 2019. Latanya became a lecturer for TDPS in 2016 after leading the dance program at Contra Costa College for eight years. In 2018, she developed the course African Dance Presence in Hip Hop, based on her Here We Go Again workshop developed in 2014 that unfolds her research and “movement line” pedagogy. In Spring 2021, she received The Michael Mansfield and Randy Sweringen Social Justice Award for Artistic Excellence in Creating a More Equitable and Inclusive World.
Latanya has commissioned works for Dimensions Dance Theater, Black Choreographers Festival, Robert Moses’ Kin, UC Berkeley, Mills College, and has presented work in SF Ethnic Dance Festival, CubaCaribe, and Mabina Dance Festival (Congo-Brazzaville). She has also choreographed for SF Shakespeare, Oakland Theater Project, Lorraine Hansberry Theater, Cal Shakes, Contra Costa College, Li Smith's Victorious, and co-choreographed Delina Brooks' An Open Love Letter to Black Fathers. She received best choreography nominations in theater in 2017 and 2025. Her new work, Reclaiming the Void, will premiere in collaboration with the creator of the Talawa Technique, Dr. Thomas Talawa Presto.
She has presented workshops at Collegium of the African Diaspora Dance (CADD), International Association of Black in Dance (IABD), California Dance Education Association (CDEA), National Dance Education Organization (NDEO), Intangible Roots at USC, Show and Prove at UC Riverside, University of the West Indies (Barbados), and in Paris. She has also served as a member of the Hewlett Foundation’s Arts Education Task Force, a board member for the California Dance Education Association, and as an advisor for Alliance for California Traditional Arts’ Taproot Initiative. Latanya currently serves on the board of directors for the Alliance for California Traditional Arts.