Aku Kadogo

Aku Kadogo is an international theatre director, choreographer, educator and creative producer of cultural arts projects. This multi-faceted artist directs highly energetic, imaginative theatre works and has produced a number of collaborative inter-disciplinary projects. Her eclectic career has spanned across the United States, Australia, Europe and Asia.

She is the Chair of the Department of Theatre and Performance at Spelman College after having served as Distinguished Visiting Professor in 2014.

Recently she served on the Music/Theatre Faculty at Yongin University in Seoul, S. Korea where she lectured and directed productions for the university and the wider professional theatre community. Prior to that she was the Director of the Black Theatre Program at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Directing many works from the African American canon, this was an exciting time for her to revisit works such as Langston Hughes' Black Nativity, Ruby Dee's Zora is My Name and August Wilson's Joe Turner has Come and Gone. She also directed newer works such as Djanet Sears' The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God; Will Power's Flow and In the Red and Brown Water by Tarell Alvin McCraney. She has collaborated on original works with writers Chris Tysh author of Night Scales and Bill Harris' Booker T and Them for Art X Detroit. She has been an Associate Choreographer on the Tony Award winning show RENT, touring Australia, China and the United States. As a performer she has worked in film, television and stage making her career debut in the original Broadway classic of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf by Ntozake Shange.

Having worked extensively as a Performer/Choreographer/Director in Australia she has collaborated with artists such as Elena Kats Chernin, Stephen Page, Robyn Archer, Juno Gemes,Nigel West lake, Roger Rynd and Colin Offord to name a few.Aku devised and directed Ochre & Dust with Anangustory tellers for the Perth and Adelaide International Theatre festivals. She has an ongoing relationship with NAISDA Dance College where she is a regular visiting Guest Artist.

She served as an original member of the Programming Committee for the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) from 2006 - 2010.