About

Founded in 2014, Propelled Animals is a group of artists, dancers, scholars, musicians, and designers who embed innovative and provocative art in unconventional spaces. We are committed to creating work that interrogates, challenges, and ultimately attempts to dismantle the systemic "isms" of oppression. We adapt our projects and processes to address the specific needs of the communities we engage. Our performances encourage efficacy of the body, resilience, and radical tenderness as strategies for self-empowerment.

Our work is centered on art as social action and ritual as performance.

The Propelled Animals have presented work nationally and internationally including site-specific performances at: University of Iowa and Englert Theater (Iowa City, IA); University of Northern Iowa (Cedar Falls, IA); Wassaic Project (Wassaic, NY); Grinnell College (Grinnell, IA); Lynden Sculpture Garden (Milwaukee, WI); Pivot Arts Festival (Chicago, IL); Kelly Strayhorn Theater (Pittsburgh, PA); The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education (Philadelphia, PA); Philadelphia Contemporary (Philadelphia, PA); Trade School: Philly + Detroit (Philadelphia, PA), University of Texas at Austin (Austin, TX); “La Ville En Mouv’ment” les arts dans la rue (Ouakam, Senegal); Palm Festival, (Palmarin, Senegal).

In 2022 we received generous support from the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation to support our debut in June 2023 in Dakar, Senegal at the ‘’La Ville En Mouv’ment’’ les arts dans la rue, Ouakam, Senegal and the Palm Festival in Palmarin, Senegal. This project was also funded in part by University of Texas at Austin and the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University.

In 2019 we were recipients of a MAP Fund grant for our project TRANSMISSION and the Frank-Ratchye Further Fund (FRFF) grant through the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University. In 2020 we postponed the project due to COVID-19. In 2021 TRANSMISSION became SWITCH SIGNAL and morphed from a live stage performance to a performance film that premiered in September 2021 at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater.

Our work has been made possible with the generous support of the National Performance Network (NPN), USArtists International through the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, MAP Fund, Iowa Arts Council, a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, the National Endowment for the Arts, The Arts Midwest Touring Fund, a program of the Arts Midwest & Crane Group, and The Puffin Foundation.

We are recent International LabX-change artists-in-residence at High Concept Labs (Chicago, IL).

We are currently incubated artists with Headlong Studios (Philadelphia, PA).

ESTHER BAKER-TARPAGA | Artistic Director + Choreographer + Organizer + Co-Founder

PHILADELPHIA, PA

Esther Baker-Tarpaga (MA, MFA UCLA) is a choreographer, dance improviser, and interdisciplinary artist based in occupied Lenapehoking/Philadelphia. She co-organizes projects that are multidisciplinary, site-responsive, and collectively derived; aiming for an ethic of shared leadership and decolonizing practices. She recently performed at Trade School Philadelphia, The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, The Chicago Architecture Biennale (Chicago, IL), ArtYard (New Jersey), No New Idols Festival (Riga, Lativa), The Englert Theatre (Iowa City, IA), and BAAD (Bronx, NY). She was an Artist-in-Residence at Marin Headlands, FCA Grantee, Grant Wood Fellow, and Cultural Envoy in Guinea, Botswana, and South Africa. She co-directed Baker & Tarpaga Dance Project from 2004-2017. She teaches part-time at Temple University and Philadelphia Dance Academy, and has taught at University of Milwaukee School of Dance, University of the Arts Philadelphia, Princeton University, University of Iowa, Ohio State University, and internationally in Morocco, Senegal, Mexico, and Hong Kong. She grew up in the foothills of Fort Collins, Colorado and lives in South Philly with her family.

bARBER | Performance Artist + Art Director + Co-Founder

Barber (MA, MFA, University of Iowa) lives and works in Midwest America. He uses his art practice to articulate various testimonies within and surround Black American culture. Inspired by the quotidian of cultural customs, bARBER repurposes everyday materials, such as found objects, junk mail, etc., for his collages and three-dimensional constructions. bARBER received his MFA from the University of Iowa and BFA from SCAD. Personal recognitions include Graduate Cum Laude at the University of Iowa, 2020 Biennial Artist Research fellowship at Sam Fox Island Press, and New American Painting entry issue #150.

HEIDI WIREN KEBE | Performance Artist + Creative Director + Co-Founder

PITTSBURGH, PA

Heidi (MA, MFA, University of Iowa) is an interdisciplinary performance artist from the Great Plains. Her work is concerned with the portrayal, oppression and subversive existence of women in America today. She received an Iowa Arts Council Project Grant to support this project and has recently been nominated for the United States Artists (USA) Fellowship. After receiving her MFA in 2015, her work has been exhibited at Grace Exhibition Space and Panapoly Performance Space (Brooklyn, NY), Vox Populi (Philadelphia, PA), Wassaic Project (Wassaic, NY), Bemis Center for Contemporary Art and PROJECT PROJECT (Omaha, NE), DFRL8R and Ignition Project Space (Chicago, IL), Arts + Literature Laboratory (Madison, WI), Yellow Door Gallery and Moberg Gallery (Des Moines, IA), and Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (Banff, Canada). Her work has been commissioned by the Stanley Museum of Art and the Karl Stirner Arts Trail. She has been a visiting artist at Concordia University (Seward, NE), Iowa State University (Ames, IA), Carnegie Mellon University Qatar (Doha, Qatar), and a Max Kade Fellow at Lafayette College (Easton, PA). Bartlett is currently an art mentor at the Brew House Association and Creative Director at Carnegie Mellon University.

RAQUEL MONROE | Performance Artist + Dance Scholar + Dramaturg + Core Collaborator

CHICAGO, IL

Raquel Monroe, Ph.D. is an interdisciplinary performance scholar/artist/administrator and mother whose research interests include black social dance, queer black feminisms, popular culture, and the efficacy of collaboration to create social change. Monroe’s scholarship appears in journals and anthologies on race, sexuality, dance and popular culture. Her in process monograph Black Girl Werk: Choreographies of Liberation by Black Femme Cultural Producers employs queer Black feminist choreographic praxis to theorize performances and acts of protest by Black femmes in the public sphere, on stage and screen. Monroe is currently the Associate Dean of Graduate Education and Academic Affairs and a Professor in Theatre in Dance at UT Austin. She formally served as a professor in Dance and Co-Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Columbia College Chicago where she developed policies and procedures for hiring diverse faculty, created and facilitated pedagogy workshops, offered programming grants, and antiracism training for faculty and staff throughout the institution. Monroe is an award-winning pedagogue and a founding board member of the Collegium for African Diaspora Dance (CADD).

BOUBACAR DJIGA | Griot Musician + Core Collaborator

OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO

Boubacar Djiga is a master musician born in a griot family in Burkina Faso. An accomplished multi-instrumentalist, M. Djiga was the lead Djembé drummer and composer for the national ballet of Burkina Faso and is a permanent faculty member at EDIT in Ouagadougou. Djiga is a master Jeli Ngoni player, a traditional guitar from West Africa. He is the founder and artistic director of the very acclaimed Kundé Blues band. He has recorded and toured with Smarty, Dafra Kura, Rido Bayonne, Bil Aka Kora, Alif Naaba, Abdoulaye Diabaté, Issouf Kienou, and Awa Melone and others. He is currently touring with Dafra Kura and Baker & Tarpaga Dance Project.

DR. COURTNEY D. JONES | Performance Artist + Music Consultant + Core Collaborator

BOCA RATON, FL

The newest directions in 21st Century trumpet performance are being explored and defined by Courtney D. Jones (D.M.A., UCLA) an award-winning, Conn-Selmer (Bach), performing and recording artist who has emerged as a leading figure in contemporary performance and pedagogy, conducting, and service to inner-city youth through music outreach programs. An artist who transcends stylistic boundaries, Courtney has performed as soloist within classical ensembles, jazz bands, and symphony orchestras throughout the United States, internationally, and has won multiple solo awards and accolades through regional and national trumpet competitions. Jones is currently the Associate Professor of Trumpet & Artistic Director of Jazz and Chamber Ensembles at Florida Atlantic University.