COMMUNITY · ORISHA MODERN DANCE

Orisha Modern Dance

Classes begin in Spring 2027.

The Orisha have always been danced. From Nigeria to Cuba, Brazil, and Puerto Rico, each Orisha carries a way of moving: Oshun’s river-sway, Yemaya’s rolling tide, Ogun’s clearing strike, Shango’s thunder. In these traditions, movement is prayer, memory, and teaching carried in the body.

Orisha Modern Dance brings those movement vocabularies into conversation with modern dance technique, in the line of Afro-modern artists like Katherine Dunham, who studied the sacred dances of the Caribbean and carried their power onto the concert stage.

Who teaches

Classes are led by the Temple’s founder, Philip Ryan Deal: a professional dancer for twenty-six years, including with the Kirov Ballet, and a Babalawo crowned in Osogbo, Nigeria. He brings both lineages into the studio, the discipline of the stage and the devotion of the shrine.

What to expect

A movement class, not a ceremony. You will learn technique, rhythm, and the stories behind each Orisha’s movement. No one is initiated, and no belief is required. We teach these dances as an inheritance to honor, never as a costume to wear.

Open to every body and every level. No dance training and no religious background needed. Come in clothes you can move in, and come as you are.

Spring 2027

Dates, location, and registration will be announced here and in our Discord community. If you would like to hear the moment registration opens, write to us and we will add you to the list.