Adam Mckinney

Adam W. McKinney is the Co-Director of DNAWORKS, an arts and service organization dedicated to creating projects and dialogue around culture, class, ability and identity. A classically trained dancer who has performed with a number of acclaimed companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Switzerland’s Béjart Ballet Lausanne, and Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet, Adam's commissioned production, "Pathways," opened November, 2008 in Jakarta, Indonesia to rave reviews. Adam has served as a US Embassy Culture Connect Envoy to South Africa and artist-in-residence at the South African Ballet Theatre, and has taught master dance classes in England, Ghana, Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, South Africa, and the United States. He has also organized programs on social justice and the Arts with a long list of organizational partners, including Ghana's National School for the Deaf, Ghana State Mental Hospital, City Ballet Theater, and Agulhas Theatre Works, a South African mixed abilities contemporary dance company. Adam's awards include the 2008 Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant, the Gallatin School (NYU) Jewish Arts grant for work with Ethiopian-Israeli communities in Israel, a Trust for Mutual Understanding grant for work with Roma communities in Hungary, U.S. Embassy grants in Accra, Budapest, Johannesburg, and Tel Aviv, and the Bronfman Jewish Artist Fellowship (NYU) for his genealogical dance and film work “HaMapah/????.” Named one of the most influential African-Americans in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA by St. Vincent DePaul of Milwaukee in 2000, Adam currently leads youth programming for the Jewish Multiracial Network's summer retreats and sits on the board of United with In Motion. For more information please visit dnaworks.org.

Adam McKinney, photos by Andrew Eccles and Chris Crader

Arts and Culture

Adam McKinney and Agulhas Theatre Works

By Adam Mckinney

Adam McKinney dance performances