Photo caption: Regina Perry-Carr
Board of Directors Thanks Regina Perry-Carr for Her Service
The Board of Directors for Muntu Dance Theatre on Friday, September 29, 2023 accepted the resignation of Artistic Director Regina Perry-Carr. Regina has served as Muntu’s Artistic Director since 2020. As the Artistic Director of Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago, she passionately taught about cultural transformation, understanding, and education of our rich African and African American dance traditions.
“We are thankful for her service to Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago, and we look forward to her continued support,” said Sidney Dillard, Board Chair “We are honored to work closely with such a visionary creator and choreographer, and we are forever grateful for the impact that Regina has had on molding the future of our organization.”
Some of Perry-Carr’s accomplishments include, “Horoya, A Cinematic Experience, taking artists to Senegal West Africa and Dance Africa Chicago.
Perry-Carr served as the 4th Artistic Director in the notable, historic fifty-one-year-old organization. A native of Chicago, IL, Perry-Carr began her formal dance training with her mother Regina Taitts and ballet instructor, Charlene Rose (Cecchetti technique) at the age of three. Perry-Carr continuously trained in dance throughout elementary school and high school under the tutelage of her mother’s dance program located in the Oak Park YMCA and with Nunufatima created by Taitts.
In 1991, she began training with Najwa Dance Corps and Mama Andrea Vinson. In 1994, Perry-Carr was accepted into the workshop training program of Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago under the direction of Amaniyea Payne.
Perry-Carr owes much of her training & development in Muntu, to Vaune Blalock, former principal dancer of MDT. Perry-Carr advanced through the ranks of Muntu becoming an apprentice and in 1998, matriculating to the main company becoming one of their full-time teaching artists and principal dancers. Perry-Carr began teaching and performing nationally and internationally with Muntu and later independently.
After taking leave from the company, in 2008 Perry-Carr founded and served as Artistic Director of Nunufatima Dance and Crafts Company, a non-profit performing arts and education organization dedicated to educating, entertaining and cultivating community through all forms of performing arts.
Perry-Carr has performed for numerous venues, which include theater, television and film. Her teaching and choreographic credits include elementary and high school, park districts, arts organizations, dance studios, professional dance companies, and theatrical productions. Perry-Carr was able to study and dance with African Dance legends; Baba Chuck Davis, Arthur Hall, Baba Kwame Ishangi, Papa Abdoulaye Camara, Amaniyea Payne, Idy Ciss and Moustapha Bangoura.
Since its founding in 1972, Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago has grown to be one of the most artistically-accomplished and stable dance companies in Chicago. In the Bantu language, “Muntu” means “the essence of humanity.” It’s what the Company seeks to express in its work and to touch in its audiences. The company has achieved an acclaimed reputation locally, nationally and internationally for making consistent artistic statements of cultural and historical significance. A colorful and invigorating professional company, Muntu has brought its audiences into the aisles with its unique synthesis of dance, rhythm, and song.
