Marjani Forté-Saunders
Artist in Residence (2012-2014)

Marjani Forté-Saunders is a Mother, choreographer, performer, and organizer. She is a 2021 Dance Magazine Harkness Awardee, a 2020 recipient of the Foundation of Contemporary Arts Grants for Artists Award, and a 2 time NY Dance & Performance/Bessie Award winning choreographer and performer for her latest work Memoirs of a… Unicorn),  which had its international premiere in Brussels, Belgium at the Beursschouwburg Festival 2019 and will be present in Berlin at the Sophienseale in October 2021. .

Marjani is honored to be an inaugural recipient of the 3 distinguishing fellowships: UBW Choreographic Center Fellowship (2017), Jerome Artist Fellowship (2018), and the DanceUSA Artist Fellowship (2019), as well as a 2 time Princess Grace Foundation awardee. Her work has been incubated in residencies at New York Live Arts, MANCC, LMCC Extended Life Residency invited by the late and mighty Sam Miller, BAX, 651 Arts, and Movement Research.

As an extension of her choreography, and with support from the SURDNA Foundation Thriving Cultures Grant, Forté-Saunders curated a three-month exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Art in Brooklyn, NY titled being Here… in Memory that housed the work of four multi-media and design artists, and partnered with neighboring Brooklyn-based organizations offering workshops in creative writing, healing practices, and embodied storytelling for teen artists.

Her work as an artist and organizer is informed by years in anti-racist organizer training with the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond and as a lead facilitator with UBW’s Builders Organizers and Leaders through Dance. 

Anchored in a steady collaboration with partner and composer Everett Asis Saunders (New Music USA Awardee), the duo has emerged as 7NMS| Marjani Forte & Everett Saunders (abbv. 7NMS| M + E), with awarded residencies at The Petronio Residency Center (Sept 2019), BAM (2020) and Baryshnikov Arts Center (Nov 2019). They are recipients of the 2021 National Dance Production Grant, and the the New Music USA grants. They are also founding directors of ART & POWER (2018) a platform for artists, spiritualists, and scholars mobilizing regional and international communities through the transformative power of innovation.

Commercially, Saunders has worked as Movement Coach/Creative Movement Director/and Choreographer with Sundance Award Winning director Kahlil Joseph (PROCESS, Pantene ProV -“Strong Is Beautiful”, and FLYPAPER), and on Joseph’s video installation FLYPAPER at the New Museum featuring Ben Vereen and StoryBoard P. She has also worked with Director Kevin Willmott on the feature film The 24th, Kevin Everson’s short film Black Bus Stop and Tracee Ellis Ross’ product launch video campaign for her new haircare line, PATTERNS . As an extension of her choreography, and with support from the 

Saunders was a touring artist for five years, with Urban Bush Women Dance Company (UBW) and the first artist (beyond Cummings) to perform Blondell Cumming’s American Masterpiece Chicken Soup, other than currently on exhibit at The Getty Museum and Art+Practice, in Los Angeles, CA. 

Humbly, she defines her work by its lineage stemming from culturally rich, vibrant, and historic.