About Us

Founding

The Lilongwe Dance Program was founded in 2018 with a goal of providing high quality dance education to students ages 3 to 18 years in Lilongwe, Malawi. The program is run in partnership with Tweeties Play Centre, a children's afterschool program offering art, music, languages, and life-skills.

Mission

We provide students a unique and nurturing environment to learn multiple dance and movement forms, taught by qualified instructors. Through dance, we build students’ creativity, confidence, and leadership skills, complementing weekly classes with performance and workshop opportunities. We run weekly programs for enrolled students, alongside outreach classes and workshops in public schools.

We believe that dance education should be available for everyone, and aim to break stigmas about who belongs in the dance studio, and the value of a life filled with dance. We showcase the role dance can play in enriching childhood development, accessing new opportunities, and as a meaningful career pathway. Internationally, we showcase the talent, joy, and creativity of our students, contributing to the growing movement to break narratives of poverty and suffering that dominates global media about the continent.

Milestones

To-date the program has enrolled more than 100 students annually, and has held recitals and demonstration classes, performances for International Dance Day, hosted workshops and performances with international guest artists, and conducted outreach workshops with local actors and secondary school students. In 2019, we put on Malawi’s first production of The Nutcracker, to sold out audiences. The performance is the subject of a forthcoming documentary, which will have its premiere in May 2024.

Our students and alumni have been accepted and received scholarships to train internationally at schools including Dance Theater of Harlem, Washington Ballet, Houston Ballet, Interlochen Arts Academy, Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet, Ballet Academy East and others. We are grateful for to have received grants and/or donations from: The Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet Society, Donate2Dance, Gaynor Minden, and The Merce Cunningham Trust.

Founders & Directors

Directors Yamikani Matupa and Leslie Berman founded the Lilongwe Dance Program with a dream of creating opportunities for talented and passionate students to access world class dance education. Together they have thrown their hearts into building the Lilongwe Dance Program and training the next generation of dancers in Malawi.

Yamikani brings together her 15 years of experience in early childhood education and event design, as the Director of Tweeties Play Centre and Precious Moments events company, to create a warm and nurturing environment for LDP students to thrive and to lead LDP Operations.

Leslie trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet, and holds a Bachelor’s in Dance and Anthropology from Columbia University. After dancing professionally in New York, she changed careers, obtaining a Masters of Public Health and spending the next decade working in global health. She brings together her passion for dance, health and education to lead LDP Programs.