Helanius J. Wilkins, a Louisiana native, is an award-winning choreographer, performance artist, scholar and instructor. Based in Boulder, CO, he is an Assistant Professor of Dance at the University of Colorado Boulder. He lived in Washington, D.C. for eighteen (18) years and founded EDGEWORKS Dance Theater, an all-male dance company of predominantly AfricanAmerican men that existed for thirteen (13) years (2001 – 2014). His honors include the 2008 Pola Nirenska Award for Contemporary Achievement in Dance, DC’s highest honor given by the Washington Performing Arts Society; the 2002 and 2006 Kennedy Center Local Dance Commissioning Project Award; and multiple Metro DC Dance Awards. In addition, he was a three times finalist for the D.C. Mayor’s Arts Awards and Bates Dance Festival named him their 2002 Emerging choreographer. Wilkins earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in Dance from SUNY Brockport and George Washington University. In addition to performing, he enjoys creating, presenting, and receiving commissions for choreography throughout the U.S. and abroad.   Foundations and organizations including New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance Project (NDP), National Performance Network (NPN), D.C. Commission on the Arts & Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts have supported his work. ***Photography credits:

Helanius J. Wilkins image by Charles H. Black ©2012.