An update on our MA Diasporic Dance Styles graduate - Keisha Tonte Njoku

When I first started the MA in diasporic dance styles, I was immediately taken back to my past the 1980s in London when Hip Hop was emerging. I began reflecting not only on the culture, but on the political landscape that shaped it: the Brixton riots, the need for an outlet, and the government’s desire to keep communities quiet. Funding was poured into dance but not in my neck of the woods. 

This led me to really scrutinise my own practice of building faith for healing through Christian urban dance as an outlet, and to question where it sat beyond my South London bubble. This is what made the MA so insightful. Understanding the wider landscape helped shape my future projects and pinpoint what truly mattered. 

My company, Tonte Dance, offers products and services that help build faith through Christian urban dance. This includes classes for children, healing workshops for adults, screen-dance short films, online resources, and public speaking where I share my practice and lived experience. 

Since graduating, I completed my new website, www.tontedance.com, which now acts as a resource hub for both my community and the wider public. Through this platform, I continue to offer healing through Christian urban dance workshops both in person and online, on request. These sessions are suitable for all faiths and none and are consistently described as deeply therapeutic. 

I also run Goal Crush, an eight-week online 1:1 mentoring programme supporting people with health, dance, and life goals. While dancers often seek me out, my expertise comes from a 20 year career in community development and project management. I’m wired to help people problem-solve and gently move forward whether that’s eczema healing, health, family, work, business, fitness, or dance. I also offer one off strategy sessions for those who simply need a clear blueprint. 

Alongside this are online resources, including my Healing Bundle, which contains a short healing dance course, an urban playlist, my Creative Healing Guide for Dancers, reflection sheets, affirmations, and scripture cards for healing. 

Gospel artists and Christian ministries continue to approach me for artistic interpretations of their vision as a choreographer, dancer, and movement director and I also connect other dancers with these opportunities where needed. 

Many have taken notice of the screen-dance films I continue to produce, direct, and perform in. One of these, FIDGET, which explores neurodiversity and dance, has (as of 2026) won two awards Best Documentary and Best Inspirational Film and has been selected for seven festivals. 

My latest film, PAUSE, designed to give us permission to rest, marks my first scripted work. The script was selected for a 2025 script competition. PAUSE was created to challenge not just the audience, but the participants themselves. We built an internal community, prayed together, and continually asked one another, “How did you pause this week?” 

I continue to practise and encourage what I call embodied testimony bringing stories to life through the body. This involves meditating on scripture or creative prompts and linking them to lived experience, allowing dancers to tell real stories through movement, whether on screen or within workshops. This process is freeing, and at times revealing. We only tell real stories. 

Alongside this, I continue to teach the Arts Award at St Peter’s Brockley with my Year 6–8 Hip Hop class. They learn what I learn. One of my students attended my Viva, and her dad was deeply moved by the level of exposure I give young people not just to dance, but to process, history, context, and the leadership qualities they already possess to take their practice forward. 

My current focus is on building strong partnerships, collaborations, online resources, and screen-dance production and distribution with the aim of building the faith of 5,000 people for healing in 2026 through Christian urban dance. 

www.tontedance.com