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WEEKLY African Dance Classes with Maputo Mensah of GhanaSundays 4pm-5:30pm at The Spark
4847 Pearl St Suite B4 BOULDER, CO
$25 Drop-in/ $20 per class with monthly pre-registration
Call or email Maputo to pre-register at [email protected]
*No class Dec 6th, 2026
Maputo Mensah is an internationally celebrated performing artist and educator, specializing in the traditional dances and music of West Africa. Recently recognized as a Legend of Dance by The Dance Archive- University of Denver, he is the founder of Akpe Cultural Center in Kokrobite, Ghana and the Artistic Director of Logo Ligi African Dance Ensemble in Boulder, Colorado.
Maputo was born into a family of artists in Accra, Ghana and was immersed in the study of traditional music and dance from an early age. Before reaching his teens, he had begun teaching and performing these Ghanaian arts professionally. He later had the opportunity to study for many years directly under the legendary artist Mustapha Tettey Addy from a lineage of drummers and medicine men. Maputo served as lead dancer and choreographer for Akrowa Cultural Ensemble for 9 years and toured internationally with the Royal Obonu Drummers, Peter Gabriel's WOMAD Festival and Baba Chuck Davis of African American Dance Ensemble. He collaborated with jazz icon Pharaoh Sanders and performed at such prestigious venues as Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.
Since arriving in the US in 1999, Maputo has taught at numerous universities including Dartmouth College, Duke University, University of Alaska, Washington State University, University of Oregon, and Naropa University. He has taught at the University of Colorado- Boulder since 2005 and into the present, starting with Libby Residential Academic Program. After serving as Assistant Director for many years of the CU West African Highlife Ensemble, he became Executive Director in 2010, teaches in the Department of Theatre & Dance and is an Artist in Residence with the Center for African and African American Studies.
Maputo Mensah is a carrier of the embodied knowledge of hundreds of African dances, polyrhythms, songs and histories, which he passionately shares all over the world- from Germany to New Zealand and Colorado back to Ghana. His students span multiple generations- from preschoolers and K-12 to adults and elders. He teaches and performs tirelessly, opening hearts and minds to the brilliance, joy, beauty and connective energy of African traditional arts. Every summer Maputo hosts a month-long trip to Ghana in which participants are able to immerse themselves in the culture. They stay and study at the Akpe Cultural Center that Maputo founded in 2023. The center not only serves as a hotel for travelers but as a place where the local children are able to study their own traditional cultural arts and carry them forward into the future.
https://logoligi.com/bios/
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Event venue
The Spark Boulder, 4845 Pearl St, Boulder, CO 80301-2439, United States
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