Shani Diouf is a Fulbright scholar having researched dance in Ghana, where she studied and performed with The National Dance Company of Ghana and Saakumu Dance Troupe. She has an MA in Religious Studies from Rice University, an MFA in Performance and Choreography from Florida State University, and a BS in Dance (summa cum laude) from Lamar University. Diouf, a certified Kemetic yoga instructor, also founded and organized The Akwaaba Dance and Drum Festival, a festival comprised of dance and drum classes as well as performances and lectures aimed at educating the culture of the African diaspora. She is currently a PhD student in dance at Texas Woman’s University where she is exploring influences of African Aesthetics on African American religious dance and worship. Her current choreographic interest is in where those two genres intersect in the dancing body.