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ABOUT
MISSION
Xpressions Art & Movement engages community members of all ages in artistically excellent programs and performances in African diaspora contemporary dance and other art forms.
NORMA JEAN BARNES is Founder, Artistic Director and President of Xpressions Art Movement, a 501c3 organization founded in 1994. In 2023, 2024 and 2026, Ms. Barnes directed The Chocolate Nutcracker, a reimagined Nutcracker ballet with an African-American, intergenerational cast performing Black diaspora, ballet, and world folk dance. Ms. Barnes was honored to receive a Keepers of the Flame Award in 2018 from The Legacy Arts Project, and to choreograph dance works in 2023, 2024 and 2025 for Dance Africa Pittsburgh. As a dance educator, Ms. Barnes teaches Afro Modern Dance community classes, and Creative Movement dance classes for elders at Pittsburgh senior centers. Ms. Barnes was Artist-in-Residence at Theodore D. Young Community Center in Greenburgh, NY for 12 years, and developed multi-faceted arts program for youth and adults which continue today.
Artistically, Ms. Barnes is a fluent dancer and choreographer in contemporary and African dance techniques. She performed with companies, choreographers, and theater productions in New York, Pittsburgh, national tours, Scotland and Italy. She was a dancer/aerialist for two years with Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey Circus. Ms. Barnes appeared in numerous productions with Kuntu Repertory Theatre directed by the late Dr. Vernell Lillie.
Ms. Barnes studied dance at Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, and Clark Center for Performing Arts. She earned a B.F.A. summa cum laude dance/arts management studies at Point Park University-Conservatory of Performing Arts, and attended graduate courses at New York University-Steinhardt School of Education. Professional development include the Urban Bush Women Summer Institute at Florida State University in 1999, Dance Exchange’s Dance On Organizing Artists for Change, and New York City Board of Education’s Katherine Dunham Institute in 2000 and 2002.
Xpressions Art & Movement - Board of Directors
Kojo Ade
Norma Jean Barnes, President
Tracy Clark, Secretary
Ellen E. Page
Lynne Swan-Sheppard, Treasure