Souleymane Badolo in New York City

Emily Coates is artistic director of the World Performance Project and a lecturer in theater studies at Yale University, for which she supervises the dance studies curriculum. She has danced with New York City Ballet, Mikhail Baryshnikov's White Oak Dance Project, Twyla Tharp, and Yvonne Rainer. As part of an ongoing, multisite collaboration that has led to development stages at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York City and Salia ni Seydou's Choreographic Development Center in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, she will create with Burkinabe artist Lacina Coulibaly a new work for Ballet Memphis, scheduled to premiere in February 2011 in Memphis, TN.