Vivian Watt, 2017 Visionary Awards recipient and renowned choreographer, performs in response to Mickalene Thomas: Mentors, Muses, and Celebrities through dance.

Vivian Anderson-Watt is a native St. Louisan who trained under the auspices of Katherine Dunham and toured as a dancer with her East St. Louis Company. Her professional credits include 32 works with the St. Louis Black Repertory Company as Arts in Education Director, Choreographer, Actress, and Dancer highlighted by East Coast Tour of “For Colored Girls (1996) and Britt in “Young Richard”  for Black Theater Festival in Durham, North Carolina …; Historyonics Theater Company Actress/Choreographer: “Seat in the Front”, “Stand in My Shoes”, with  Katherine Dunham: “Dancing on Air” (2006) receiving a Kevin Kline nomination for Best Choreography; Los Angeles Black Olympics, Unity Theater Ensemble Choreographer/Dancer: “ I Got the Music in Me”, “Sparkle”.  St Louis Muny Opera 5 City East Coast tour “Showboat” (1993); Principal dancer: Katherine Dunham Archives: 92Y-New York, New York (2010) Teaching credits include COCA; Black Dance USA; Santa Monica Comm. College; Riverside Aero-Sports Convention; SIU-E; Dance Consultant-St. Louis Magnet Schools; Int’l Assoc. of Blacks in Dance (Dallas, Tx, Denver, Co); Artistic Director of Gitana Productions with China National Orchestra, Japanese Artist Aska and Brazilian Artist Virginia Rodrigues and the National Dance Company of Peru: “Peru Negro”; Dramatic Director Credits include; Jumping the Broom (2010) Muddy River (2012); Soy Yo, I am Me (2013); “A New World” (2016) presented at UMSL and Meramec Comm. College.  In 2013 Mrs. Watt was a recipient of the prestigious Community Arts Training (CAT) award. Mrs. Watt is involved in numerous community dance and theater productions throughout the year, and also serves on the Missouri Arts Council Minority Arts Panel (2014-2016).  Mrs. Watt currently works at Better Family Life, Inc and serves as the Artistic Director for Kuumba Youth Performance Ensemble (KYPE) and Asst. Director of Arts in Education with the Youth Department.  She is also in the process of choreographing “A Justice Long Delayed” (2016) to be presented at the St. Louis History Museum.