Cheri L. Stokes born and raised in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn, received her M.F.A. in Choreography and Performance from The Florida State University (2017) and a B.A. in Dance Studies with a K-12 Dance Teaching Licensure from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (2005). Her performance background spans the genres of West African, Afro-Contemporary, Contemporary and Hip Hop dance forms. Her choreographic research examines the ways in which facets of social vernacular dance forms, specifically Hip-Hop and Dancehall, have influenced her contemporary practice and art making.

Additionally, Cheri’s expertise includes over ten years of dance education and arts administration. She has been a guest teaching artist at various institutions including, The Florida State University, Austin Peay State University, Elon University, Western Kentucky University, University of Tampa, Bard College, and The University At Buffalo. She was the recipient of the Stephen Petronio RETREAT & RESTORE Residency for Dance Artists (Spring 2021). Addtionally she’s received the Brooklyn Arts Exchange Space Grant Residency (2023), Brooklyn Arts Exchange Artist in Residence (2024/2025), Hi- Arts Critical Breaks Artist in Residence (Spring 2024),  the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) Support for Artists Grant (2024), and the 2024 MAP Fund Grant for the development of her newest work “Around the Way Gurl”. Excerpts of her latest work, "Da Block" was featured in the MODarts Collective Thread Festival (2021) and SummerStage at Crotona Park (2022).

Cheri is part of the Urban Bush Women organization serving as the Associate Producer of Special Projects, and looks forward to her new experiences!

I am a performing artist, choreographer, scholar, and educator, all of which make up my artistic identity. My movement style spans the African diaspora, from West African dance forms to Hip-Hop, and I’m currently honing my practice of tracing my movement lineage(s) and deconstructing this vocabulary to ultimately reconstruct it into my own embodied language. My research and choreographic viewpoint examines intergenerational movement aesthetics, innate movement patterns, and community dancing. Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York is the community where I was born and raised. As an African American in a predominantly black neighborhood in the ‘80s and ‘90s, my work embodies Hip-Hop vernacular from that era blended with the movement I inherited. Growing up in a black musical family, interacting with people in my community, and the evolution of Hip-Hop culture have all influenced the essence of my movement style, choreographic process, and philosophies on embodied experiences. Additionally, my work shares an alternative point of view: a black woman whose perspectives sit at the intersections of Hip- Hop and Contemporary forms.

My work is process driven with a focus on research and development. I am drawn to deeply investigating the past to shape the present (and beyond), and creating a movement language that represents my embodied experiences and histories.

My work offers an opportunity to lend my voice as a storyteller. BIPOC women/womxn have unique stories and perspectives that are too often undertold. I aim to contribute to the ever shifting canon of dance, normalize this point of view, and encourage others to step forward and share their stories.