Isha Tobis Clarke was raised in Oakland, CA where they studied the foundations of street and club dance and learned to use them to tell stories meant to call people to action. Isha is a freelance dancer who has performed with Hip-Hop pioneers including Kurtis Blow, The Sequence, DJ Kool Herc, and MC Sha Rock. They have also toured with ground-breaking aerial dance company Bandaloop as well as the Ladies of Hip Hop Collective directed by Bessie Award winner Michele Byrd-McPhee. Isha has created several dance films including “Free” in collaboration with Marc Bamuthi Joseph and a commissioned piece for the SF Dance Film Festival, “Dear Black Girls”. Isha was a 2024/25 artist-in-residence at the Kennedy Center’s Office Hours program, prior to the Trump administration’s disbanding of Social Impact programming at the center. Isha is currently based in NYC where they are a performer, choreographer, director, DJ, Restorative Justice Practitioner, and dance educator.

Instagram: @curlyqisha