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Esie Mensah (born in Hamilton, Ontario) is a dancer, choreographer, teacher and movement director who has worked with some of the industry’s biggest icons such as Rihanna, Drake, Janelle Monae, Nelly Furtado, Flo Rida, as well as Coca Cola, Luminato, TIFF, Estée Lauder, FIFA, WE DAY and more. She is credited for introducing the Afrobeat dance style into the mainstream Canadian culture. Esie was the winner of the 2014 Black Canadian Award Winner for Best Contemporary Dancer and the 2015 recipient of the Cultural Promotion award from the Ghanaian-Canadian Association.

Early life
Esie Mensah was born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario and is the youngest of five kids. Her passion for dance began with a community dance group called Ewe Canadian Organization of Ontario. The group was made up of extended family and elders who wanted to share and celebrate African culture within the community. The group would meet once a week to learn traditional dances of the Ewe people from Ghana and Togo. In 2006, Esie moved to Toronto and enrolled into the Commercial Dance program at George Brown College.

Career
After graduating from George Brown in 2007, Esie continued training in all different styles of dance, ranging from Ballet, Jazz, African, Dancehall, etc. She spent three and a half years working as a professional dancer, performing in the South African Hit Musical Umoja, and appearing in Disney’s Camp Rock 2: Final Jam and Drake’s commercial for the MTV Video Awards. Her live performances include major events such as Toronto Pride, dancing for Deborah Cox, MMVA’s dancing for Flo Rida, and Touring Canada, dancing for Divine Brown. Esie has also appeared in numerous music videos for artists such as Nelly Furtado, Divine Brown, Dru, Addictiv, and Lauren Pritchard. She was a featured dancer in the 2016 FOX TV remake of Rocky Horror Picture Show “Let’s do the time warp again” featuring Laverne Cox and Adam Lambert directed by Kenny Ortega and Lou Adler.

Choreography
Esie appeared on So You Think You Can Dance in seasons 1, 2 and 4, where she debuted her Afro-fusion choreography which is a combination of traditional dance combined with other dance styles that she learned growing up. In 2012, she partnered with World Vision Canada to choreograph the youth musical, “The Other Side of the River”. Esie was the co-choreographer for “Panamania” Victory Celebration as apart of the 2015 Pan Am Games entertainment. Choreographer of the CHFI commercial “Mornings are a little different” for the Erin and Darren show. She is currently the co-choreographer of Artists in Motion.

Projects
Esie has produced several art pieces; Shades, Zayo and the an original play called Akoma which is a dance/theatre production that premiered in 2015. An excerpt of the production travelled to Birmingham, UK in November 2016 for the OneDanceUk conference for Africans of the Diaspora. Esie and Vice director Alexis Wood shot a short documentary surrounding her recent work, Shades. It speaks about the issue of shadeism within the black community and several communities of colour. “Dancing with Shades” aired on the “Exhibitionists” on CBC in February 2017. Her recent installment of Shades was presented in September 2018 in Toronto.

Personal Life
Esie now works with the community-based company – Children and Youth Dance Theatre, giving proper dance lessons and mentorship to passionate students.

Projects
Projects


 * Black Star Raptors Half Time Show
 * Rocky Horror Picture Show
 * Shadeism: CBC Arts
 * Mystery Feat. Esie Mensah
 * Journey to Myself
 * Addicted to Black
 * Black Music Through the Ages – Raptors Half Time Show
 * 98.1 CHFI Mornings TV Commercial
 * Shades of Blackness
 * Five Eight: Esie Mensah Spotlight
 * Mental Health
 * Live with Kelly and Ryan Show