About KHILA.

Artistically known as “KHILA,” Aquilah Ohemeng is a multidisciplinary choreographer whose work is layered in movement, filmmaking, and writing. She uses an experiential and multicultural lens rooted in the African Diaspora and its movement aesthetics, Black Studies, Womanist theology, and social justice to investigate historical narratives, contemporary culture, identity, and modes of resistance.

The Philadelphia native has trained at Philadanco’s Youth Ensemble and has studied under renowned artists including Rennie Harris, Kyle Abraham’s A.I.M Dance Company, members of Koresh Dance Company and Phresh Select (from “America’s Best Dance Crew” Season 1) and more. Her movement aesthetic fuses her formal training in Ballet, Hip-Hop and Contemporary, to name a few, with improvisational exploration to produce versatile, thought-provoking art. She received her formal dance education from Spelman College, earning a B.A. degree in Dance Performance & Choreography with a Spanish minor and an MFA degree in Choreographic Inquiry from UCLA.

Her various choreographic works have been selected, featured, and/or commissioned within exhibitions ranging from Colby College’s Museum of Art in conjunction with the Zanele Muholi: Sonymama Namayama, Hail the Dark Lioness exhibition to Spelman College’s Forty Years of Black Feminist Fire celebration to the Philadelphia Film Society to UCLA’s 2022 International New Wight Biennial, and UCLA’s inaugural Black Women & Femmes Research Summit. Ohemeng’s latest projects, The Flowers that Grew from Our Tears and PASS US NOT: Holy Ghosted, have received acclaim. Most recently, she was recognized by UCLA Chancellor’s Council on the Arts for her depth and arresting creativity. She has been a featured guest performer in works by the renowned Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and SZA.

As a dance educator, her creative processes and pedagogical practices are purposefully rooted in galvanizing the minds of aspiring creatives and encouraging them to be global change agents through the following vehicles: movement, scholarship, and leadership. In addition to having taught dance technique and theory at prominent institutions such as Syracuse University (formerly as adjunct faculty), Spelman College, UCLA, and the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, she has mentored and worked with Philadelphia, Metro-Atlanta, and Boston youth. Founder of KHILA LLC, Ohemeng continues to work bicoastally as a multidimensional artist, who professionally dances, choreographs, and directs for both on and off-screen projects.