Yeko Ladzekpo-Cole has a multitude of talents and lives to share those gifts. She is currently faculty at Calarts as well as Co-director of their World Music performance program. Born and raised in a traditional African household, Yeko comes from a family lineage of drummers, dancers, and composers from the country of Ghana, West Africa. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance from the California Institute of the Arts. Her career has led her to work with the likes of Lula Washington, Debbie Allen, Ralph Lemon and many others in the Modern dance world. She has also lent her choreographic talents to Disney’s The Lion King II movie premiere and DreamWorks’ Madagascar Escape II Africa. Some of her performance highlights include performing with Fleetwood Mac during a Superbowl tailgate concert, a celebration concert for the Grammy Music’s 60th Anniversary, the launch of the World Cup with Adidas as well as dancing in the video for the World Cup Anthem, “Waka Waka” by Shakira.
Yeko has had a wide range of exposure to many different ethnic music and dance styles. Through her years of travel domestically and abroad teaching, lecturing and performing, she has developed her own unique palette that incorporates traditional with non traditional, similar to her own upbringing of being born and raised in America, while growing up in a traditional African household.