Colleen Hendrick

Executive Director/Artistic Director and Bush Mango co-founder

Colleen’s call to dance was ignited at a young age. Her initial experiences and training came from the Botsford School of Dance in Rochester, NY. She continued her studies at the Hochstein School of Music until she discovered Garth Fagan, and then began her in-depth study of modern dance in the mid 1970s. She is a graduate of the State University at Empire State College where her focus was choreography and creative writing. She founded the Hendrick Dance Project in 1989, and her group appeared with the Urban Bush Women in 1993.

Colleen received the Lillian Fairchild Award for excellence in choreography in 1994 and was selected as part of the e.e.cummings Centiniel Celebration in 1995. Hendrick Dance Project appeared at the Merce Cunningham Studio in New York for several seasons in the 1990s.

In 1998, Colleen surrendered to her love of West African Dance and soon after became the Artistic/Executive Director of Bush Mango Drum & Dance. At that time, Bush Mango was a non-professional group of students with a passion for West African dance and music.  It was led by its then musical director, Blair Hornbuckle.

Colleen put the power of her not-for-profit status and experience training dancers for the professional dance world behind the work, traveled to Guinea West African to study and continued extensive study in the States.

In 2006, Bush Mango was awarded the Organization of the Year Award. The Company has since appeared in Vermont, Maine, and across the Upstate NY Region. Today, Colleen directs the company with musical director, Kerfala “Fana” Bangoura, a master drummer and dancer and native of Guinea, West Africa.

In addition to her work with Bush Mango, Colleen is pursuing a master’s from Empire State College in New York.  She is also a graduate of the Assisi Institute, where she was honored for her contribution to the investigation of psyche and matter.