Ferne Yangyeitie Caulker

Ferne is the Founder and Executive Director of the Ko-Thi Dance Company, Wisconsin’s oldest African American arts organization. Ko-Thi, founded in 1969, is dedicated to the preservation and expression of the performing arts from the African Continent, Caribbean and United States. She taught at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee beginning in 1971, where she was a Full Professor in the Peck School of the Arts’ Department of Dance until she retired as Professor Emerita in 2016. She is particularly interested in the relationship between arts training and exposure, increased self-esteem and social behavior. She is a Fulbright Scholar. Her Fulbright award allowed her to study and travel in Tanzania, East Africa for 3 months. Caulker has served on many panels, including the NEA and WAB, and served on the Board of Directors of the Wisconsin Arts Board for one 3-year term.

What energizes you as you consider the future of the arts in Wisconsin?

I am always amazed at the universe and how it works. As soon as there appears to be a void, the universe always steps in to fill it!  I am energized by the fact that our community needs us! They keep coming! Whether as a dancer, choreographer, director, administrator, researcher and teacher … it is the young who keep coming, who turn into adults and stop you in the grocery store to tell you how being exposed to my work changed their lives. You cannot place a rice on that! I am NOT worried about the arts in Wisconsin as humans need the arts to survive for they feed the soul. The body without a soul transcends into darkness! It is this darkness that feeds all of the violence and anger in our world today.  I am energized by organizations such as the WAB that stand for the arts … that insist on being the support to inspire and maintain our artistic souls to continue!

Where can we find your work?

My choreography can be seen through UWM faculty concert archives (Contact Chair: Daniel Burkholder/414 236-0518 or burkhol6@uwm.edu),  and Ko-Thi Dance Company archives and WEBSITE.  Snippets of my work can also be seen on U-Tube etc.  Ko-Thi is currently digitalizing all of its over 54 year pictures and videos.