Elijah Alhadji Gibson, dance educator,

choreographer, and activist, is the

Artistic Director of Social Movement

Contemporary Dance Theater, a

Houston based professional dance

company he founded in 2019 after an

international career as a professional

dancer, teacher, and choreographer

and a long-standing career in Higher

Education. Gibson is also on faculty at

Texas A&M University and serves as

the Associate Program Director for the

BS in Dance Science and Dance Minor.

Originally from San Diego, California,

he began dancing with the San Diego

Civic Dance Association and attended

the San Diego School for the Performing

Arts. Gibson studied dance in college

and later earned his Master of Fine Arts

in Dance from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, focusing on dance history, somatic studies, and pedagogy. He has been on faculty and has held residencies at several universities across the nation.

Gibson’s work has received critical acclaim and has been performed by invitation at both the Kennedy Center and Jacob's Pillow. Gibson has created educational programming for Houston public schools that promote representation in Arts Education by focusing on combining physical practice and history and continues to promote and curate community engagement programming throughout Harris County.