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.