| Idris Ackamoor is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, actor, tap dancer, director, and producer. He is the Founder and Executive/Co-Artistic Director of the San Francisco performance company, Cultural Odyssey, which is over twenty-five years old. Idris' primary instrument is the alto saxophone. An accomplished tap dancer, Idris’ signature performance is his uncanny ability to combine tap dancing with playing his saxophone simultaneously: a one-of-kind act.
For close to twenty years Idris and his partner actress Rhodessa Jones (Jones & Ackamoor) have developed over a dozen original duet productions that have toured throughout the United States, Japan, and Europe receiving critical and audience acclaim as well as numerous awards for their innovative interdisciplinary work. The Duet has performed at such prestigious venues as La Mama Theater and the Public Theater in New York City, Yale Repertory Theater, in New Haven, Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago, and the National Black Theatre Festival. Idris has also performed with percussionist Don Moye of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, dancer/choreographer Bill T. Jones, writer/poet Ntozake Shange, tenor saxophonist Chico Freeman and many others.
Since 1976 Idris has been registered as a writer and publisher with Broadcast Music Inc. and has registered over fifty musical compositions that are published through his publishing company, Aomawa Music. Idris has composed for theater, dance companies, video/film productions, and student ensembles. The theaters he has composed for include Cultural Odyssey, Penumbra Theater in St. Paul, MN. the Lorraine Hansberry Theater in San Francisco, La Mama Theater in New York City, among others. He has composed for Dimensions Dance Company, dancer/choreographer Bill T. Jones, and dancer Robert Henry Johnson. He also composed music for the score of the documentary Tongues Untied by the late filmmaker Marlon Riggs.
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