Maputo Mensah
- Teaching Associate Professor, Department of Theatre & Dance • Director of West African Highlife Ensemble, College of Music • Director of Logoligi African Dance Ensemble group, College of Arts and Sciences
- CAAAS FACULTY AFFILIATES
Maputo Mensah was born and raised in Accra, Ghana, in a family of professional musicians and dancers. While still a small child, he was dancing and drumming with his family, and before he reached his teens, he was teaching and performing these traditional Ghanaian arts professionally.
Later, he was honored to study for many years with Mustapha Tettey Addy, one of Ghana’s premiere artists in traditional music and dance, at the Academy of African Music and Arts. Over the years he has performed and taught with various dance troupes such as the Akrowa Cultural Ensemble in Kokrobite, Ghana, and the West African Folkloric Troupe in Accra. He also has wide experience as an international performer. Currently, he also performs with his own dance troupe, Logo Ligi, based in Â鶹ӰԺ, Colorado.
Maputo is an accomplished master of the African performing arts — dancing, drumming, singing, and storytelling — and he is passionate about sharing the art and culture of Ghana and Africa with the West through the classes he teaches at the University of Colorado, the University of Denver, K-12 schools, and community classes. He also leads a month-long trip to his native Ghana each summer, giving his students the opportunity to deeply experience the culture he is devoted to preserving and promoting. In addition, he is currently working to build a new cultural center in Kokrobite, Ghana, to teach West African performing arts to local and international students and established artists. Maputo Mensah is a world-class artist, a much-loved teacher, and an ambassador for the culture he cherishes.