Kariamu Welsh Asante (born Carole Ann Welsh;[1] September 22, 1949 – October 12, 2021[2]) was an American contemporary dance choreographer and scholar whose awards include a National Endowment for the Arts, three Senior Fulbright Scholar awards,[3] and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
[3] She grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant part of New York City where she, like other young girls, practiced her double Dutch jump rope moves.
"[3] Based on both African artistic practices and diasporan African dance vocabulary, Umfundalai "seeks to articulate an essence of African–oriented movement" and, in Welsh's words, “an approach to movement that is wholistic [sic], body centric and organic.”[7] According to Gregory King, one of her students, Umfundalai involves groundedness, polyrhythms, "and the articulation of the pelvis and hips"; it "celebrates all body sizes, giving permission to each body to speak many movement languages.
"[3] Under the aegis of The National Association of American African Dance Teachers, The Organization of Umfundalai Teachers continues to practice and train others to practice Welsh's dance technique as part of the expression of neo-traditional and contemporary diasporan African art.
Welsh was married to Molefi Kete Asante, an American academic, whom she met when she was a student and he was a professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo; their marriage ended in 2000.