Arien Wilkerson Founder & Artistic Director of TNMOT AZTRO was born and raised in Hartford, CT where he began his dance training under the tutelage of Jolet Creary. He studied contemporary dance, ballet West African movement and jazz as a student at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, The Artists Collective and Earl Mosley Institute of the Arts.
This early training provided opportunities to perform for a such individuals as Rennie Harris, Pop Master Fabel, Sam Waters, Jasmine Guy. In 2008, he was a scholarship recipient for travel to Cape Verde, Africa to participate in CulturArte, a youth arts residency program where he studied with Mano Preto, Artistic Director of Raiz di Polon, and Deborah Goffe, Artistic Director of Scapegoat Garden. As a high school senior in 2009, his work was selected for performance at Wesleyan University’s Dance Masters in recognition of his exception emerging artistry by David Doorman and Nicole Stanton, through an initiative of New Foundation of the Arts.
Most recently, TNMOT AZTRO completed three sold-out shows at Real Art Ways with over three hundred viewers, and another sold out weekend in July with an audience of 125 folks each night. The company’s sold out performances have taken place at art galleries, institutions and incubator spaces such as The Historic Town and County Club of Hartford, the Wadsworth Atheneum, University of Saint Joseph, Scapegoat Garden Center for Contemporary Dance, Ted Hershey Dance Marathon, New Britain Museum of Art, Connecticut Dance Alliance, and the CT Dance Awards
