Kharyshi Wiginton

Kharyshi Wiginton is a dancer at heart, but an artist in nature. She has a BA in theatre arts/dance from Cal State San Bernardino and an MFA in Creative Inquiry from California Institute of Integral Studies. Kharyshi’s an interdisciplinary artist that has worked on Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, For Colored Girls, Pippin, and Godspell.

She was Artistic Director for Equal Opportunity Productions, and in 2003 she took 12 youth and 7 mentors to South Africa for the cultural exchange project SOZE II. In 2005, she went back to South Africa as a member of Colors of the Diaspora where she participated in an adult cultural exchange project and presented a show in the 2005 National Arts Festival in South Africa.

In 2008, Kharyshi established P.R.I.S.M. Dance Company. In 2012, she was part of the Black Choreographer’s Festival AMP program where she was commissioned to produce a 15-minute dance piece. In 2012, she traveled back to South Africa for Colors of the Diaspora II performing at the historic Market Theater Lab in Johannesburg. She’s a powerful artist with intense goals, and her personal identity and life experiences continue to fuel her creative process.

In 2009, Kharyshi received her MFA in Creative Inquiry from the California Institute of Integral Studies. For her final project, she created a one-woman show entitled "Too Much Woman For This World," and later spent several years honing that work under the tutelage of Master Teacher Ayodele Nzinga. Kharyshi has performed her solo show in 2018's Ubuntu Festival, in 2019's BAMBD Festival, in 2019's Iya Iya's House of Burning Souls, and in 2018's Vavasati International Women's Festival where she performed at the State Theater in South Africa. This is probably her biggest accomplishment to date!

More than anything, her art seeks to effect change. It tells stories of those rarely mentioned, empowers the broken-spirited, gives voice to those who cannot speak, and tackles difficult issues such as self-esteem, body image, and sizeism. Kharyshi is a fierce dancer, writer, spoken word artist, and hopes to one day become a dynamic, world-renowned choreographer.