Madia Cooper-Ashirifi, WC ’04, didn’t set out to become a teacher. Yet in 2022, the chair of Brenau’s Dance Department earned the Ann Austin Johnson Outstanding Faculty Award — the university’s highest faculty honor.
“I never thought I was going to be an educator,” Cooper-Ashirifi says. “It was actually not in my plan.”
The arts have been a part of Cooper-Ashirifi’s life almost from the time she could walk and talk. Her mother, a teacher and former Catholic nun, encouraged artistic expression and enrolled her energetic young daughter in dance classes at age 2. Violin and piano lessons were added later.
Her parents came to the United States to escape war in Liberia, and today Cooper-Ashirifi celebrates her heritage by incorporating traditional African dance and other art forms into her performances.
“Dance became a lot more than just releasing energy,” she says. “Dance became a refuge for storytelling, for expressing my thoughts. Combining multiple art forms I hold dear, such as music, graphic arts and dance, allows me to bring all those elements together to express myself and to make a difference.”
Cooper-Ashirifi eventually had to decide whether to dedicate herself to violin or dance. She selected dance and enrolled at Brenau, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts. She then earned a Master of Fine Arts from State University of New York, Brockport.
Auditions brought her tantalizingly close to a professional dance career, but memories of the joy her mother gleaned from students’ accomplishments led her in another direction. Cooper-Ashirifi earned a Doctor of Education from Vanderbilt University and was teaching at Middle Tennessee State University when a close friend told her about a job opening at Brenau.
“I interviewed at Brenau with the late Jolie Carlton, who I initially knew as my teacher and mentor. When I was hired, she was my coworker and friend,” Cooper-Ashirifi says. “I had the opportunity to get close to her in her last couple of years here on Earth. I spoke at her memorial to let her family and the world know how much of an impact she had at Brenau and to let her know Brenau Dance is in good hands — I hope.”
Olivia Anderson, a dance major from Tennessee who graduates next year, believes that the dance program indeed is in good hands.
“Since my freshman year, I have seen the department grow in wonderful ways,” Anderson says. “I think the dance department will continue to grow and operate as a home away from home for future students just as it has been for me.”
Cooper-Ashirifi plans to broaden the diversity of classes in performance and choreography and add to the existing internships with the Aurora Theatre in Lawrenceville, Georgia, and Giordano Dance Chicago.
“Dance’s future hopefully will be a vessel for young artists to find themselves artistically as well as knowing their purpose as a global citizen in their community and the world at large,” Cooper-Ashirifi says.
Throughout her teaching career, Cooper-Ashirifi has held to one tenet also learned from her mother: Everyone has a purpose.
“What we do here in the dance department fosters encouragement and knowledge to help students to be great leaders in their own way through the medium of dance,” Cooper-Ashirifi says. “The process of a student searching and then finding the moment of ‘aha’ satisfies me because change is happening. Change is beautiful.”
Anderson credits Cooper-Ashirifi with guiding her development as a dancer and a young woman and calls her the best teacher she’s ever had.
“Dr. Cooper has always been incredibly supportive in my dance journey. Coming from a small, isolated town, I felt very out of my depth at Brenau and didn’t feel like I was good enough to be here,” Anderson says. “Dr. Cooper challenged me in that mindset, although not explicitly. She pushed me and encouraged me in her technique classes so I was able to find confidence in my abilities and thereby see progress in my artistry.”
Anderson’s plans include pursuing a professional dance career, then following in her mentor’s steps to become an educator to “impact students in the same way she has impacted me.”
Cooper-Ashirifi’s impact extends beyond the classroom or the studio. She helped found Brenau’s Black Faculty and Staff Association and started the Nyansapo Kente Stole Ceremony to honor Black culture. She also brought the American College Dance Association Southeast Conference, featuring more than 400 dancers and faculty from across the region, to Brenau in March.
She credits her family for her busy schedule and a sense of obligation to give back to the community.
“People always tell me, ‘You’re so busy,’” she says. “I didn’t realize how busy my family’s lives were. As an only child, I just went everywhere with them. My mom, my grandma and uncle were heavily involved in everything in Albany, Georgia.”
