Karisma Jay

True to her name, Brooklyn native Karisma Jay is the epitome of multi-hyphenate as a performing artist, director, writer, choreographer, wellness coach, entrepreneur, and host. She has performed and toured with prestigious dance companies such as Brooklyn Ballet, Deeply Rooted, Maimouna Keita, Creative Outlet, Asase Yaa, STOMP, and Ronald K. Brown’s EVIDENCE, A Dance Company. She has been featured in The New York Times, Dance Teacher Magazine, and on Netflix, Lifetime, BET, MTV, NBC, and VH1. In 2022, Karisma worked as a choreographic associate for David Byrne’s Broadway show American Utopia. 

In 2016, Family Circle magazine coined her a “local hero” and Lifetime TV featured her as a “Female Entrepreneur to Watch.” She won the Power Women in Business Award for her work as the artistic director and founder of AbunDance Academy of the Arts and CEO of AbunDance Studios and AbunDance Gear. Annually, she writes, directs, produces, and co-stars in AbunDance Academy productions.  

Karisma is a graduate of Laguardia High School, she holds a Bachelor of Arts from NYU Gallatin, she graduated Summa Cum Laude from Hunter College with a Master of Fine Arts in Dance, and she is currently pursuing her doctorate degree at Columbia University in Interdisciplinary Dance Education. Currently, she teaches West African Dance and Dances of the Diaspora at The Juilliard School and is a guest teaching artist at Ballet Tech, Broadway Dance Center, and LaGuardia High School.  

Karisma is a Dance Teacher Magazine’s 2021 Dance Teacher Award recipient and a recipient of Assemblymember Brian Cunningham’s Woman of Distinction Award. Her most recent accomplishments include writing and directing her award-winning films CROWN and Pa'lante. With an entrepreneurial spirit, creative soul and business mindset, Karisma’s mission is to lead by example so that everyone who crosses paths with her flourishes AbunDantly.