ATLA Choreographer:Sakinah Lestage

An Atlanta native, Sakinah trained in all styles of dance and quickly found her passion for choreography. Sakinah went on to tour for several years with Grammy Award winning R&B star Ne-Yo and perform on various award shows and music videos with Fergie, Diddy, Red Hot Chili Peppers. Sakinah began her career in choreography, creative direction and artist development in Atlanta’s vibrant music industry with artists including Keri Hilson, Musiq Soulchild, Young Jeezy, Waka Flocka, Jagged Edge, and Jacob Latimore. She became an integral and consistent part of the live show vision for cutting edge Hip-Hop/R&B star T-Pain since his first promo tour in 2005, eventually becoming his Co-Artistic Director and noted for the elaborate circus themed “I Am Music” World Tour with Lil Wayne. She also choreographed for J Records R&B star Mario through the run of his hit song “Break Up” including the BET Hip Hop Awards, BET 106 & Park Tour, and several videos.

Branching out to other choreography projects in the pop music genre as well as for film, TV and theatre, Sakinah has been able to fuse her technical dance training with her experience and creative direction abilities in lighting, set design to create and overall visual experience. Sakinah recently completed her third year as the in-house Creative Director for the NAACP Theatre Awards featuring Broadway star Shoshana Bean (“Wicked”) and triple threat Tichina Arnold and choreographed her first feature film project “Plus One,” a thriller to be released in 2013. She has also been developing new teen pop act W3 the Future under will.i.am’s management, and serves as the creative director for new Chase/Universal Records teen pop star Austin Mahone throughout his artist development, US promo tour, TV performances for “Live with Kelly” and the new video for his hit single “Say You’re Just a Friend” featuring Flo Rida. Corporate project include Kellogg Pop-Tarts, Wal-Mart, W Hotels, NBA Playoffs, and Georgia Lottery.

On-camera Sakinah is known for her charismatic personality. She has been featured as host and segment instructor for the Comcast Get Up and Dance Channel as well as in webisodes for BET working on set with the hip hop trio the Rej3ctz and on Google’s AwesomenessTV rehearsing with Austin Mahone.

Currently Sakinah is the Director and Choreographer developing an original R & B Show called “Sweet Soul Music” for Princess Cruises and is preparing for Austin Mahone’s upcoming tour opening for country pop superstar Taylor Swift. She also just directed a music video for Disney TV star Hayley Kiyoko (Wizards of Waverly Place, Lemonade Mouth).

Sitied: SakinahLestage.com