Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp CBE (born 11 February 1960), is a British dance artist, who was chief executiveofThe Place (2007–16) and director of the Africa Centre, London (2018–20).
Born in 1960 at Croydon, Surrey, to English mother Pamela Tharp and Nigerian father Gabriel Oluwole Esuruoso (1934–2013),[1] his father, who had been a journalist for the Daily TimesinNigeria, came to Britain supported by a government scholarship in the late 1950s to study veterinary medicine at the University of Glasgow.[2] The first African to take a DoctorateinImmunology at the University of Birmingham,[3] in 1964 Dr Esuruoso returned to Nigeria with his wife, Victoria Wuraola Emmanuel, and their three children, becoming a Government veterinary officer, before being appointed as a Professor in the Department of Veterinary Public Health and Preventive Medicine, and Dean of Veterinary Medicine, at the University of Ibadan.[2]
Tharp attended The Perse School, Cambridge College of Arts and Technology, and trained at London Contemporary Dance School receiving a BA Hons (1st class) in Contemporary Dance in 1987. His 25-year performing career included working with London Contemporary Dance Theatre (1981–94) and Arc Dance Company (1994–2005).[4] He has worked as a choreographer, teacher and director and as Lead Artist & Artistic Advisor for the Royal Ballet School’s Dance Partnership & Access Programme and Assistant to the Head of Contemporary Dance at Millennium Dance 2000. With composer Simon Redfern[5] he co-founded ArtyfartyArts, a multi-disciplinary arts group, and has served on the board of Trustees of the Royal Opera House.[6]
In 2005 Tharp undertook a NESTA-funded Fellowship on the Clore Leadership Programme.[7]
Chief Executive of The Place from September 2007 to November 2016,[8][9][10] in May 2018 Tharp was appointed director of the Africa Centre, London.[11][12][13]
Appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2003, Tharp was promoted Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honours,[14] both "for services to dance".[15]
Tharp was named one of London's 1000 Most Influential People by the Evening Standard in 2015.[16][17]
