Umfundalai is a contemporary African dance technique that comprises its movement vocabulary from dance traditions throughout the Diaspora.  The literal word, Umfundalai, means “essential” in Kiswahili.  Much like  Katherine Dunham, the late Kariamu Welsh, D. Arts, Umfundalai’s progenitor, has designed a stylized movement practice that seeks to articulate an essence of African – oriented movement or as she has described, “an approach to movement that is wholistic, body centric and organic.”