Noel Staples-Freeman

Born and raised in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and now a resident of Pittsfield, Noel Staples-Freeman is a cultural bearer, choreographer, and teaching artist whose work sustains African and African Diaspora dance as living traditions. She is the Artistic Director of Uprising Dance Theatre and the Berkshire African Dance & Drum Collective (BADD), offering intergenerational classes, workshops, and performances throughout the Berkshires.

Sister Noel trained at the Billie Pope School of Dance, the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts, and the Boston Conservatory, and earned a B.S. in Children’s Theatre with a minor in Dance from Emerson College. Her artistic lineage includes The Art of Black Dance and Music, Inc. (ABDM), directed by DeAma Battle and Bamidele Osumarea, and Koumpo West African Dance Company under the direction of Master Drummer Ibrahima Camara.

She is a teaching artist with Berkshire Pulse, Community Access to the Arts (CATA), Multicultural BRIDGE Solidarity House, OLLI, and Jacob’s Pillow, and holds community classes at Berkshire Music School. Noel is a graduate of the Blackshires Leadership Accelerator Program Cohort 3 (2025) and the EforAll Berkshire County Accelerator (2025). She serves as an Adjunct Professor of African Dance Theory and Technique at Springfield College and as a Jacob’s Pillow Research Fellow (2026–2027).