Dalaeja Foreman aka Sifu Dee (she/they) is a world-builder, visionary, martial artist, curator, socially engaged artist, educator, wood-worker and first-generation Caribbean-New Yorker. She is passionate about holistic wellness for individuals and soon to be liberated communities and has been practicing and teaching Muay Thai for 18+ years. Radical pedagogy, reclaiming public space, and liberatory action are central to her curatorial and organizing practices; specifically with the goal of prototyping counter-hegemonic ideologies and actions, combating internalized misconceptions oppressed people have of ourselves, and emphasizing resistance through direct action and cultural production. In the last few years, Dalaeja has served on the board of the New York City Network of Worker Cooperatives (NYC NoWC) and is currently an Advocacy Council member of the organization. Working on policy and advocacy for the rights of worker cooperative businesses and worker-owners.
Dalaeja is a certified group fitness instructor with the American Council on Excercise. While competing in amateur Muay Thai fights as a teen, she gained a 3-0-0 record. Holding the PKF World Title Champion, Women's Lightweight Muay Thai for 2009 and most recently the 2023 Grappling Industries Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Gold Medalist for the Light Feather weight Masters Division for White belt Gi in Brooklyn. As well as a Quarter Finalist in Women’s Health and Fitness magazines’ 2023 Ms Health and Fitness Competition. Dalaeja has been featured on New York’s Pix11 on a segment on Self-Defense in the subway. In early 2023 she became a certified Kemetic Yoga instructor under Master Yirser Ra Hotep.
She holds an Associates of Applied Science in Visual Presentation and Exhibition Design and a Bachelors of Arts in Home Product Development from the Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY. She is also a graduate of the MA Contemporary Art and Art Theory of Asia and Africa program at SOAS, University of London. Dalaeja is the founder of a mobile martial arts school named Metamorphosis Movement and is one of three founders of the woodworking cooperative, breadfruit.
