Black Dance Festival DMV - Masterclass - Shawn Short - Ballet Class

Level: Open

Price: Free

Attire: Form-fitting shirt and athletic shorts/Dance attire

This masterclass series is provided through Black Dance Festival DMV.

Founded in 2019 as a new programming initiative of Ngoma Center for Dance, Black Dance Festival: DMV brings a platform for African-American directors, choreographers, and dancers to perform, share, and celebrate their work and add to Washington, DC’s creative economy. Black Dance Festival DMV's mission is to provide annual dance programming, focused on developing and presenting Black-Managed and Black dance companies.

Short professionally performed with El Teatro de Danza Contemporanea El Salvador, Bolton/Smith Dance Company, Dance Alloy, and toured with now-defunct K2 Dance.

Increasing D.C. dancer access to pursue contemporary ballet performance and artist development, Short founded Dissonance Dance Theatre (DDT) in 2007. Initially a laboratory for Short’s choreographic progress, Dissonance Dance Theatre has become the artistic host institution for innovation in dance especially for artists of color. Since its inception, Short has created over 105 works for DDT. Under Short’s leadership, DDT has developed artists that have launched careers performing locally, nationally and internationally; dancers have currently or formerly work at Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Virginia Ballet Theatre, Garth Fagan Dance, DV8 Physical Theatre, Elisa Monte Dance Company, Philadanco Dance Company, Deeply Rooted Dance Theatre, UniverSoul Circus, Washington Opera, Broadway musical and crew ship touring companies.

Short holds a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Theatre from Howard University, a Masters of Fine Arts in Dance from The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and a Post Graduate Certificate from the University of Liverpool (England).