Shakiri – Dance/USA Artist Fellow

Image description: The image is a close-up portrait of Shakiri, a Black woman with short curly grey hair. She is smiling and has a warm, open expression. She’s wearing large earrings that are gold and jade green and an off-white tunic with buttons at her neckline. Photo by Nano Visser.

Shakiri

she/her

Nisenan/Miwok; Sacramento, CA

Shakiri (she/hers) is a Goldie and Izzie Award winner who has been a performer, choreographer, and arts educator in the Bay Area for over thirty years. A member of the internationally acclaimed Zaccho Dance Theater Company, she has choreographed for Berkeley Rep, and danced with Dance Brigade, her own company Shakiri/Rootworkers, and others. For the last seven years she’s worked in close collaboration with Skywatchers, a multi-disciplinary community performance ensemble in San Francisco’s Tenderloin, teaching and co-creating rhythms that will build harmony in a community both challenged and resilient.

Shakiri’s work is driven by a deep feeling of love and a desire to create the world in which she wants to live. Nearing 70 years old, she continues to learn about the creative process as a maker, choreographer, teacher, writer. She moves easily between both joining in and leading, recognizing that truly joining—true collectivity and community—is an ongoing learning process.

Learn more about Shakiri:

• Facebook
• Instagram