Faculty Bios

Shawn Short, MFA Summer Director/ Ballet & Choreography Faculty

Shawn is the founder, Producing Artistic Director and Principal Choreographer of Dissonance Dance Theatre. In addition to his role as producing artistic director and principal choreographer of Dissonance Dance Theatre, Shawn is the founder and director of Ngoma Center for Dance (Ngoma). For Shawn, Ngoma is central to the life and development of Dissonance Dance Theatre. Just as he expects the finest dancing and most meticulous attention to detail from his dancers, he demands the highest standards for training at Ngoma.

Growing up in the Washington, DC area. Shawn has studied with nationally and internationally acclaimed artists including faculty and dancers from Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, Lines Ballet, Washington Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Dance Institute of Washington, Dance Alloy, Philadanco, Towson University, Baltimore and Duke Ellington School of Performing Arts. As a student of ballet pedagogy, Shawn studied with John White, Margarita De Saa and the Washington School of Ballet Director Kee Juan Han. Short is certified in Progressive Ballet Techniques.

Shawn is a Pointe Magazine’s Video of the Month Editors’ Choice award recipient for his contemporary ballet work “Caught” in 2013. He is a 2016 Black Enterprise Magazine Modern Man (BEMM) 100 Men of Distinction Recipient. A 2014 Princess Grace Award (NYC) in Choreography nominee, Shawn holds a BFA in Musical Theatre with a minor in Theatre Management from Howard University and a MFA in Dance at University Of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a focus on dance history, arts administration and somatics.

He is a former professor of Classical Ballet at Catholic University of America. Shawn is a former fiscally sponsored artist through the New York Foundation for the Arts. Shawn has choreographed for The Dance Institute of Washington and The Washington Ballet School of Ballet at THEARC. His has presented his works at the Capital Fringe Festival, Greater Washington Urban League National Conference, Southeastern University, Artists’ Bloc 12X6 Series, Harke Theatre, Jack Guidone Theatre Space, Lang Theatre, Atlas Theatre Complex Lab II Theatre, THEARC Theatre, Joe’s Movement Emporium, DC Parks and Recreation, Sidney Harman Hall, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, PBS Broadcasting, VelocityDC, and Brooklyn Arts Exchange. Shawn was the Resident Choreographer for the Kelsey Collie Children’s Theatre for six years.

In education, Shawn has developed and implemented dance curriculum and programs for: Catholic University of America’s Musical Theatre program, Adventure Theatre-MTS, Imagination Stage Dance Division, Kelsey Collie Children’s Theatre Experience, PG County Schools, Dance Institute of Washington, Washington Ballet @THEARC.

His performance credits include work with K2 Dance, Adrian Bolton Dance, El Tearto de Danza Contemporeanea El Salvador, and Bolton/Smith. He has also served as a guest artist with Dance Alloy in Pennsylvania. He has been commissioned by Catholic University of America’s Benjamin T. Rome School of Music to choreograph “Mother’s Blood”(2008), VF Dance Theater for their Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts to choreograph “ Genotype Called Love” for their Terrace Theatre production of “Futurology” (2012).

Kareem B. Goodwin, Modern/Afro Jazz/Choreography

a native of Philadelphia, PA began his dance training at the Point Breeze Performing Arts Center in 1998, where he formally began his dance training under Charon Mapp, Wayne St. David, Anthony Burrell and Faye Snow. He attended The University of the Arts where he studied Jazz Dance with an emphasis in Choreography studying under instructors Molly Misgalla, Donald Lusnford, Andrew Pap, Scott Jovovich, Karen Brown and Kim Bears-Bailey. As a performing artist, he has had the pleasure of being in the presence of and working with such choreographers as Christopher L. Huggins, Louis Johnson, Ronen Koresh, Gary W. Jeter II, Zane Booker and Arthur Mitchell. He serves as guest faculty at the Rock School of Dance Education. In the summer of 2015, Kareem received the Eleone Dance Theatre “E” Award for Excellence for his contributions to Dance Education and Mentorship. He is also Resident Choreographer of Dissonance Dance Theatre.

Anthony Spivey, BFA Ballet/Modern/Stretch & Conditioning

Anthony joined Dissonance in 2017. Originally from Mississippi, Anthony began his dance training at Mississippi’s School of Arts and moved to Montgomery, AL to study on scholarship at Alabama State University. Graduating with high honors, he received his BFA in dance from ASU. Within his matriculation, he had the privilege of training with artists and choreographers such as Roger C. Jeffrey, Thang Dao, Yin Yue, and Alonzo King of Lines Ballet. Company credit includes performances with the Montgomery Ballet.

Ngoma Center for Dance (c) 2022