Professor Shani Collins has been sharing her expertise and passion for dance at Connecticut College since 2009. Her practice and research over the past 14 years has led her to become a wealth of knowledge in many dance forms and disciplines including West African Dance, Modern Dance, Choreography, and Dance History. In particular, Collins’ love for West African dance has led her to create programs where she gets to bring students from Conn to West African countries such as Ghana and Senegal. Last year Collins and her two children spent eight months living, working, and going to school in Accra, Ghana, where they all learned a lot about life, culture, and dance in the country. This experience reaffirmed Collins’ commitment and belief in the importance of bringing Conn students to the continent, and over spring break she is bringing six students to Ghana through Conn’s TRIPS program.
Before being able to call Conn’s department home and develop these programs that bring students to West Africa, Professor Collins had an impressive professional performance dance career that took her all over the world. At a young age, Collins began attending the American College Dance Festival in North Carolina where she took classes from artists such as Baba Chuck Davis and Ronald K. Brown, two important teachers, mentors, and choreographers who began sowing the seeds of Collins’ passion for West African Dance from a young age. Collins knew from age 12 that she wanted to work with Brown’s Company – EVIDENCE Dance Company – and even did an internship for the company in high school. Collins did not take West African Dance as a part of her dance training until later in life, but often engaged with the form as a community building practice even as a young dancer.
At age 15 Collins continued her dance training at North Carolina School of the Arts, a conservatory-style high school program that “offers young artists the best of all worlds — focused conservatory arts training combined with top-tier academics.” Primarily studying modern, ballet, and other contemporary dance forms throughout high school, Collins knew that dance would be a part of her collegiate life, but she also valued the breadth of knowledge she would gain at a liberal arts college. Collins attended Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia where she explored Dance alongside Gender Studies and other academic disciplines. In her senior year at Hollins, Collins was invited to tour with Urban Bush Women, a dance company that “seeks to bring the untold and under-told stories to light through dance.” The company achieves this vision by centering women of the African Diaspora “in order to create a more equitable balance of power in the dance world and beyond.” Collins was drawn to the company’s mission and worked with Urban Bush Women for a couple of years. But Collins’ roots and heart were still with Ronald K. Brown and EVIDENCE Dance Company, so after some time dancing with Urban Bush Women, she left to dance for Ronald K. Brown where she was a company member for eight years.
It was Brown’s company that brought Collins to Connecticut College’s campus for the first time to perform in Palmer Auditorium. During her time with EVIDENCE Collins was able to return to Hollins to complete her Master’s. During her performance career Collins danced as a guest artist for many other companies such as Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, The National Dance Company of Mozambique, David Dorfman Dance Company, and in Trinidad with the Roots and Wings Movement. It was ultimately Collins’ connection to David Dorfman, another dance professor in the Conn department, that brought her to start teaching dance here at Conn.
For a few years now Professor Collins has been wanting to bring her family to live in Ghana for an extended period of time. “I want to go and I want to live,” she said. Collins has built a relationship with Ashesi University in Ghana and has been teaching West African Dance to students remotely for two semesters. The time difference allowed Collins to foster collaboration between her Conn students and Ashesi students. Collins shared that teaching at Ashesi is very different from Conn, but no matter where she is teaching Collins sees West African Dance as a way to build up confidence in students, especially in young women. Collins and her family learned a lot themselves in their time in Ghana. For one thing, her kids were exposed to African history in a way that they never would have otherwise had access to in American schools. Collins was also struck by the way students at Ashesi University were continuing to learn more about their own heritages and cultures through dance.
In the spring Collins will return to Ghana with a cohort of Conn students. The group has been working all semester practicing dances to be performed abroad and learning more about what to expect about culture and life in Ghana. Collins stresses the importance of preparing students for these trips so that they will get as much out of the experience as possible.
Our Dance Department would not be the same without Professor Shani Collins. Collins continues to teach, dance, and make choreographic work, and every experience working with her brings so much personal and community learning. She brings students from every movement and personal background together through her classes, and we are lucky to have a professor as charismatic, talented, and passionate as she is. •
