Iquail Shaheed

Iquail Shaheed is the executive artistic director of Dance Iquail!, a Philadelphia-based dance company working at the intersection of dance and social justice. Mr. Shaheed has performed in the companies of Ronald K Brown/ Evidence, Fred Benjamin Dance Company, The Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Compagnie Thor in Brussels Belgium; on Broadway in The Lion King, Hot Feet, Bill T. Jones’s Super Fly, as well in films directed by Julie Taylor and Oprah Winfrey. Mr. Shaheed serves on the faculty at Goucher College, The Ailey School, Dance Theatre of Harlem and NAISDA Dance College in Sydney, Australia. Mr. Shaheed received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in ballet from the University of the Arts; a Master of Fine Arts from Purchase College - SUNY, and is a candidate for a Doctorate of Philosophy at Texas Woman’s University. His scholarship is devoted to the advancement and perseveration of Black artistic contributions in dance and community. His creative work has been supported by the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, New England Foundation for the Arts, and the National Endowment of the Arts, amongst many others. Reviewers have described Iquail Shaheed as “a perfect example of his generation of male dancers…Technically superb and artistically infallible.” www.danceiquail.org