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SHAINA CANTINO

Shaina Cantino holds an MFA in dance from Smith College, is a graduate of the National Theatre Institute and Kenyon College (BA, Distinction in Dance), and practices as an LMT and Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist.  Her creative and teaching work is grounded in twenty years of contemporary dance training as well as research in improvisation for performance, contact improvisation (CI), environmental studies and theater.  Cantino is currently a Lecturer at Keene State College (KSC), teaching courses in beginning to advanced contemporary dance technique and composition.  She has recently been commissioned to choreograph for the Smith College 2018 Faculty Dance Concert and is an Artist in Residence at School for Contemporary Dance and Thought in Northampton, MA, where she also teaches intermediate/advanced contemporary dance.  

Cantino has taught contemporary and CI technique as a Visiting Professor at Wesleyan University, as well as intensive CI workshops in Arezzo and Cagliari, Italy and Montreal, Canada.  Cantino was commissioned to choreograph for KSC students (2017), to remount her thesis choreography for the Smith College Faculty Concert (2015), and to present for the American College Dance Festival Association’s gala concert (2014) and at the Kennedy Center (2010).  Cantino has collaborated with and performed in works by Aretha Aoki, Angie Hauser, Paul Matteson, Chris Aiken, Kathleen Hermesdorf, Kate Seethaler, Joy Davis, Sara Coffin, Colleen Thomas, Karl Rogers, and Alexandra Beller. Intensive training includes Bebe Miller Company Summer Intensive, a week with Susan Rethorst, St. Petersburg State Theater Academy (2009), Kathleen Hermesdorf/Sara Shelton Mann/Keith Hennessy intensive (2009), American Conservatory Theater (2008), and Bates Dance Festival (2007).  

Photo by Anna Maynard.