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SHAINA CANTINO (she/her) is a dance artist, improviser, movement educator and Licensed Massage Therapist/Craniosacral Therapist. Shaina is interested in summoning imagination and transparency toward greater dexterity in movement (aka life). She holds an MFA in dance from Smith College and is a graduate of the National Theatre Institute and Kenyon College (BA, Distinction in Dance, summa cum laude​). Cantino has taught semester courses in contemporary technique (levels I-V), advanced improvisation, composition and Contact Improvisation (CI) at Bowdoin College, Colby College, Wesleyan University, Keene State College, Mount Holyoke College and Smith College, as well as weekly adult classes at School for Contemporary Dance and Thought (SCDT) and intensive CI workshops in Arezzo and Cagliari, Italy and Montreal, Canada. This past spring, she guest taught at Kenyon College. Cantino received the New England Foundation for the Arts’ New England Dance Fund grant for the development of a duet piece in 2019, in collaboration with performer Leah Fournier and Oregon-based theater artist Rose Proctor. Cantino’s choreography and performance have been presented at performance venues and universities along the east coast. Her performance is noted for its understated humor and off-balance physicality. Cantino has had the pleasure of collaborating with Aretha Aoki, Chris Aiken, Angie Hauser, Paul Matteson, Colleen Thomas, Kathleen Hermesdorf, Kate Seethaler, Joy Davis, Leah Fournier, and Sara Coffin. She has intensively trained with Kirstie Simpson (2018), Sara Shelton Mann and Abby Crain (2018, 2016), Susan Rethorst (2016), Bebe Miller Company (2015), St. Petersburg State Theater Academy (2009), Kathleen Hermesdorf/Sara Shelton Mann/Keith Hennessy (2009), American Conservatory Theater (2008), and Bates Dance Festival (2007). Shaina draws upon visceral and neural therapies in her practice as a Licensed Massage and Craniosacral Therapist in Northampton, MA. 

​Photo credit: Joshua Sugiyama