SHAINA CANTINO holds an MFA in dance from Smith College, and is a graduate of the National Theatre Institute and Kenyon College (BA, Distinction in Dance).  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 also teaches intermediate/advanced contemporary dance at School for Contemporary Dance and Thought in Northampton, MA.  She has taught semester courses in contemporary technique and CI at Wesleyan University, as well as intensive CI workshops in Arezzo and Cagliari, Italy and Montreal, Canada.  Cantino was recently commissioned to choreograph a piece with fourteen KSC students.  Hired in November 2015 to remount her thesis choreography for the Smith College Faculty Concert, Cantino’s choreography was also selected for the American College Dance Festival Association’s gala concert in 2014 and presented at the Kennedy Center in 2010.  Cantino’s performance is noted for its understated humor and off-balance physicality.  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).  In addition to her work as a dance artist, Cantino works as a Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT) and Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist (BCST).

​Photo credit: Joshua Sugiyama