Shakia “The Key” Barron is a choreographer, performer, and dance educator whose work is rooted in the African Diaspora, focusing on Hip-Hop, House and other African diasporic dance forms. She is the Class of 1929 Dr. Virginia Apgar Assistant Professor of Dance at Mount Holyoke College and Artistic Director of her own project-based dance company, Kia the Key & Company. Barron values and aims to create possibilities for embodied connection–using movement and music to generate kinesthetic empathy for both members and guests of the cultural forms she practices and teaches.
She graduated with her MFA in Choreography at Wilson College, holds an Associate’s degree in dance and psychology from Dean College, a Bachelor’s in liberal arts from Westfield State University, and received the National Dance Institute’s teaching artist certificate in 2009. She is an alum of Bates Dance Festival, Jacob’s Pillow, and Pioneer Valley’s Performing Arts Charter School.
Barron’s performance and choreography experience is extensive. She has choreographed and directed more than 50 Hip-Hop, Funk Styles, House, and Afro-modern works that have been performed at colleges, universities, and dance institutions throughout the New England area including Bates Dance Festival and Jacob’s Pillow. She has performed for numerous Hip-Hop events including opening for concerts by Fat Joe, Jadakiss, 112, Charlie Baltimore, and Kima from “Total” and Omarion. In 2005, she choreographed a Hip-Hop number for the Celtics/NBA half-time show. Barron has toured nationally and internationally, dancing with Face Da Phlave Entertainment, Illstyle and Peace Productions, and as a guest artist with Rennie Harris PureMovement.
As a dance educator, Barron spent many years teaching at the Bates Dance Festival and taught community classes at Jacob’s Pillow. She is a Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) faculty member who has facilitated multiple professional development workshops around the integration of Hip-Hip dance and history in the curriculum. In 2022, PS Dance! The Next Generation was released, a film featuring Barron and her contributions to the DEL program. She was the 2019 Arthur Levitt Jr. ’52 Artist-in-Residence at Williams College. Barron is also a recent recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award from Bates Dance Festival. Prior to joining Mount Holyoke College Dance Department as a full-time tenure track faculty, she served as an adjunct at UMASS Amherst, Smith, Amherst and Connecticut colleges.