Artistic Staff

The artistic staff ensure the highest performance standards and promote healthy lifestyles, maturity, teamwork and work ethic.

  • Kiera Shaw, Artistic Director (she/her) is a moving, thinking dance artist. She holds a BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography/BA in Kinesiology with a certificate in Dance Science from York University. She joined Dance Victoria’s team in 2020 and is currently their Artist Programs and Studio Manager. In 2023 she received mentorship through New Work’s Cohort program focusing on producing and grant writing.

    Kiera’s artistic practice spans dance/choreography, production, and education. Supported through Dance Victoria’s residency program, her choreographic work has been presented throughout Canada at the National Arts Center’s Matriarchs Uprising (Ottawa), Dancing on the Edge Festival (Vancouver), and at Nextfest (Edmonton).

  • Katherine Vincent, Assistant Artistic Director is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher based in the Comox Valley, the unceded traditional territory of K'贸moks First Nation. Katherine grew up dancing in Toronto, Ontario and received many awards, training, and performance opportunities. Upon graduating high school, Katherine moved to Vancouver, BC where she pursued her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Simon Fraser University School for Contemporary Arts, studying contemporary, modern, and ballet dance styles. During her time at SFU Katherine was an avid member of the Dance Student Union and trained and performed works by renowned choreographers and teachers such as Judith Garay (Martha Graham), Megan Walker Straight (Merce Cunningham), Rob Kitsos, Emmalena Fredriksson, Daisy Thompson, Wen Wei Wang, Crystal Pite, Peter Bingham and Sarah Chase. At SFU, Katherine apprenticed with Vancouver based company Radical System Art and produced the show Ascension in collaboration with the SFU music, theatre production and visual arts students.

    After her time at SFU, Katherine had the opportunity to dance, train and work in Canada and abroad. Katherine has performed works by choreographers based in Vancouver, Brussels and Berlin and her own choreographic works have been performed and presented in Vancouver, Amsterdam, Brussels and London UK. Katherine has trained internationally with David Zambrano (Brussels), Company 605 (Vancouver), Helen Walkley (Vancouver), Toronto Dance Theatre, EDAM Dance (Vancouver), Billie Hanne (Berlin) and in Fighting Monkey Practice (Amsterdam).

    In 2021, Katherine completed an MA in Dance Movement Psychotherapy at the University of Roehampton in London UK. Currently Katherine is a Canadian Certified Counsellor with the CCPA primarily working with children and youth in the Comox Valley, is on faculty at Vireo School of Performing Arts (Courtenay, BC) and is a guest teacher and choreographer at other dance studios. Katherine's current artistic practice is focused on collaborative, improvisational and community engaged dance as well as dance and movement as a therapeutic practice. Katherine has been with Dancestreams since 2023.