"Dance creates a moment in time where I am the most myself and the least myself at once. As an artist my work stems from a performance-based movement practice and currently resides in a multidisciplinary conversation between dance, visual art, and sound. Through the practice of dance, which includes contemporary and modern forms as well as a history of experiencing Gaga in and outside of Israel, I work to create durational performance pieces. Where my background is in dance and movement practices, I have stepped into a world of mixed-media, involving the activation of sculptures and visual modalities. My works investigate memory, communication, genealogy, my relationship to Judaism, and my own history. All of my work begins in a place of research and investigation. This often involves interviews and conversations, a place of verbality that later turns into a space of movement. Where my artistic practice involves challenging the interdisciplinary nature of the art world, I am enthralled in investigating the ways in which memory stains our work, our bodies and selves. Through collaborating with other artistic disciplines and sharing the weight of the work, a necessity emerges to intertwine separate modes of working in order to create a piece that presents dance in conversation with visual art and sound."
Selected Works
Anchor in Continuum
Choreography: Shira Kagan-Shafman
Composer and violinist: Leandria Lott
Performers: Shira Kagan-Shafman and Leandria Lott
Premiered: Poster House museum, January 27, 2023
Restaged: Green Space, January 21, 2024
Baryshnikov Arts Center, July 28, 2023
Triskelion Arts, April 15, 2023
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To Breathe Over Seas
Choreography: Shira Kagan-Shafman
Performers: Shira Kagan-Shafman and Ben Blaustein
Sculptures: Ben Blaustein
Music: Cyclamen by Asaf Avidan
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/3195f505-cad2-453b-9bec-8dfd1c896782/86fdfb60-3119-40d2-a49d-2451b5ca3d84_rw_3840.jpg?h=9b314f1a91d6aaf4a5b8a6cf567f53f1)
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![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/3195f505-cad2-453b-9bec-8dfd1c896782/edfc0b20-c388-4a18-9e72-3875058e4138_rw_3840.jpg?h=7bcdaf6f5cb137eeaefa0bb59344bb3c)
More Thumping
Choreography: Shira Kagan-Shafman
Performers: Sakinah Fatimah Bennett and Nic Villarosa
Music: beauty¿ugly? By d#, Bach partita 2, Allemande and improvised sound by Maeve Schallert
An Unconscious Truth
Choreography: Shira Kagan-Shafman
Performers: Nisani Lopez, Elizabeth Clackson, Lindsay Gould, Ali Elk, Fayona Thomas, Maya Barnes,
Marcel Santiago, Juliana Rick, Shira Kagan-Shafman
Music: Erwin Schuloff and Victor Ullmann
*Awarded First Place in Discover FAA High School Talent Competition in Dance Choreography at the
University ofIllinois at Urbana-Champaign