Telephone

Krishna Christine Washburn Bio

Krishna Christine Washburn is the artistic director and sole teacher of Dark Room Ballet, a pre-professional dance curriculum designed for the educational needs of blind and visually impaired people like herself, the only course of its kind in the English- speaking world. Dark Room Ballet is sponsored by Movement Research, a progressive movement arts institution in New York City.

Krishna holds a Masters of Education from Hunter College, a BA from Barnard College, and multiple certifications from the American College of Sports Medicine with a focus in biomechanics.

Dark Room Ballet has been featured in USA Today, BLOOM Magazine, Speak Out for the Blind podcast, the Eyes on Success podcast, Bloomberg Quicktake news, and more.

Krishna has performed with many leading dance companies including Jill Sigman’s thinkdance, Infinity Dance Theater, Heidi Latsky Dance, Marked Dance Project, and LEIMAY. She has collaborated with many independent choreographers, including Patrice Miller, iele paloumpis, Perel, Vangeline, Micaela Mamede, Apollonia Holzer, and notably with A. I. Merino.

Krishna has been a popular guest educator, in particular in the fields of self-audio description and curriculum development for blind and visually impaired dance students. She has taught workshops at The New School, Philadelphia’s Hook and Loop, Gibney Dance, Indiana Blind Children’s Foundation, and has been company mentor to the ShaLeigh Dance Works dance company for the development of their interactive dance theater project, enVISION, led by her mentee, DJ Robinson.

Krishna has spoken about ableism in dance education at the 92nd Street Y, New York University, National Dance Educators Organization, and ArtSpark Texas.

Krishna is also co-director of Telephone, an on-going activist screen dance documentary project meant to promote innovative artistic philosophies relating to audio description for dance, with choreographer and filmmaker Heather Shaw.

Heather Shaw Biography

With diverse experience as a choreographer, dancer, actor, curator, and screendance filmmaker, Heather Shaw received her early dance training from Santa Cruz Ballet Theater and TDC of the Bay Area. Heather gained her BA in Philosophy (with a Theater/ Dance minor) from UC Berkeley. Additionally, she is a graduate of the two year acting program at The Meisner Technique Studio in San Francisco, CA.

Heather’s professional dance experience includes being a company dancer with both MKM Bollystars and Daurden Contemporary Dance Theater in Los Angeles, and currently with ArcTangent Dance in San Jose, CA. In 2020, Heather was selected as one of five Project Tier Choreographers from across the country for Regional Dance America’s NCI.

Heather is currently the Artistic Director and Choreographer for Montage Contemporary Company, a contemporary dance company providing performance and repertory opportunities for adult dancers. She is on staff as a ballet and contemporary teacher at Montage Dance Productions, TDC of Los Gatos, and Ayana Ballet. Heather previously taught Barre and movement classes across the Los Angeles area, including at Equinox and on the FOX Studios lot. Her choreography has been performed at YAGP, California Dance Classics, ONYX Dance Co and more. Heather is the co-director of the activist screendance documentary, Telephone, with Krishna Washburn.

As a curator, Heather has served as Performing Arts Manager at the Oshman Family JCC and Co-Curator of TEDxPaloAlto. Her artistic interests include exploring the intersection of movement, sentience, cultural behavior, and aesthetics, and creating a dance community that is accessible to all.