Our Faculty

Shani Robison

Shani Robison earned her B.A. in Dance in 1995 and her M.A. in Dance with a Performance and
Choreography emphasis in 1999 from Brigham Young University. Shani is currently the Co-Artistic
Director of Chrysalis Ballet and teaches and choreographs for professional dance companies and schools
throughout Utah. Shani was a tenured full-time professor of ballet in the BYU Department of Dance for
19 years where she directed the BYU ballet program for 9 years, directed both ballet companies for a
total of 15 years, and taught all levels of ballet technique, pointe, and variations; additionally
instructing academic courses such as Dance History and Introduction to Dance. Shani is certified in
Stott Pilates Reformer and Mat for all levels, American Ballet Theatre's National Curriculum Pre-
Primary through Levels 5, and Progressing Ballet Technique.

Shani is currently professional faculty at Central Utah Ballet and Lifehouse Academy of the Arts.
Additionally, Shani has been professional faculty and/or taught intensives/master classes at these and
other dance schools throughout Utah such as Imagine Ballet Theatre, Utah Dance Institute, Ballet West
Academy, Odyssey Dance Utah, The Dance Club, Center Stage, The Pointe Academy, and the Rocky
Mountain School of Classical Ballet. Outside of Utah she has taught master classes at the Las Vegas
Academy of the Arts, Creative Arts Center in Helena, Montana; Regional Dance America, Pacific Region
Festivals; American College Dance Festivals, Northwest Region; Ballet Idaho; College of Southern Idaho;
and at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

Throughout her career, Shani has choreographed 4 original ballet productions and restaged 2 iconic
full-length classical ballets as well as restaged excerpts and sections from at least 5 other classical
ballets. Shani has also choreographed 30 contemporary ballet works, 13 classical/neoclassical ballet
works, 4 opera productions, and 2 musical theatre productions. For her contemporary ballet
choreography Shani has received international, national, and regional recognition, with her works
selected and performed at the Florence Dance Festival, Palm Desert Choreography Festival, American
College Dance Association Festival (ACDA), and the Utah Metropolitan’s Professional Division of the
Choreographic Design Project. In 2023, Shani’s newest work “Fractured” was recognized as a finalist in
the Online International Online Dance Competition and won the Rocky Mountain Choreography Festival.
As the award for winning that festival, Shani is creating new choreography that will be featured at a
fully produced concert of her work in October 2023 at the Peery Egyptian Theater in Ogden, Utah.
Works are currently being set on the following companies: Chrysalis Ballet, Wasatch Contemporary
Dance Company, Imagine Ballet Theater, and the senior company at Central Utah Ballet.
In addition to creative works, Shani has presented ballet pedagogical and historical research
internationally and nationally at conferences in Austria, Greece, Toronto, New York, Virginia, Ohio,
Colorado, Texas, Florida, and Utah. She is a professional member and former President and Treasurer
of CORPS de Ballet, International, and was a professional member of both the National Dance
Education Organization and Utah Dance Education Organization.