Asya Melan Shaw

        Asya Melan Shaw, M.S (Baltimore, Maryland) is a dance performer and practitioner who recently received her Master of Science in Dance/Movement Therapy from Sarah Lawrence College this spring. She has performed on board the Norwegian Escape as an ensemble member in the 2015 Broadway musical After Midnight, and later transitioned her career to New York City educating as a Teaching Artist for Ailey Arts In Education & Community Programs. Prior to working with AIE, Shaw joined the Ailey family as a group leader under the direction of Linda Denise Fisher-Harrell for AileyCamp Baltimore at Towson University. Her connection to Alvin Ailey's legacy continues to show through her dance/movement practice as therapeutic inspiration. As an homage to Mr. Ailey, Shaw dedicated her thesis research to expanding dance therapy literature to include the name Alvin Ailey and the embodied  therapeutic effects of his work. Her thesis is entitled "Revelations, in Creation and Choreography: Alvin Ailey's Application of Dance Movement Therapy in Mending Cultural Trauma".

       During her time at Towson University and The Baltimore School for the Arts, Shaw attended intensives held by The Ailey School and The Dance Theatre of Harlem in New York, New York. She later graduated from Towson University the summer of 2017 and joined Dallas Black Dance Theatre: ENCORE! as a member of the company. 

       Asya is grateful for having been able to perform nationally and internationally with Dallas Black Dance Theatre: ENCORE!, The Dallas Opera, and Norwegian Creative Studios so far in her career. She would like to thank everyone who has contributed to her success and hopes to continue making her loving family proud.