Shakia “The Key” Barron is a choreographer, performer, and dance educator whose work is rooted in the African Diaspora, focusing on Funk Styles, Hip-Hop, House and other African diasporic dance forms. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Dance at Mount Holyoke College and Artistic Director of her own project-based dance company, Kia the Key & Company. Barron values and aims to create possibilities for embodied connection–using movement and music to generate kinesthetic empathy for both members and guests of the cultural forms she practices and teaches.