The Sisters
Shani Collins
Shani Collins (SNIC) is crowned “Contemporary Revolutionary” by Thomas Lax in The Studio Museum Harlem Summer Magazine and featured in Dance Magazine as "Warrior Woman" by Eva Yaa Assentawa who says: “ It’s a sure bet that when she takes the stage, she will deliver not only the movement but the core, the bedrock, the very meaning and spirit of a dance.” A recipient of the Martha Myers Choreography Award and a “Bessie” New York Dance and Performance Award, she has choreographed and performed in the NYC Off-Broadway Production of The Vagina Monologues at New World Stages and has participated, as a choreographer, in the Lincoln Center Director's Lab. Her dance projects are dedicated to fostering women’s healing em(power)ment through the ritual of performance, community engagement, and intercultural exchange.
Her work has been commissioned throughout the East Coast and abroad at Performatica' Dance Festival in Cholula and Mexico, Kaay Fecc Dance Festival in Dakar, Senegal, including special teaching/performance workshops in Seoul, Korea, Dakar, Senegal, and Ghana. Shani is currently an Associate Professor and former Chair in the Department of Dance at Connecticut College, where she has served on the faculty since 2009
Phakiso Collins
Phakiso “Kiki” Collins is a multi-disciplinary Storyteller, Facilitator, Producer, and Television Executive from Greensboro, NC now residing in Brooklyn, NY. She's provided creative vision, leadership, and social impact partnership to some of the country’s top production companies and in the span of her 20 year career in TV production. Most recently, as Vice President of Original Series at Paramount/ MTV Entertainment Studios, Phakiso led multiple current series and development projects across VH1, Comedy Central, MTV, and Smithsonian Channel networks while also serving as Executive Producer for Couple’s Retreat, Love & Hip Hop franchise, Family Reunion, Black Ink Crew Franchise, and Smithsonian’s Origins of Afrofuturism documentary. Phakiso has centered much of her work in unscripted television on expanding the narrative from which we see and advocating for stories that humanize, entertain, and uplift.
Advocating for wellness behind the scenes, for production teams and her own, led her to train and offer services in Yoga (Vinyasa/Yin/Restorative), Reiki, and life coaching. As a facilitator and movement artist, she's founded and curated several initiatives and multi-media performances aiming to liberate, heal, and empower Black women and young girls in their bodies, sharing work in NYC schools, American Dance Festival, Boston Institute of Contemporary Arts, Connecticut College, Howard University, Senegal and Ghana. She is the Founder and CEO of Fluid Underbelly, a media production and wellness company with a mission to use storytelling, dance, curated immersive experience, and wellness advocacy to create more safe space for liberation, and empower people to live outrageously in their fullest expression!