Young Barbadian artist Shea Best has immersed himself in the arts of music, drama, and dance.
Despite having a late start to his dance career, having only started training around the age of 18, the former language dance and music teacher at Lester Vaughan School, has worked assiduously to perform alongside other lifelong dancers of his generation, to become one of the hardest working male dancers in Barbados.
Shea took his first dance class one Friday evening at his alma mater, Queen’s College. The class was a Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) Caribbean Dance class taught by Danny Diallo Hinds, former cultural officer for dance at the National Cultural Foundation, (NCF), and renowned African dance teacher. After weeks of observing the class, Shea finally asked to join and Danny obliged.
Shea’s exposure to the arts came first through music, when he began classical training at age 12, under the tutelage of Marion Forde, the then music teacher at Queen’s College. Musical interests led him to steel pan and Shea went on to perform and even arrange with various groups.
From there, he made many other connections with young dancers, one of which led him to enroll as a scholarship student at the Dance Place, under the tutelage of Adonia Evelyn in 2010. He trained in ballet, jazz and modern dance and was taught by Adonia herself, Tania Wardle (now Wallace), Tanya Davis (now Scott) and Jerilee Evanson-Kellman.
Workshops
In the following year, while training at the Dance Place, he joined two performing groups – Dancin’ Africa, under the artistic direction of Jennifer Sealy, and Of Another Nature, under the artistic direction of Olivia Hall. This afforded him the opportunity to travel and perform with both groups representing Barbados at Decades of Dance, a regional conference held in Trinidad and Tobago in 2011.
According to 34-year-old Shea, “I continued to train and took part in various workshops and programmes most of which were free workshops funded by the NCF.”
In 2012, Shea spread his wings and travelled to Cuba to participate in a workshop called “Cubadanza”, where he developed his love for the Cuban modern dance technique, a technique which influences a lot of his contemporary work. It was also in 2012 that John Hunte, former cultural officer for dance, created the NCF Dance Desk Summer Internship Programme. “It was during this programme that I met one of my biggest influences to date – Jamal Callender. “Out of this programme and his love for his second home, Jamal created the Barbados Dance Project in 2013, an annual summer intensive which I was a part of since its inception.” In 2017, Shea was the first male dancer invited to join Riddim Tribe, the young, dynamic group of dancers recruited by Aisha Comissiong for their varying, strong skillsets and shared visions for dance. Over the years, Shea has graced many Barbadian stages, primarily as a dancer, with Of Another Nature, Dancin’ Africa and
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‘The NIFCA stage has played a significant role in my development as a dancer to such an extent that it is where I became a choreographer’ Riddim Tribe. These stages include a plethora of popular big stage events during the Crop Over Festival, including, Cohobblopot, Soca Royale, Pic O De Crop, Bashment Soca Finals and among other popular private events, as a backup dancer for calypso, soca and bashment soca artistes. He has also been an avid participant in the National Independence of Creative Arts (NIFCA) dance, where he performed in more serious, thought-provoking works since 2010, as a modern/contemporary dancer.
“I have performed with Dancin’ Africa, in award-winning works such as Herstory: Chapter 23 and #BlackLivesMatter choreographed by Aisha Comissiong, with Of Another Nature in The Block, choreographed by Hall, and a performance group of my own creation, L’ Muuv.”
“The NIFCA stage has played a significant role in my development as a dancer to such an extent that it is where I became a choreographer and has since been honing the skill year by year, piece by piece.
“To date, original choreographed works include: Excerpt from Sehshun (2017), an Afro-Caribbean group piece; The Flock (2016) silver award-winning contemporary group piece; E=mc2 (2015), silver award-winning contemporary duet; Blackbird (2014) contemporary solo; Experi-MEN; The Iron Opus (2013) mixed genre contemporary all-male; Experi-MEN: Men of the Diaspora (2013) mixed genre allmale; The Exit: Courting Death, (2012) contemporary quintet and The Disconnect, (2011) contemporary group.”
Shea continues to work as a dancer and choreographer with Dancin’ Africa and Riddim Tribe and plans on furthering his training and studies in dance.
He has pursued not one but two master’s degree in the arts – creative arts (specialising in dance) from the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, as well as one in choreography from Leeds Beckette University, in the United Kingdom (UK). Having completed studies in the UK, Shea now works as a professional dancer and performer with IRIE! dance theatre in London. Since joining the company in 2023, his purview has expanded from company dancer, to company rehearsal director and Bachelor of Arts lecturer. He was recently named Artist-in-Residence with IRIE!
Shea was also invited to assume the role of director of research and company advisor on the executive team of Barbados Dance Collective, a 2025 launched initiative founded and directed by Justin Poleon. (CH)
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