Holly Shaw is a San Francisco Bay Area performer and choreographer known for her skills as a transformative dancer of different styles.  Trained by such flamenco masters as Belen Maya, Juan Ogalla, and Yaelisa, and having a modern dance background from the Jordan School of Fine Arts at Butler University, she combines her deep and continuing knowledge of several different world dance traditions, including flamenco, Balinese, Middle-Eastern, capoeria, and Romani, with her strong training in ballet and modern dance to create unique and contemporary dance.  Due to her early experience in acting, Shaw’s work often focuses on character development, inner narrative, and motivation within a dance, weaving together different styles of dance in response to the emotional threads that arise out of a character’s honest path. Shaw sees her “authentic” ethnic dance training as a mere starting point to further explore the authenticity of the self.

Shaw’s ethnographic interests have led her to study dance in Bali, Indonesia, Egypt, Spain, Scotland, and India. Since moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2001, Shaw has danced with two different dance companies in the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, performed for the San Francisco Opera, danced in Yaelisa's premiere of the critically acclaimed "Sol Viento," at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, starred as a guest artist in "Flamenco Forever" at L.A.'s Fountain Theatre, and debuted many solos in Cafe Flamenco at  ODC Theatre in San Francisco.  She was recently selected through a national search to present her work at Spector Dance’s Emerging Choreographer’s Showcase, and also danced in Yaelisa’s Caminos Flamencos production of “Canciones” last fall.  Shaw also currently volunteers at Escuela Bilingue International teaching a world dance and music appreciation class to kindergarten students.