Shani Nwando Ikerioha Collins is a native of Greensboro, NC. As a young dancer she studied at Greensboro Ballet, Beryl's Love Dance Music Showcase, The Alvin Ailey Summer Institute, Urban Bush Women's Summer Institute, and the North Carolina School of the Arts (NCSA) Summer Program. SNIC graduated from NCSA' high school conservatory program and continued to study at the American Dance Festival (ADF) as a scholarship student for seven years where she received a Martha Myers Choreography Award.

While earning a BA in Dance from Hollins University, her choreography was featured in the ACDFA’s Gala Concerts in Long Beach (CA) and Slippery Rock (PA). SNIC presented choreography at the Royal Theater in London where she spent a semester studying Dance, Art, Theater, and Music at the University of North London. After graduating in 2001 SNIC performed nationally with Urban Bush Women, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, David Dorfman Dance and internationally with Ronald K. Brown/ EVIDENCE, a Dance Company, The National Dance Company of Mozambique, and in Trinidad with the Roots and Wings Movement. She choreographed on Urban Bush Women's "Dixwell Project" and is a 2006 "Bessie" Dance and Performance Award Winner.

SNIC is the founding artistic director of Eternal Works and co- producer of  the "Breaking Out! Movement." A women's healing/ empowerment initiative that offers workshops to community. Her work has been performed at Dance Theater Workshop, Kumble Theater, Joyce Soho, Judson Church, Lincoln Theater, Aaron Davis Hall, BRIC Studio, Dixon Place, "Inside/Out" Jacob's Pillow, St. Marks Church, Bates Dance Festival, Mount Tremper Arts Festival, and at the Performatica' Dance Festival in Cholula, Mexico with specials workshops in Seoul, Korea and Dakar, Senegal. She has choreographed and performed in the NYC Off Broadway Production of The Vagina Monologues at New World Stages and has participated in the Lincoln Center Director's Lab. SNIC is featured in Dance Magazine’s October Issue 2008 as "Warrior Woman" by Eva Yaa Assentawa and crowned “Contemporary Revolutionary” by Lax Thomas in The Studio Museum Harlem Summer Magazine Issue 2008.

As a MFA faculty fellowship student at Hollins University/ ADF, SNIC earned a MFA in 2007. And has been ADF faculty since 2006. This past spring she was a visiting teaching artist at MIT and a featured performance artist at Kaay Fecc Festival in Dakar, Senegal. SNIC is now a Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance at Connecticut College. 

Photo credits: (Above Right) SNIC notes, Daniel Clifton