Shola K. Roberts: A dancer who gives back to her community

Shola K. Roberts: A dancer who gives back to her community

Shola K. Roberts is a professional dancer, fitness instructor and model based in Brooklyn, New York.

Roberts, a proud Grenadian American, has had the opportunity to work with many renowned dance companies and choreographers. Her credits include performances with “Kowteff West African Dance Company,” David Dorfman, Francine Elizabeth Ott and Otis D. Herring, for whom she serves as an assistant choreographer.

She has also worked with the “Purelements,” an evolution in dance as a professional company member, teaching technique styles such as Dunham, African and Jazz, just to name a few.

Nigerian recording artist Floxxy B has featured Roberts’ choreography. She even composed the award-winning dance presentation for the Ramajay Mas band in the 2014 West Indian American Day Parade in Brooklyn.

Roberts is certified by the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America as a group fitness instructor and by Madd Dogg Athletics Inc. as spin instructor. As a model, she has been featured on the Today Show, Good Day New York, Good Morning America, The View and several fitness print ads throughout the nation.

She often takes her talents to the community by teaching throughout the New York City School system.

Roberts has also had the opportunity to serve as a guest teacher in Chicago at the Artistically Speaking Body Language Summer Dance Intensive, and as a teacher for the Purelements Summer Dance Intensive.

She has even taken her passion and love for the art form to her native land. She led several dance workshops at the Conception Dance Theater, under the direction of Cecilia Griffith, in 2014, including a week-long West African Diversity in Dance workshop, with more than 75 students.

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:

USA (Grenadian American)

EDUCATION:

Howard University, BFA

OCCUPATION:

Professional dancer/ dance educator/ group fitness instructor

PERSON I ADMIRE MOST:

“I admire my mother. As a child growing up in Grenada she didn’t have material wealth, but she was instilled with a sense of ‘groundedness’, gratefulness and wealth in family bonds, and that she has passed on to me and my other siblings,” Roberts says.

“I watched her build her dreams from the ground up. The adjectives hardworking, determined, loving and unselfish do not even begin to describe how awesome this woman is,” she adds. “She is constantly giving back to her community through charitable works.”