Iyun Harrison

Dance Theatre of Harlem
Ballet Hispanico
Ailey II
National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica
Seattle Dance Project
Buglisi Dance Theatre

Iyun Ashani Harrison is the artistic director and founder of ASHANI DANCES. ASHANI DANCES, founded in 2011 in Seattle, WA, was relocated in 2015 to Baltimore, MD, where it is a resident dance company at Goucher College. Harrison earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Juilliard School and Masters of Fine Arts degree from Hollins University/American Dance Festival. Over the 13 years of his performing career in New York City, he danced with Arthur Mitchell’s Dance Theatre of Harlem, Ballet Hispanico, and Ailey II. He has also danced with the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica, Seattle Dance Project, and Buglisi Dance Theatre.

Harrison has danced choreography by George Balanchine, Jiri Kylian, Jose Limon, Paul Taylor, Michael Smuin, Alvin Ailey, Lar Lubovitch, Donald Byrd, Talley Beatty, and George Faison. His television credits include PBS’s Setting the Stage (2007), NBC’s 20th Hispanic Heritage Awards, PBS’s Who’s Dancin’ Now?: Arts Education in Your Community, and The South Bank Show in England.

Additionally, Harrison has taught/choreographed for the Juilliard Dance Ensemble; Ailey School; Pacific Northwest Ballet School; American Dance Festival; Jamaica School of Dance; University of the West Indies at Cave Hill, Barbados; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; University of Florida; Henderson State University; and American College Dance Festival, as well as being a full-time faculty member of Cornish College of the Arts and Webster University.

Harrison’s choreography was selected for the region gala performance of the American College Dance Festival at the University of Illinois at Urban-Champaign and for the national American College Dance Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.

Source and current website:

Bio, Iyun Harrison