Shaakir Muhammad

Houston Ballet 2 (2016-2017)
Norwegian National Ballet 2 (2017-2019)
Norwegian National Ballet (2019-present)

Photo by Sofie Amalie

Shaakir Muhammad joined the Norwegian National Ballet in the autumn of 2019 after performing with Norwegian National Ballet 2 for two years. In the spring of 2020, he attracted attention in Marit Moum Aune’s biographic performance We are better now?. Aftenposten called Muhammad’s performance significant and strong and Vårt Land wrote: “Shaakir Muhammad makes the greatest impression (…), dancing here with deep longing for home.”

Muhammad has also performed such roles as Aeneas in Heise’s critically acclaimed production of Dido and Aeneas, Romeo in the balcony pas de deux from Corder’s Romeo and Juliet, the Fakir in La Bayadère, the Prince in Balanchine’s Valse-Fantaisie, one of three gentlemen in MacMillan’s Manon and the Russian dance and Arabian Prince in Boyadjiev’s The Nutcracker. He performed in the Norwegian premiere of Wayne McGregor’s Chroma in the spring of 2020 and, in autumn of the same year, danced the role of Hilarion in the second act of Giselle and in Touret’s newly created work Wagō.

Muhammad (born in 1997) is from Brooklyn, New York, and began his ballet training at the age of six. After seven years at the Brooklyn Ballet School, he was accepted into the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School run by the American Ballet Theatre, which he attended until the age of 18. In the winter of 2016, he signed a one-year contract with the Houston Ballet 2. When the company was on tour in Cannes, France, he saw the Norwegian National Ballet 2 perform and was both impressed and intrigued. After auditioning, Muhammad was selected as one of four international dance talents to join the Norwegian National Ballet 2 in the autumn of 2017.

Source:

Shaakir Muhammad, Norwegian National Ballet

See also:

Ballet Twins: Two Sets of Siblings on What It’s Like Becoming Professionals Side by Side, Pointe Magazine
Naazir & Shaakir Muhammad, Interview Magazine
We Could Watch These Guys Dance All Day, Refinery29
Twin boys win full ride to top ballet school after years of dedication, Daily News
How Two Brooklyn Brothers Became Proteges of a Star, 60 Minutes

Video links:

Dancing their way to the top
Elevate All-Stars Naazir & Shaakir
We Could Watch These Guys Dance All Day

Social media:

Instagram @shaakirmuhammad

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