Remembering Shakiri
- Mary Carbonara
- Jul 29
- 4 min read
July 29, 2025
The much-beloved Shakiri, Goldie and Izzie Award winner and performer, choreographer, writer and arts educator in the Bay Area for over thirty years passed away on July 9 following a rehearsal with Skywatchers. Besides her powerful work with her own company Shakiri/Rootworkers in the 1980s, she was a member of the legendary Ed Mock Dancers, as well as the internationally acclaimed Zaccho Dance Theater Company, she choreographed for Berkeley Rep, and danced with Dance Brigade, and others. Shakiri worked in close collaboration with Skywatchers, a multi-disciplinary community performance ensemble in San Francisco’s Tenderloin, teaching and co-creating rhythms that build harmony in a community both challenged and resilient.
Her friends and colleagues, Anne Bluethenthal, Krissy Keefer and Joanna Haigood, share their thoughts about her here...
The first time I saw Shakiri dance was at an Isadora Duncan Dance Award ceremony at the Herbst Theatre. When this marvel of a performer hit the stage with her rapid fire arm gestures and stunning freezes sitting next to Nina Fichter I said, "There is our Nutcracker!" The rest is history. Her small frame carried so much energy that when the flash pot went off in the corner of the theater announcing her arrival as the Nutcracker it was like she exploded out of a cannon. She was magical and was absolutely perfect for the part.
But this is only one small aspect of her career in the Bay. I am stunned by how many people have weighed in on her impact and her contribution to the Bay Area dance scene. This whirling Dervish will never be forgotten and frankly she cannot be imitated or replaced. The hole she leaves in Skywatchers is huge. I hold them in my heart as they pull the pieces together and move forward.
All of us were forever changed working with her.
– Krissy Keefer
I have never met anyone like Shakiri. She had the energy of five magnificent race horses packed into her 4’7 frame. She was an extraordinary talent with a tremendous gift of storytelling, a conjurer who could transport us through time and masterfully reveal new wonderful ways to see and experience the world. Shakiri joined Zaccho in 1988. We had so many fantastic adventures together. It was clear that her boundless imagination provided much of the magic.
Shakiri was also the principal architect of our Youth Performing Arts Program. She was a brilliant educator. She had a rare ability to deeply engage youth and nurture their creative power. She believed in them as artists and as collaborators—and as a result they believed in themselves as creative beings whose voices really matter in the world.
Shakiri was my favorite genius who often complained that she didn’t have enough time. But her spirit is timeless; as a mutual friend said, she lives in our bones. She will never be forgotten and her wisdom will continue to live on through endless generations.
– Joanna Haigood
Shakiri and I began working together in 2006, when she was a key collaborator on Unsing the Song, a piece about genocide that included never before heard stories of women survivors of the Rwandan genocide. This bonded us for life. Weaving in and out of each other’s lives, she then joined the Skywatchers Lead Artist team in 2016 and has been my principal collaborator on every piece we’ve created in this past almost decade.
Hers is an enormous loss not only for Skywatchers, but for the Tenderloin more broadly, and of course every corner of our arts community in ways we will continue to discover and feel.
- Anne Bluethenthal
I JUST NEED MORE TIME
for Shakiri
"I just need more time"
Anne, “I have an idea!”
“I can see it”
And then she’d make me see it also
"I just want more time"
Beloved,
you dropped into my life
Like something on fire
Like a drop of sunshine in the dark
Like joy in the form of petit allegro
That suddenly melts to the ground
With an incomparable grin
Sometimes mischievous
Even joyfully nasty
and then oh so sweet
and full of love
I just want more time
Shakiri!
You would not be contained
vibrating beyond your small, powerful body
transcending
pulling all you could
from limb, muscle, joint
and moment
heart-spirit carrying you further
You always wanted more time…
SHAKIRI!!
It’s impossible you’re gone
The world is too quiet w/o your noise
Too controlled w/o your chaos
Too cool w/o your fire
Too sensible w/o your tangents
Too sweet w/o your tartness
Too dry w/o your sweat
And too dark w/o your light
We just need more time
I feel you here, beloved,
jumping into the rhythm
changing it
bringing us all with you
not wanting to miss this moment
or that one
hungry for the next piece
The next dance
The next great conversation
Peel of laughter
Holding of tears
Motion making
dream uplifting
conjurer
of life
I just want more time
– Anne Bluethenthal
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