ABOUT ME.
Irishia Hubbard Romaine (she/her) is a choreographer, filmmaker, and educator from South Carolina. She is an Assistant Professor in the School of Dance at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania and a 2024 Mellon Arts & Practitioner Fellow at Yale University’s Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration (RITM).
Romaine’s research examines the unwritten history of Black moving image arts through the lens of Africanist Aesthetics in dance, photography, and film. Her current project, "Reimagining Screendance: Reclamation of Black Aesthetics in Dance Film History", is a three-part initiative integrating archival study, choreographic development, and interdisciplinary inquiry. In Spring 2024, she was awarded a Short-Term Fellowship at the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture to support this work.
As a performer, Romaine has worked with renowned choreographers including Donald McKayle, Joanna Kotze, Ephrat Asherie, Dr. Ama S. Wray, Idan Cohen, and Greg Chapkis. In 2016, she was honored as the inaugural recipient of the Donald McKayle Legacy Scholarship for her strong foundation in modern dance, distinct choreographic voice, and deep commitment to expressing the human condition through movement and musicality. Following in McKayle’s footsteps, she joined the School at Jacob’s Pillow in 2022 as a Hicks Choreographer Fellow, where she trained with Dianne McIntyre and Risa Steinberg. Her choreographic work has been featured at festivals including BlakTinx Dance Festival, HHII Dance Festival, ArtBark International, Dancexchange, Highways Performance Space, Pasadena Dance Festival, San Pedro Festival of the Arts, SpectorDance, and Lula Washington Dance Theatre’s “Dance All Day” Festival.
As a filmmaker, Romaine explores themes of visibility, ancestral veneration, and Black liberation. She has studied with leading screendance artists including Katrina McPherson, Cara Hagan, Kelly Hargraves, Robin Gee, Ben Estabrook, Chad Michael Hall and Charlotte Griffin. She currently serves as Visibility Program Director and board member for Dance Camera West. Her films have screened internationally at Cinevox, ADF Movies by Movers, Auro Apaar, Black Lives Rising, Mignolo International Screendance Festival, Muestra Movimiento Audiovisual, Dancecinema, Desassossego Short Dance Film Festival, and more. Her short film Red Line, selected for Dance Camera West’s 2022 Mentorship Program, received the Virtual People’s Choice Award at the 2024 Denton Black Film Festival and has screened in India, Spain, Mexico, the U.K., and across the U.S.
Romaine holds an M.F.A. in Modern Dance and a Screendance Certificate from the University of Utah, where she received the Ellen Bromberg Dance Media Award, the College of Fine Arts Creative Research Award, and a University Teaching Assistantship. In addition to her academic work, she is a professional stager for the Donald McKayle Legacy and continues to merge creative research, performance, and advocacy through both film and live performance.
Romaine’s research examines the unwritten history of Black moving image arts through the lens of Africanist Aesthetics in dance, photography, and film. Her current project, "Reimagining Screendance: Reclamation of Black Aesthetics in Dance Film History", is a three-part initiative integrating archival study, choreographic development, and interdisciplinary inquiry. In Spring 2024, she was awarded a Short-Term Fellowship at the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture to support this work.
As a performer, Romaine has worked with renowned choreographers including Donald McKayle, Joanna Kotze, Ephrat Asherie, Dr. Ama S. Wray, Idan Cohen, and Greg Chapkis. In 2016, she was honored as the inaugural recipient of the Donald McKayle Legacy Scholarship for her strong foundation in modern dance, distinct choreographic voice, and deep commitment to expressing the human condition through movement and musicality. Following in McKayle’s footsteps, she joined the School at Jacob’s Pillow in 2022 as a Hicks Choreographer Fellow, where she trained with Dianne McIntyre and Risa Steinberg. Her choreographic work has been featured at festivals including BlakTinx Dance Festival, HHII Dance Festival, ArtBark International, Dancexchange, Highways Performance Space, Pasadena Dance Festival, San Pedro Festival of the Arts, SpectorDance, and Lula Washington Dance Theatre’s “Dance All Day” Festival.
As a filmmaker, Romaine explores themes of visibility, ancestral veneration, and Black liberation. She has studied with leading screendance artists including Katrina McPherson, Cara Hagan, Kelly Hargraves, Robin Gee, Ben Estabrook, Chad Michael Hall and Charlotte Griffin. She currently serves as Visibility Program Director and board member for Dance Camera West. Her films have screened internationally at Cinevox, ADF Movies by Movers, Auro Apaar, Black Lives Rising, Mignolo International Screendance Festival, Muestra Movimiento Audiovisual, Dancecinema, Desassossego Short Dance Film Festival, and more. Her short film Red Line, selected for Dance Camera West’s 2022 Mentorship Program, received the Virtual People’s Choice Award at the 2024 Denton Black Film Festival and has screened in India, Spain, Mexico, the U.K., and across the U.S.
Romaine holds an M.F.A. in Modern Dance and a Screendance Certificate from the University of Utah, where she received the Ellen Bromberg Dance Media Award, the College of Fine Arts Creative Research Award, and a University Teaching Assistantship. In addition to her academic work, she is a professional stager for the Donald McKayle Legacy and continues to merge creative research, performance, and advocacy through both film and live performance.