Iquail Shaheed helps his student at a recent workshop. - Colin Hamilton/Freelance Photographer

Condemned, Iquail Shaheed's final-year college dance piece, did so well artistically and received so much attention that it led to his forming his company in 2006 with the 13 dancers in the piece.

Chuckling, Iquail said, "People would come to school just to see that work. We won some competitions and I came in contact with a lot of professionals, lawyers and others, who volunteered their help in forming the company. So I didn't have to pay for it."

The company is "neither a black company nor a white company," Iquail says. "It's culturally diverse. We have 14 dancers: two from Japan, one Chinese, three or four African Americans, Caucasians and Native Americans."

Mission

Its mission includes breaking down the barriers between the arts and sciences and enlightening the community through meaningful dance. Iquail didn't want an exclusive company which promoted the arts of Africa or any such specific thing.

The company has an arts and education component and also an artistic development component designed to enable outside choreographers to use IQUAIL dancers to work on their ideas and have a showcase in which audiences can give comments.

Iquail says that he loves to perform, but gets as much satisfaction from teaching. It's difficult, he admits, to get across his passion for dancing to all his students, but there are always some who understand.

"It takes a lot of work. You often go home frustrated. But my mentor says you're laying seeds, so even if the students leave you not understanding, somewhere down the line ..." with a snap of his fingers, he indicated the moment of enlightenment.

He was fascinated, too, with the idea of teachers passing on knowledge from generation to generation. "What I have to give as a teacher," he says, "will outlive me. There's a lineage that started with Dunham; I passed it on and my students will pass on. It's a gift of life."

M.R.